Adding USB 3.0 to a Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P MoBo Machine

[baumgrenze]

I just discovered that my newly arrived Thermaltake BlacX Duet (ST0014UCLE010049) only transfers via USB 3.0. I bought it because I discovered too late for warranty purposes that only one of the 2 drive bays in an earlier BlacX Duet I have (ST0014UH001772) connects via a SATA cable to the eSATA port on my Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P mother board, the one closest to the side with the switch on the Duet. It is easy to miss the end of the number. It is truncated on the manual to ST0014U.

THERMALTAKE BLACX DUET ST0014U MANUAL Pdf Download.

The Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P was made before USB 3.0 was released. I can easily fit another card in the case as only 1 PCIE-16 slot and one PCI slot are currently occupied?

1) Is it true that I can install USB 3.0 on this 'vintage, legacy' motherboard?

2) If so, what should I watch out for in selecting the card? There seem to be many price points.

3) Is it true that some USB 3.0 cables are inferior to others? I never bought into the 'gold' speaker cable for my audio system, but I can accept that some cables may have inferior shielding or some other flaw.

4) I'm tired, but beyond the first Duet what other peripherals might work better with USB 3.0?

thanks
baumgrenze

 

[SIW2]

"The Thermaltake BlacX Duet ST0014U-D is also backward compatible with USB 2.0 to deliver transfer rates of up to 480Mbps"

Or you can add a pcie to usb 3.0 card if you want faster speeds.

Page 3 of the manual you linked:

 

[Megahertz07]

I have a MB that has USB 3.0, 3.1 and USB 2.0. The problem is that I haven't seen a device that can make use of USB 3.x high communication speed. In other words, USB 3.0 flash disks or USB 3.0 external HDD disk case has same results on USB 2.0 or 3.0
The bottle neck isn't the USB port. The bottle neck is the device.

 

[baumgrenze]

Thanks For the Quick Response

Thank you, SIW2 and Megahertz07, for your swift response and comments.

So it is 'easy' to see why Thermaltake dropped the SATA port on the docking station. It was good for 3 gbps vs 4.8 (or 5) gbps for USB 3.0. Both are compared to 0.48 gbps for USB 2.0.

Megahertz07, do you imply that a pcie USB 3.0 card may or may not give anything more than 0.48 gbps with the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P?

You help me understand that my question really is, are there inherent data transfer limits to the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P that reside deep withing the motherboard?

Can anyone answer this question?

I also still ask if there are real (or only marketing hype) differences in the way in which USB 3.0 cards and cables are made?

I remain open to responses to these latter questions.

thanks,
baumgrenze

 

[Megahertz07]

If you install a USB 3.0 PCIe card on your GA-EP35-DS3P it will work as a USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 port, depending on the cable and device you connect to.
The USB 3.x is capable of high speeds. What I said is that it's difficult to find a device that take advantage of the high speed USB 3.0 can deliver.

 

[baumgrenze]

Thank you for clarifying your intent.

In working on this further, I sent a request to Gigabyte support, but it will be well into next week before I expect a reply.

The support request required that I enter my BIOS version:

Award Software International, Inc. F6 06/18/2009

Is there any reason to be concerned that this almost 10-year-old BIOS might conflict with a USB 3.0 PCIe card, or at least with allowing it to connect at USB 3.0 speeds?

thanks,
baumgrenze


Is there any reason

 

[Megahertz07]

If your GA-EP35-DS3P is hardware version 2.1, you have the latest BIOS.

I don't think you'll have any issues by adding a USB 3.0 PCIe card.

 

[baumgrenze]

Here is the reply from Gigabyte support:

Question: If I install a pcie USB 3.0 card, will my transfer rate with an external docking station be 4.8 gbps or is there a lower limit built into the motherboard?

Dear customer,

I ' m sorry to let you know that, due to MB model was over 10 years old, has been discontinue for long time, USB 3.0 interface card not been validated on this board.


Hmmmm.....


Has 'not been validated' is not the same as 'is not compatible with' or 'will not work with' your motherboard.


Is there a simple way to determine which version of PCIe this motherboard is using?

thanks
baumgrenze

 

[SIW2]

According to this:
GA-EP35-DS3P (rev. 2.1) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global


2 x PCI Express x16 slots (The PCIE_16_1 slot supports x16; the PCIE_16_2 supports x4.)

 

[johnhoh]

Your specific issue is discussed here:
USB 3.0 Speed on PCIe 2.0 x1 Slot | Tom's Hardware Forum

Run hwinfo64. The motherboard section will report that you have PCI-E version 2 on your board since you have a P35 chipset which is a pci-e 2 board. That means your 1x pci-e slot is fast enough to support usb3. The speeds below are in bytes.
Free Download HWiNFO Sofware | Installer & Portable for Windows, DOS

 

[baumgrenze]

HWiNFO64@Gigabyte_EP35-DS3P System Summary

Thank you all for your contributions.

Out of an abundance of caution I downloaded HWiNFO64 as suggested by JOHNHOH. I have uploaded images of the results. I believe that the _2.jpg image contains the PCIe information and that it says "PCIe v1.1 x 16."

My aging cranium balks at trying to grasp the details, just as I could not follow all the information in the link JOHNHOH provided:

USB 3.0 Speed on PCIe 2.0 x1 Slot | Tom's Hardware Forum

At one point Thermaltake provided both SATA and USB connections with their BlacX Duet. I have one and I was 'disappointed' to discover that only one of the two connectors is seen by my computer. Perhaps it is not connected to the proper SATA port on the motherboard?

I got a newer one and realized when it arrived that it only supports USB 3.x, no SATA.

What other information do I need to supply to better understand what I am up against.

thanks,
baumgrenze

 

[johnhoh]

what you posted there is your video card. You need to go to the motherboard section. I'll post a screenshot.
My video card, like yours, shows pci-e 1.1 but that's because its in a low power state and it ramps up only when needed. Not a concern.

 

[baumgrenze]

Thanks johnhoh,

Now I see how much more info is available.

It is late, I will come back with more detail another day.

thanks
baumgrenze

 

[baumgrenze]

Thanks again,

I've attached a snip of the HWiNFO motherboard section. I can't interpret it. It seems to record only the 2 slots that are in use.

For good measure there are also snips from the manual that might be informative.

The SATA bracket allows 2 external SATA devices to be attached neatly to the system. The cords 'occupy the space' allotted to one of the short PCIE sockets and also allow the video card some air-flow. There is still plenty of room available to install other PCIE and PCI cards.

Perhaps the block diagram will reveal to an expert what level of PCI service the motherboard provides?

thanks
baumgrenze

 

[johnhoh]

I do not see a pci version there. It looks like you have posted the output from speccy, not hwinfo64. Can you post a screenshot like I did in post #12?

 

[baumgrenze]

My Apologies

Thanks for your amazingly prompt reply.

Sorry, I hit the wrong quick-launch button and was not attentive to what opened.

Here is the correct image:

HWiNFO64@GIGABYTE_EP35-DS3P_5_MOBO.jpg

thanks
baumgrenze

 

[johnhoh]

You've got pci-e 1.1 there. Earlier I had said that P35 was 2.0 but I see now that was from an article that was later corrected to 1.1. So you have pci-e 1.1 and USB 2.0.

The speed of your drive will be the slowest part of the whole path which as Megahertz said earlier, is very likely to be your hard drive, not the usb or sata or pci-e pathway it uses. To keep it simple lets convert everything into mbps. Not gbps, not MBps, not GBps (the last two are bytes)

USB 2.0 480mbps
USB 3.0 5000mbps
pci 1.1 2500mbps
pci 2.0 5000mbps
sata 2.0 3000mbps
esata 2.0 3000mbps
7200rpm hard drive 700mbps
SSD hard drive 4000+mbps

So that says if you are using a 7200rpm drive, your best option (if you do not have an eSata port) is a usb3.0 pci-e card running in your pci-e V1.1 slot, which is just as fast as if you had a pci-e 2.0 slot, since the hard drive is the limiting factor in either case.

You said earlier you had an eSata port on the motherboard. If that is true, use that. But the specs I saw for your board showed no eSata.

To answer an earlier question. USB 2 is known as USB High Speed, and USB 3 is known as Superspeed. Yes their cables are different. The visible connectors for USB 3 are blue, they are black for USB 2. If you use a black-ended USB cable you will be limited to USB 2 speeds. So if you get a pci-e USB 3 card, you should get a blue-ended USB 3 cable too.