USB 3.0 PCIE card

[mibaup]

Hello,
I want to add USB 3.0 to my motherboard, but I encountered 2 types : one which is a pcie card that provides USB 3.0 output to the rear,for example this one : 2 Port USB 3 0 PCI Express PCIe Adapter Controller Card Low Profile | eBay
And one is, a front panel USB 3.0 output (with some card readers) , but instead of card connected to the PCIE slot, there is a small PCIE connection,for example this one :DC 4 Pin USB 2 0 9 Pin 3 5" Front Panel PCI E to USB 3 0 4 Port Hub Card Reader | eBay

And I was wondering if the front panel will work without having a dedicated usb 3.0 card like the first link.
I am wondering about that because , the dedicated rear PCIE card seems much larger and with many more components than the small PCIE connector of the front panel one ( I hope you get what I'm trying to ask :sarc

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Yes the bottom front panel unit will power off the PSU and grab it's USB 3.0 off the PCIE slot and then the USB 2.0 off a free mobo USB 2.0 header.

The first is only (2) USB 3.0 to the rear and the internal connector again is for power from the PSU.

 

[mibaup]

Yes the bottom front panel unit will power off the PSU and grab it's USB 3.0 off the PCIE slot and then the USB 2.0 off a free mobo USB 2.0 header.

Thanks for the quick answer!

But my motherboard by itself does not have 3.0 outputs (like the 20-pin USB 3.0 connector),
so does the front panel actually adds USB 3.0 ability to my pc? I am confused because, when you connect a PCIE rear card it makes sense that it would add USB 3.0 ability to my PC, because it has many components on it, but look at the front panel PCIE connector, the PCIE is just a small connector without components, or maybe all the USB 3.0 components are inside the box of the front panel? I'm confused :shock:
I am wondering if the front panel will work only if I already have USB 3.0 capabilities (motherboard or extra USB 3.0 dedicated card, or that the front panel works as a dedicated card)

 

[linnemeyerhere]

It uses the Software Driver to allow the PCIE to be used to carry the USB 3.0 to the front panel device and the USB 2.0 is coming from the mobo header.

 

[mibaup]

OK thanks, so if I want to add USB 3.0 to my pc, the front panel (and the small PCIE connector) is enough?
Last thing, so where are all the USB 3.0 components? I mean , you can see them on a usb 3.0 card, but not on this front panel.

botton line:If I use just the front panel USB 3.0 + Card reader,without having a separate card, or usb 3.0 on motherboard, will I have usb 3.0 capabilities (900mA, up to 5 GBps of speed)? Because I dont really need USB 3.0 on the rear.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

You will want to make all the connections as the PCIE portion will only power the front 3.0's and the 2.0 USB will power the card reader and any 2.0 connections. The power to the PSU is to power the entire front panel devices and where needed.

 

[mibaup]

Thanks again, so if I want to add USB 3.0 to my pc, the front panel is enough? I won't need one of the dedicated USB 3.0 PCIE cards like in the first link? the front panel by itself will add the USB 3.0 ?
But again, the only thing that confuses me is the difference between the PCIE card and the PCIE on the front panel, the card seems to be large with many components,so it makes sense that it adds USB 3.0 capabilities, but the front panel PCIE connector is small,so how does it add 3.0 capabilities? Is it because all the USB 3.0 components thingy are inside the box of the front panel?
Sorry if I'm repeating myself

 

[linnemeyerhere]

No unless you want to add rear USB 3.0 and have an additional available PCIE slot. You're making this confusing, If you are looking to add USB 3.0 and only have it available to front mounted IO's then this is a nice little kit.

 

[mibaup]

OK got you! I will only need the front one .. thanks a lot , sorry I'm confusing it's just because of that small PCIE connector on the front panel kit , I mean, where are all the components of USB 3.0 ?!
(I guess all the USB 3.0 components are inside the front panel box and the PCIE is just to connect it from the box to the PCIE)
**When I say components I mean all those chips and Integrated Circuits on the PCIE card..

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I have a similar unit that I am happy with. All the components are in the front panel box.

If you want USB 3.0 both up front and in back, you could a PCI-e card similar to this one, then either get a box like this for the front USB 3.0 ports or another card reader that can use the USB 3.0 header on the card.

 

[mibaup]

Thank you very much Lady Fitzgerald!

 

[Gator]

Just kind of piggy backing here.. Is PCIe fast enough to get the full throughput of usb 3.0?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Just kind of piggy backing here.. Is PCIe fast enough to get the full throughput of usb 3.0?

Depends how many devices one tries to run at the same time. One or two, probably. Three or more, I don't know for sure. Just guesstimating, the time to move data onto two USB 3.0 sticks in the ports on my card reader is definitely faster. I have seen cards with as many as seven ports total but all run on PCI-e x1. I would think that if those seven couldn't run significantly faster than USB 2.0 at x1, someone would make one that could run on x4 or more.

It's highly unlikely one would run every USB port simultaneously. I have seven USB 2.0 devices connected to the back of my computer. One is a two port hub on my monitor and another is a keyboard with an additional USB port for the wireless mouse receiver. I rarely use the hub anymore if I have large amounts of data to move. So, normally, all I have working at any one time is either the keyboard or mouse (I'm not coordinated enough to use both simultaneously) and the Wi-Fi adapter. The UPS connection kicks in only if there is a power outage. I also have two scanners but I almost never run both at the same time. So I rarely run more than three devices at the same time. Most people probably won't be using very many ports at the same time, either.

Keep in mind these cards are mostly used to bring legacy MOBOs up to date with USB 3.0. In those situations, as long as the speed is significantly better than USB 2.0, these cards are definitely fast enough even if they can't run at full USB 3.0 speed. Also keep in mind not all USB 3.0 devices run at full USB 3.0 speeds.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

PCI-e 1.0 has 250 mb/s bandwidth UP and 250 mb/s DOWN per lane (no, won't mix to get 500 MB/s) .
PCI-e 2.0 is twice that and PCI-e 3.0 is four times that.
a x1 card/slot has only one lane. There should be x2 or x4 cards too if I'm not mistaken (respectively 2 and 4 lanes).

USB 3.0 real speed is around 150-200 mb/s. Yeah, lots of overhead in the protocol.
USB 2.0 had a theoretical max speed of 480 Mb/s and look at how crappy it is.

If you can do simple math you can guesstimate how well stuff will perform in any given slot/card.

 

[madcratebuilder]

I would avoid those evil bay usb cards. Zero support if you ever need it.

You do not have usb 3 connector on your mobo so you need a pci card. I would use a SilverStone USB PCI adapter.

Amazon.com: Silverstone Tek EC01-P PCI Express Card with USB 3.0 Internal 19-pin Dual Port Connector: Computers & Accessories

Great customer support, this card well give you two USB 3.0 ports at the rear and it has a 19 pin header so you can add a front panel USB. SilverStone makes those also. SilverStone has good drivers and support.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...There should be x2 or x4 cards too if I'm not mistaken (respectively 2 and 4 lanes)...

I totally agree but I haven't found any yet. I like the card I have for three reasons:

1. It has three USB 3.0 ports (wanted two) and a card reader that supported SD and microSD.

2. It didn't have a lot of other stuff I didn't need (audio ports, USB 2.0 ports, eSATA ports, etc.)

3. It worked (the first reader's USB ports worked but the card reader portion just sat there and laughed at me).

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I would avoid those evil bay usb cards. Zero support if you ever need it.

You do not have usb 3 connector on your mobo so you need a pci card. I would use a SilverStone USB PCI adapter.

Amazon.com: Silverstone Tek EC01-P PCI Express Card with USB 3.0 Internal 19-pin Dual Port Connector: Computers & Accessories

Great customer support, this card well give you two USB 3.0 ports at the rear and it has a 19 pin header so you can add a front panel USB. SilverStone makes those also. SilverStone has good drivers and support.

Sorry but that card only has an internal USB 3.0 header and no rear USB 3.0 ports. This one, however, will give both two rear ports and an internal header for front ports and is also made by Silverstone.

I agree about FleaBay. It's possible to get incredible deals there but there are a lot of dodgy vendors on that site. Amazon is much better although you have to watch out for their Marketplace vendors. Some of them are pretty dodgy and it takes extraordinary measures to get Amazon to back them up, unlike Amazon's service for their own products.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

PCI-e 1.0 has 250 mb/s bandwidth UP and 250 mb/s DOWN per lane (no, won't mix to get 500 MB/s) .
PCI-e 2.0 is twice that and PCI-e 3.0 is four times that.
a x1 card/slot has only one lane. There should be x2 or x4 cards too if I'm not mistaken (respectively 2 and 4 lanes).

USB 3.0 real speed is around 150-200 mb/s. Yeah, lots of overhead in the protocol.
USB 2.0 had a theoretical max speed of 480 Mb/s and look at how crappy it is.

If you can do simple math you can guesstimate how well stuff will perform in any given slot/card.

Thanks for the details (I couldn't remember the figures off the top of my head; old age stinks). That more or less supports what I said about x1 supporting two ports.

Sadly, I haven't seen any cards that could take advantage of PCI-e 3.0 speeds (yet). Additionally, I haven't seen any MOBOs with PCI-e slots running at 4x or less that were PCI-e 3.0 (yet) nor have I seen any USB 3.0 adapter cards that ran on X2 or X4 (again, yet).

 

[bobafetthotmail]

As long as you buy with PayPal you are safe on Ebay (and elsewhere for that matter), as long as you purchase from your own continent anyway. No overseas purchases, no cheap crap from China.

With PayPal you have 40 days from purchase to send back the stuff and get a refund if it does not work out of the box. Or just get a refund if the seller isn't cooperative.

As for the driver support, heh, that's not a major issue, as the USB 3.0 controller chip has its name etched on it, and a quick googling will find the best drivers for it even if the driver disk is worthless (it usually is).

Sadly, I haven't seen any cards that could take advantage of PCI-e 3.0 speeds (yet). Additionally, I haven't seen any MOBOs with PCI-e slots running at 4x or less that were PCI-e 3.0 (yet).

Probably because not even a GTX 680 notices the difference between PCI-e 2.0 and 3.0 (x16 slot). That is, PCI-e has so much bandwith that we currently don't have stuff that can use it.

And because AMD is still ignoring it in its controllers.

Eventually things will change when the Thunderbolt port gets some steam.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Eventually things will change when the Thunderbolt port gets some steam.

That may take quite a while before that happens at the rate it's been "taking off" so far. So far, the paucity of compatible peripherals and the insanely high prices of what is available is holding it back. Even DisplayPort hasn't fully taken off yet. MOBOs that support Thunderbolt are still scarce. ASUS had only two Ivy Bridge boards with a Thunderbolt port (and one was discontinued after a limited run) and currently has only two Haswell boards with Thunderbolt ports. If it wasn't so much better than even USB 3.0 and DisplayPort combined (since Thunderbolt can replace both), I would suspect it will gently flop like Firewire and eSATA.