Solved Upgrade to USB 3.0

[Difusal]

Hello forum,

as you all know, USB 3.0 has arrived some months ago. I have a laptop (HP DV6 3050ep - check my specs).
My laptop has 4 USB 2.0 ports. I wonder if I will be able to open it and install a USB 3.0 port in the future (has I don't have any PCI Express slot).

Will it be possible? And if it is, can you give me any link to a video tutorial on how to replace the USB hubs/ports? (or whatever they are called)

Thanks,
Eric.

 

[MilesAhead]

All the USB 3.0 cards I've seen are PCI Express. I'm not a hardware aficionado. Others here would know more. But it stands to reason the choices would be a PCI Express based card, or a motherboard with native USB 3.0 support.

I have 2 desktop PCs. I added SIIG USB 3.0 PCI Express card to each. I'm running SIIG USB 3.0 docking stations with WD 6 Gb/s Sata drives. The drives in the docks are faster than my system drives on both machines. I'd go with an SIIG USB 3.0 PCI Express card if at all possible. It gives 2 USB 3.0 ports. But if you use docking stations you can swap cheap internal drives around and get top speed, rather than using externals.

 

[Zen00]

I hear the ASUS USB 3.0 add-in card is extremely good value for the money. But yeah, you'll have to use a PCI-E add-in card, you can't go resoldering the USB ports on your motherboard.