Why so few USB ports on Z170 motherboards?

[jono20]

Coming from my P67 (Sandy Bridge) Asus board, I'm pretty shocked by how few ports there are on the new 'mainsteam' Asus boards. Why are we wasting half the IO on video connections now?

 

Asus P8P67 Pro circa 2011:

 

Asus Z170-A:

 

 

 

[TheAmazingCookieFromSquare]

Becuse of that USB Type-C

[TheKDub]

Coming from my P67 (Sandy Bridge) Asus board, I'm pretty shocked by how few ports there are on the new 'mainsteam' Asus boards. Why are we wasting half the IO on video connections now?

 

Asus P8P67 Pro circa 2011:

 

 

Asus Z170-A:

 

 

 

 

Well, how many do you actually need...?

 

And it's got usb 3.1 type c. (Just get a hub for it, bang, all the usb ports you'd need lel)

[Sportiva]

Because of Type-C which you can buy a hub for.

[jono20]

The type-C port is all well and good, but couldn't they have squeezed it in somewhere else? I just feel like there's so much space going unused now. Lots of motherboards stack 4 USB ports per row.

[RollinLower]

probably because a lot of peripherals have usb passthroughs these days. also, front i/o usually adds another 4 usb ports.

if you really think there are too few usb ports, you could always get a usb hub too.

 

i agree tough, even my mITX motherboard has more usb ports than that z170

[Deletive]

Type-C and the fact Skylake's iGPU is actually useful for driving monitors now. 

[jono20]

Well, how many do you actually need...?

 

And it's got usb 3.1 type c. (Just get a hub for it, bang, all the usb ports you'd need lel)

 

I've on several occasions populated all of the ports on my current board. Who wants more mess hanging off the back of their case? Not the mention the general issues that having your KB and anything else plugged into a hub brings about.

[runit3]

The Z170-A is bottom rung entry level, always has been. I would assume their logic would be that people will be utilizing Skylake's GPU more than the previous gen's. Also, with products like this: http://www.amazon.com/quality-Ultra-thin-Multiple-Adapter-Supported/dp/B00V8BPJCO making the most sense for using a Type-C connection, there won't be much use for additional ports on the I/O. OH! also forgot the additional mid-board USB 3.1 header. (x4 3.0 and x4 2.0 now possible from headers).

[BrinkGG]

Coming from my P67 (Sandy Bridge) Asus board, I'm pretty shocked by how few ports there are on the new 'mainsteam' Asus boards. Why are we wasting half the IO on video connections now?

 

(imgs)

Most people can't take advantage of USB 3.0 or non c 3.1, so using a hub doesn't effect performance. For example, I have a 7 port USB 3.0 hub with 2 USB 3.0 Flash drives in RAID 0, mouse and keyboard, backup drive, audio interface, and an SD card reader. The only thing that looses speed is the raid, but it only drops from 235Mbp/s to 195Mbp/s, and its for VMs, so I don't really notice it much. 

[LIGISTX]

I mean, why would anyone need more than say 5-6 USB's these days? What in the hell do you plan to plug in...? All I have in my PC is: keyboard, mouse, monitor hub,multimedia card reader. That is 4. Then if I need, I plug my flash drives into the front of the case or monitor hub. 5-6 really is all most people need, especially because just about ever case has 2 or 4 on the front as well.

[dizmo]

Well, how many do you actually need...?

 

And it's got usb 3.1 type c. (Just get a hub for it, bang, all the usb ports you'd need lel)

Lots.

Mouse, keyboard x2, external hard drive, Fitbit plug in, label printer, there were a few other things that I can't recall needing a port for.

I don't see hubs as an alternative. Personally I want everything coming off the full power motherboard, and I hate the clutter hubs create.

 

The type-C port is all well and good, but couldn't they have squeezed it in somewhere else? I just feel like there's so much space going unused now. Lots of motherboards stack 4 USB ports per row.

Totally agree with you.

When I look for a motherboard I like it to have at least 8 USB ports, this thing has what 5?

While USB C is good and all, there's virtually nothing that uses it.

 

probably because a lot of peripherals have usb passthroughs these days. also, front i/o usually adds another 4 usb ports.

if you really think there are too few usb ports, you could always get a usb hub too.

 

i agree tough, even my mITX motherboard has more usb ports than that z170

Haha, I don't think front USB really counts as an alternative. Most things I plug into USB, I don't want hanging off the front of my case.

[jono20]

Maybe this is a sign that LGA2011 is a better path for me...

 

[TheKDub]

I've on several occasions populated all of the ports on my current board. Who wants more mess hanging off the back of their case? Not the mention the general issues that having your KB and anything else plugged into a hub brings about.

 

Simple fix: Plug your keyboard and mouse in directly, then for things like flash drives and card readers have them plugged into the hub, and you don't have to have it dangling off the back of the case, you can have it positioned somewhere more convenient than the back of your case....

[jono20]

Simple fix: Plug your keyboard and mouse in directly, then for things like flash drives and card readers have them plugged into the hub, and you don't have to have it dangling off the back of the case, you can have it positioned somewhere more convenient than the back of your case....

 

I'm not denying that there are ways to manage this. My three monitors each have a 5-port USB-3.0 hub built in. I just feel like they wasted a lot of space. Why not just include the DisplayPort and add another six or eight I/O ports (SATA, USB, Firewire, whatever) in place of the D-SUB and HDMI?

[TheKDub]

I'm not denying that there are ways to manage this. My three monitors each have a 5-port USB-3.0 hub built in. I just feel like they wasted a lot of space. Why not just include the DisplayPort and add another six or eight I/O ports (SATA, USB, Firewire, whatever) in place of the D-SUB and HDMI?

 

Because not everyone has a monitor with display port inputs, hell, some people are still using monitors that only can use VGA.

[jono20]

Because not everyone has a monitor with display port inputs, hell, some people are still using monitors that only can use VGA.

 

Yeah, and I'm sure those people are going to be purchasing a lot of gaming motherboards and unlocked processors... /s

 

It looks like MSI has been a bit more reasonable. Their Z170A Krait is only ten bucks more than the ASUS board:

[Curufinwe_wins]

Or buy better mobos... The higher end z170 mobos also have insane numbers of usb ports.

[Jumper118]

[jono20]

The first two I posted are comparable in terms of price and features for their respective generations. I was just shocked to see how much it had decreased. You'd obviously get more if you pay twice as much for the board or go X99.

[Curufinwe_wins]

The first two I posted are comparable in terms of price and features for their respective generations. I was just shocked to see how much it had decreased. You'd obviously get more if you pay twice as much for the board or go X99.

When usb came out they threw a shit load on there. Now they realize that no one gave a shit how many they had as long as they had a few. Also I think you forget the internal usb headers (for front I/o etc) which makes a big difference as well.

[Agent181]

I mean, why would anyone need more than say 5-6 USB's these days? What in the hell do you plan to plug in...? All I have in my PC is: keyboard, mouse, monitor hub,multimedia card reader. That is 4. Then if I need, I plug my flash drives into the front of the case or monitor hub. 5-6 really is all most people need, especially because just about ever case has 2 or 4 on the front as well.

Keyboard, mouse, emergency mouse, joystick, second joystick, printer, external hard drive, WiFi adapter, 2 fast charge for phone and the other for backup battery, usb hub, multimedia card reader, external cd drive reader/burner, and 4 flash drives

Edit: forgot usb dac for speakers and headphones lol

[jono20]

I really don't think it's that uncommon for a user to have more than five USB devices they want to leave plugged in all the time. Mouse, keyboard, passthrough, printers, external drives, webcams, audio DACs, joysticks/wheels/gamepads. Things fill up fast.

[JonU]

Z170 Deluxe seems to have plenty:

• Chipset Intel Z170
• Form factor ATX
• CPU support Intel Socket LGA1151 (Skylake)
• Memory support DDR4, Dual-channel, 4 slots, max 64GB
• Sound 8-channel Realtek ALC1150
• Networking 1 x Intel I219V, 1 x Intel I211AT, 802.11ac WiFi
• Ports 1 x M.2 PCI-E x4, 6 x SATA 6Gbps (Intel Z170), 2 x SATA 6Gbps (ASMedia) 5 x USB 3.1 (Type-A), 1 x USB 3.1 (Type-C) 5 x USB 3 (4 via header), 4 x USB 2.0 (via header), 2 x LAN, audio out, line in, mic, Optical S/PDIF out
• Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244
• Extras WiFi aerial, NVMe U.2 adaptor, PCI-E x4 M.2 adaptor, Chipset lighting control.

And the Z170-A is no slouch either, according to the spec sheet you have a total of 14:

[jono20]

The Deluxe is also twice the price. Seems like there's a board missing in their lineup.