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Adding USB 3.0 support to my desktop PC

Ancient IDTVAncient IDTV Posts: 10,169
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in PC & Mac Hardware and Software #1
It's about time I did this. Two USB 3.0 ports would suffice. Anyone recommend a good (reliable) USB 3.0 PCI-e Card? Are Dynamode or Xenta cards good buys? They seem to be among the less expensive ones.

Comments

  • Helmut10Helmut10 Posts: 2,433
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    #2
    Those two are cheap and cheerful(mostly....) brands, I have a Dynamode Hard Drive caddy the mains lead had no Neutral wire connected, crude internal construction. OK easy to plug in another lead but it shows a basic lack of quality control. I also had a Dynamode Network Card which was OK it lasted.
    I have various Xenta leads, cheap quality, i.e. the user is quality control...
  • d'@ved'@ve Posts: 45,515
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    #3
    Ancient IDTV wrote: »
    It's about time I did this. Two USB 3.0 ports would suffice. Anyone recommend a good (reliable) USB 3.0 PCI-e Card? Are Dynamode or Xenta cards good buys? They seem to be among the less expensive ones.

    I've had a Transcend TS-PDU3 for a few years now and it works a treat. 2 ports, PCIe, only costs a tenner, from the likes of Amazon.

    You will need a free molex power supply connector, which if your PC is as I suspect a few years old like mine, you may well have.
  • LoobsterLoobster Posts: 11,680
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    #4
    If your PC is old enough that it didn't come with USB3 ports .... are you sure there's any point? Are the other components in the PC fast enough to transmit any data faster than USB2?
  • d'@ved'@ve Posts: 45,515
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    #5
    Loobster wrote: »
    If your PC is old enough that it didn't come with USB3 ports .... are you sure there's any point? Are the other components in the PC fast enough to transmit any data faster than USB2?

    My AMD 964 BE PC is over 6 years IIRC, with an even older mobo. Adding the usb3 card made a vast speed difference on backup to a usb 3 hard drive. It's 4 to 5 times faster copying than usb2 on large files IIRC, limited mainly by hard disc drive speeds. USB 2 is limited by USB 2!
  • mooxmoox Posts: 18,880
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    #6
    Loobster wrote: »
    If your PC is old enough that it didn't come with USB3 ports .... are you sure there's any point? Are the other components in the PC fast enough to transmit any data faster than USB2?

    Why not? I have a 1st gen I7, not exactly a slouch, but no USB 3. Gigabit networking, SATA 2 with decent hard drives and SSDs can all easily exceed the 480Mbps of USB 2 (likely to be lower in practice).

    (and yes, I have noticed a substantial difference after installing a USB 3 PCIe card - and since it's only a few quid to buy one, why not? In my case, I only bought one because my case had USB3 ports with the special 20pin connector and I wanted to make them usable, but the USB3 devices I have bought since have made good use of it)
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,823
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    #7
    Loobster wrote: »
    If your PC is old enough that it didn't come with USB3 ports .... are you sure there's any point? Are the other components in the PC fast enough to transmit any data faster than USB2?

    It would have to be one hell of a old machine not to be able to cope with USB3.
  • Ancient IDTVAncient IDTV Posts: 10,169
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    #8
    Hello. Thanks for the replies. As to the age of the PC....... It's a H61 chipset motherboard with a Sandy Bridge i5-2500 CPU. The motherboard was extremely cheap at the time, and I didn't envisage any need for USB 3.0 support when I put ths PC together. It's only in recent months that I've started making regular use of USB flash drives.

    That Transcend might do the job, d'@ve. My PSU would be suitable for it. I'll mull it over.
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,823
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    #9
    Ancient IDTV wrote: »
    Hello. Thanks for the replies. As to the age of the PC....... It's a H61 chipset motherboard with a Sandy Bridge i5-2500 CPU. The motherboard was extremely cheap at the time, and I didn't envisage any need for USB 3.0 support when I put ths PC together. It's only in recent months that I've started making regular use of USB flash drives.

    That Transcend might do the job, d'@ve. My PSU would be suitable for it. I'll mull it over.

    a USB3 card would take minimal power. well worth the cost if you got usb equipment.

    I got a small USB external drive, very useful, but USB is on my board.
  • Ancient IDTVAncient IDTV Posts: 10,169
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    #10
    Yes, I think it's worthwhile for the outlay (about £10). Just want to make sure I'm not buying something that might mess up my PC (slow it down, make it unstable, or whatever).
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