What's the max amount of USB 3 lanes that my MOBO has?

[TheReal_ist]

So I have a ASrock AB 350 Pro4 mobo. What I'm looking to do is add in a PCI USB 3.0 expansion card. I learned that there is a max amount of PCIE lanes for a motherboard along with the chip u put in it. Is this related to the amount of PCI expansion cards you have plugged in perhaps?? Because right now I have a 580 8gb in the 16x slot and a Wireless/Bluetooth nic in the very bottom PCI slot. 

 

Can anyone help me determine if this 3.0 expansion card I want will even fully be supported since my PC is already using all 7 USB A ports directly from the mobo. 

 

 

 

All it mentions on their website thats relevant to me and my knowledge of the mobo is as follows:

 

The amount it currently has:  (8 USB 3.1 Gen1 (1 Type-C, 2 Front, 5 Rear)) 

 

And the PCIE specs:  2 PCIe 3.0 x16, 4 PCIe 2.0 x1

[Jurrunio]

It is supported, just note that the sum of transfer speeds you have in total to all these devices are just under 4GB per second

[wONKEyeYEs]

7 minutes ago, TheReal1st said:

add in a PCI USB 3.0 expansion card.

I just got this one and am happy with it.

-SATA power

-5 Horizontal ports on rear io.

-Internal connector for front io.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0756V9ZYT/ref=pe_3034960_233709270_TE_item_image

 

[TheReal_ist]

On 11/14/2018 at 11:14 PM, Jurrunio said:

It is supported, just note that the sum of transfer speeds you have in total to all these devices are just under 4GB per second

whats the normal amount I can pull if I continued to use the stock 5usb 3 ports?

 

Also can you please explain why you think this is what will happen. Would love to learn why, so i can teach others.

[TheReal_ist]

On 11/14/2018 at 11:20 PM, wONKEyeYEs said:

I just got this one and am happy with it.

-SATA power

-5 Horizontal ports on rear io.

-Internal connector for front io.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0756V9ZYT/ref=pe_3034960_233709270_TE_item_image

 

Now looking at I don't really like the red PCB of my unit. Sorta have a black ascetic with my build, So i might consider yours. Question tho what does it mean youi can expand another 2 usb ports with the 30 pin usb 3 cable??

 

Currently I'm using my USB 3.0 port on my mobo for the front panel. Therefore I can't use it for something else, hence why I'm looking for sata powered cards with PCI. 

 

update: HOLD UP can't I just plug in my 2 front panel usb 3 ports into the extender on the PCI card itself?? or will I run into bandwith issues. Again I'm still not clear even what I mean by this. Referring if i'm reaching the bandwidth limit or not, still confused on that part. If u wouldn't mind clarifying

[Jurrunio]

15 minutes ago, TheReal1st said:

whats the normal amount I can pull if I continued to use the stock 5usb 3 ports?

not sure what this question is asking about.

 

26 minutes ago, TheReal1st said:

Also can you please explain why you think this is what will happen. Would love to learn why, so i can teach others.

things that arent PCIe SSDs or GPUs are automatically linked to the chipset, which only gets PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth to the CPU. It doesnt matter if you have 1 or 10 devices on the chipset, the total bandwidth stays the same.

[TheReal_ist]

25 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

not sure what this question is asking about.

 

things that arent PCIe SSDs or GPUs are automatically linked to the chipset, which only gets PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth to the CPU. It doesnt matter if you have 1 or 10 devices on the chipset, the total bandwidth stays the same.

First one:

What I meant is that normally usb 3 can pull 5gbps right? So why is it 4 gbps after I add this PCI card?? Or is 4gbps the max 3.0 can use?

 

Second point:
Ok so then how many devices can my mobo have max?

[Sakkura]

11 minutes ago, TheReal_ist said:

First one:

What I meant is that normally usb 3 can pull 5gbps right? So why is it 4 gbps after I add this PCI card?? Or is 4gbps the max 3.0 can use?

 

Second point:
Ok so then how many devices can my mobo have max?

USB 3.0 has a raw bit rate of 5 Gbps but uses 8b/10b encoding. Its actual usable throughput is 4 Gbps = 500 MB/s.

 

Typically, most of the things you plug into a PC are connected via the chipset (main exception: graphics card). All data going to or from those things then have to go through the connection between the chipset and the CPU. On most current platforms, that connection can only transfer just under 4 GB/s. So if you plug in a lot of things and try to transfer a lot of data to/from each of them at the same time, you may run into a bottleneck. But that will only happen in pretty unusual scenarios.

[TheReal_ist]

5 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

USB 3.0 has a raw bit rate of 5 Gbps but uses 8b/10b encoding. Its actual usable throughput is 4 Gbps = 500 MB/s.

 

Typically, most of the things you plug into a PC are connected via the chipset (main exception: graphics card). All data going to or from those things then have to go through the connection between the chipset and the CPU. On most current platforms, that connection can only transfer just under 4 GB/s. So if you plug in a lot of things and try to transfer a lot of data to/from each of them at the same time, you may run into a bottleneck. But that will only happen in pretty unusual scenarios.

Awesome thxs for the clarification thought I was missing something.

 

- Alrit another question whats your opinion on my OG question. Same as the others? 

 

 - And again how can I figure out my limit of USB devices plug in at once? Still haven't got an answer on that and I don't know how to figure it out. 

 

- Lastly can u explain the whole difference between an expansion USB 3 card that has the 30 pin male connector on it for expansion of another 2 ports. (aka can I just plug in the female 3.0 giant cable into this male port on the PCI card instead of into the male slot on the mobo basically saving myself more space for future use)

 

And one with the two ports already sautered to the PCB.

[Sakkura]

46 minutes ago, TheReal_ist said:

Awesome thxs for the clarification thought I was missing something.

 

- Alrit another question whats your opinion on my OG question. Same as the others? 

 

 - And again how can I figure out my limit of USB devices plug in at once? Still haven't got an answer on that and I don't know how to figure it out. 

 

- Lastly can u explain the whole difference between an expansion USB 3 card that has the 30 pin male connector on it for expansion of another 2 ports. (aka can I just plug in the female 3.0 giant cable into this male port on the PCI card instead of into the male slot on the mobo basically saving myself more space for future use)

 

And one with the two ports already sautered to the PCB.

1. It will work.

 

2. You can plug in all of them at the same time. You just can't get >4GB/s across the connections in total at the same time.

 

3. 30-pin male connector? Like one of those Apple dock connectors? I would just avoid those unless you have a specific need for it.

[TheReal_ist]

7 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

1. It will work.

 

2. You can plug in all of them at the same time. You just can't get >4GB/s across the connections in total at the same time.

 

3. 30-pin male connector? Like one of those Apple dock connectors? I would just avoid those unless you have a specific need for it.

3. lol no  I'm talking about the normal male 30pin USB 3.0 connector. You know the one u connect from front IO to the mobo its that big blue plug on the board. So then with that said can I simply plug said USB 3.0 30pin male cable into the female port on the PCI card like they say u can. Heres a card for example. here

 

2. ahhh so its just a thing where I can't use all 15 ports at there full bandwidth simultaneously alrit cool. But again do u know the amount that I can use simultaneously at the full speed? There has to be someway of knowing or calculating it I just don't know how to for my mobo.

 

1. thxs

[Jurrunio]

2 hours ago, TheReal_ist said:

3. lol no  I'm talking about the normal male 30pin USB 3.0 connector. You know the one u connect from front IO to the mobo its that big blue plug on the board. So then with that said can I simply plug said USB 3.0 30pin male cable into the female port on the PCI card like they say u can. Heres a card for example. here

 

2. ahhh so its just a thing where I can't use all 15 ports at there full bandwidth simultaneously alrit cool. But again do u know the amount that I can use simultaneously at the full speed? There has to be someway of knowing or calculating it I just don't know how to for my mobo.

 

1. thxs

2. Excluding SATA drives and Ethernet and WiFi and BT and other USB devices, you can get 7 USB 3.0 devices run full speed, because PCIe 3.0 x4 has a max bandwidth of 3.938GBps. 3.938GBps / 500MBps = just below 8

[wONKEyeYEs]

3 hours ago, TheReal_ist said:

can I simply plug said USB 3.0 30pin male cable into the female port on the PCI card

Yes. The USB internal port on the card is for the front io USB.

 

And you prob won't have to use the ugly power extensions,

you can use sata right from PSU.

[Sakkura]

6 hours ago, TheReal_ist said:

3. lol no  I'm talking about the normal male 30pin USB 3.0 connector. You know the one u connect from front IO to the mobo its that big blue plug on the board. So then with that said can I simply plug said USB 3.0 30pin male cable into the female port on the PCI card like they say u can. Heres a card for example. here

 

2. ahhh so its just a thing where I can't use all 15 ports at there full bandwidth simultaneously alrit cool. But again do u know the amount that I can use simultaneously at the full speed? There has to be someway of knowing or calculating it I just don't know how to for my mobo.

3. That's a 20-pin heh. You can use that or the regular ports at the back, just depends what's practical for you.

 

2. In theory each USB 3.0 port can use 500 MB/s, though in practice it's more likely to be 400 MB/s or less. So the ~4GB/s of the chipset can handle about ten USB 3.0 drives running full tilt, if your other stuff isn't doing anything (SATA storage drives, network connection etc).