PC Peripherals USB 3.0 PCIE x1 card on a PCIE X1 1.X slot - query

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jinvidia

jinvidia

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Hello geeks,

Have desired to enable USB 3.0 on my motherboard as i got fed up of USB 2.0 speeds. So i would like to go for a cheap and best USB 3.0 card PCIE x1 card. Google search fetched a variety of these available in 2/4 port variants. Even ports with internal headers alone are also available.

It doesn’t matter if the card lacks rear port, but the internal headers are a must as i would like it buy it for my front panel ports.

I would like to give 3.0 life to the front panel USB 3.0 ports as, till now i have been using them with a converter as USB 2.0 ports.

Came to know recently that for USB 3.0 to work @ transfer speed of 5 Gb/s (even practically @ 70 MB/s) the PCIe x1 slot is supposed to be version 2.0 certified. My motherboard is ASUS M3n78em. Neither in the manual nor in the product page I am able to find the version 2.0. It just says PCIe x1. So think it means only 1.0.

Wikipedia says that even the transfer speed of a PCIe x1 1.x is 250 MB/s. If that is the case, a 500GB WD harddrive can easily achieve 70 MB/s isn’t it ?.

please throw some light on this guys

thanx in advance
 
Check my thread here

Should be all that you're looking for ;) .

If you're looking for local warranty, check #Switch's post here. Not sure if it has the 20-pin headers that you want. You can PM him if you need more details
 
Thanks for the link mate...

But what about the technical part. My motherboard's PCI slot has no version 2.0 stated. In such case i think its only 1.x. So is it worth getting this ?.
 
Yes it has one. But do all PCIE x1 slots have the same bus speed ?.

wikipedia says that there are versions 1.x and 2.x and so on..

Do i need a 2.x (500 MB/s) slot to utilise USB 3.0 speed ?. My motherboard manual never says anything about it..
 
^ It will work fine on PCI-E version 1.x... version 2.0 is not necessary...

I'm currently using a generic card on PCI-E version 1.0... and getting 70mb/sec transfer speeds...
 
For a 4 port USB3 card a PCI-e 2/0 X5 or high card is recommended. A PCI-E 2/0 X1 card can't provide enough bandwidth to 4 USB3 ports.
 
For me just two internal headers are enough. I don't need any external ports.

Anyways thanx a lot for your replies guys....
 
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