Need help finding a good PCI card for USB with high speed on all ports?

[UsernamePassword]

I need a USB 3.0 PCI card with at least 3 or 4 ports, 

 

I read a bit of them and some of these are "bad" so you don't get the full USB 3 "power" on all of the ports.

 

My motherboard has too few ports so I need this.

 

Any recommendations?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=usb+3.0+pci&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

 

[Kilrah]

Most of them are PCIe x1 and basically are one port's bandwidth shared between all the connectors on the card.

 

If you want the full transfer speed for each port you need one with a full dedicated port for each plug, they're relatively easy to spot since they're usually PCIe x4 so longer connection to the motherboard, have it clearly mentioned in the description, and... are much more expensive.

They also have a power supply input in addition to the PCIe slot to be able to supply the full spec power to all ports.

 

From that link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Express-SuperSpeed-Adapter-Dedicated-Channels/dp/B00HJZEA2S/ref=sr_1_20?dchild=1&keywords=usb+3.0+pci&qid=1591557267&sr=8-20&tag=linustechtips-21

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-Port-10Gbps-Dedicated-Channels/dp/B071DFQ6TW/ref=sr_1_21?dchild=1&keywords=usb+3.0+pci&qid=1591557267&sr=8-21

 

Another:

https://www.delock.com/produkte/1112_USB-3-0/89325/merkmale.html

[mariushm]

pci-e x1 and pci-e x4 cards are allowed to take up to 10 watts or 25 watts from the pci-e slot .... 

Each usb port is supposed to provide up to 5v at 0.9A or 4.5 watts , so if you have four usb ports on the card your card must be able to provide at least 4 ports x 4.5 watts = 18 watts.

The pci-e slot doesn't have 5v in it, so there must be a dc-dc converter on the card to convert 12v to 5v, or the card must have a connector to take in 5v from the power supply.

Even so, a dc-dc converter is not 100% efficient, it would be maybe 90% or higher, so you're getting very close to that 25w limit just by producing that power for the usb ports.

So, for these reasons, most cards will have a sata or molex connector to just take 5v and 12v directly from the power supply instead of using the power provided by the pci-e slot.

 

If you want something cheap and good, I'd suggest this one which doesn't require additional power, it uses the power from the pci-e slot  : ORICO 4-Port USB 3.0 PCI Express (PCIe) Expansion Card Adapter for Windows Server, Vista, XP, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 - PCI-E on-board Powered with NO Need for SATA/Molex Power Connector: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

 

If you want something better, you have this one with 1 usb type c 10g + 2 usb 3.0 + one header with 2 usb 3.0 ports ... you can buy a bracket with 2 usb 3.0 ports for a few dollars and connect it to the header to get a total of 4 usb 3.0 ports on the back:

StarTech.com USB 3.1 PCIE Card - 5 Port - 1x USB-C - 2x USB-A - 1x 2 Port IDC - Internal USB Header Expansion - USB C PCIe Card (PEXUSB312EIC): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

 

Here's example of brackets :

DeLOCK USB 3.0 Slot Bracket: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Akasa AK-CBUB17-40BK USB 3.0 Internal Adapter Cable: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

 

 

It uses power received from a sata connector