USB3 PCi card, still got an oddity with it???

Box Brownie

Box Brownie

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Hi all

As in all things PC component wise there are lots of makes & variants!

I am looking to increase my USB speed (the onboard ports on my PC are only USB2 compliant.......yes, an older system ;) ) so looking for a make/brand recommendation, the most available slot needs a card short length card?

2 or 4 port what have you used and/or can recommend? NB the OS is W10 64 bit Pro. Oh, if I can keep the cost <£10 so much the better?

TIA :)
 
Hi Tori

Thanks for the pointer though the bay is not my usual haunt for buying stuff.

Not a brand I have come across before, is this what you are using?

NB One reason apart from the USB2 to USB3 speed increase is that though to date I have found that external USB powered hard drives have been fine they sometimes play up when it comes to 'connecting' i.e. W10 does not recognise that anything is connected and "suppport" have suggested that my USB port(s) may not be supplying sufficient power. So for modest money I can at least nail that likely flaw as well as get high transfer speeds.
 
I've had good experiences with Startech cards. They seem to use good quality chipsets (Renesas I think?...used to be NEC) which is pretty important in terms of performance and reliability. Unfortunately they are not <£10 though.
 
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PorcupineFloyd said:
I've had good experiences with Startech cards. They seem to use good quality chipsets (Renesas I think?...used to be NEC) which is pretty important in terms of performance and reliability. Unfortunately they are not <£10 though.
Click to expand...

Fair point StarTech do seem to offer good kit!

troutfisher said:
Have a look at cc computers they have quite a range from a tenner upwardshttps://www.cclonline.com/category/434/PC-Components/Controller-Cards/USB-Firewire-Cards/
Click to expand...

Thanks, I have used CCL in the past (that is where I bought my recent bigger Freecom Tough Drive from) and they do list StarTech.....though unlike some makes they don't include the recommended (required!!!) power cable to ensure you can power such as external HDD's! For the elevated prices I would have thought that was a prerequisite.

I have found a 4 port Orico on Amazon and this uses the Fresco 1100 chipset (StarTech uses a VIA chipset) and it seems gets decent reviews. The narrower card would fit best???
 
Box Brownie said:
...is this what you are using?
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm using that exact card in a system, and not had any problems with it.
As others have said, StarTech is the brand to go for if quality and reliability is paramount, but that does come at a premium.
 
OK all

I have pushed the button on the Orico 4 port I mentioned above here https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NMNOB5M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This has the Fresco chipset and though I know and have come across conflicts in the past the Fresco one appears to be one without reports compared to say the VIA chipped ones causing issues with nVidia GPU cards (NB though the reports seem to be more in regard to Pascal GPU type and my GPU is not that powerfull).

And price point is OK bearing in mind, if I can justify the expense, I would like to do a new build in 2019 and that is why now budget is key ;)

So all being well it will be as PnP as described with W10 not requiring anything like a driver update :)

PS I have checked and I have spare SATA power connectors and if needed a spare 4 pin Molex.

Thanks once again for the insights.
 
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FWIW Orico make some decent external drive boxes, sold on Amazon, so I'd think it was a reasonable choice even without Tori's endorsement.
 
An update

Picked the Orico parcel up this morning physical install OK'ish.....................why the 'ish, well its dimensions with the fixing plate depending on which PCI I set it in was not close enough to screw it in? However, thankfully one slot was good to go.

IMO unusually W10 default driver did not work with the card so had to down load the Orico driver......................ran the .exe to install the drivers > restart > all recognised in Device Manager with not "yellow exclamations" and properly ID'ed as the Fresco USB

Just waiting on my separately order 0.5M USBN cable to give it a go with my external USB powered HDD and see just how fast the files fly across :) PS I am hoping I will see a marked difference in speed compared to USB2 to 'prove' that I am indeed seeing USB3 level speed(s).

PPS possibly more importantly........no obvious (driver) conflicts especially as not "exclamation marks" against anything on the list. So all being well a robust and usefull addition to extend the usefulness of this PC :)
 
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Hi all

Sad to say the Orico was a disappointment. Install AOK but now has behaved very oddly :(

Took a while to connect to my USB powered HDD (both of them) and the transfer test was dire..........speed up & down and slow at under USB2 speeds ??? Then it dropped the USB connection.....on one try windows was reporting and I/O error with then USB connected device.....tried a few times and will no longer connect >>>> getting a refund.

Looks like Startech might be worth a slightly more expensive try!

In parralel with this it looks like my new Freecom HDD 2TB could be faulty. My older 500Gb and 1TB seem fine and connect via my USB2 hub port but the new 2TB was initially OK allowing me to setup the encryption protection but now will not connect. Now unless they have totally changed the power demands I cannot see any reason why it fails to connect and be recognised by its software GUI.......................will have to contact the supplier (NB I was hoping it was just maybe a power issue but the new Orico card has lots of oooomph!

A bit back to square one :(
 
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Inateck are fine for the price or Highpoint Rocket (with a price reflective of the name).

The Highpoint Rocket comes in 4xUSB3 or 2xUSB3 + 2xUSB-C (and probably some other variants). They also have a controller chip for each USB port for max bandwidth, as opposed to one controller chip shared across all ports.
 
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JohnM100 said:
Inateck are fine for the price or Highpoint Rocket (with a price reflective of the name).

The Highpoint Rocket comes in 4xUSB3 or 2xUSB3 + 2xUSB-C (and probably some other variants). They also have a controller chip for each USB port for max bandwidth, as opposed to one controller chip shared across all ports.
Click to expand...
Two names I do not recall seeing before..........................as you say Highpoint by name and by price :LOL:

The Inateck, I looked this one up and more budget worthy but of note....one 4 port looked like a clone of the Orico apart from instead of a Molex power connector it had a SATA power connection!

FWIW I have ordered a StarTech 3 port one....fingers crossed i will play nice :)
 
Update

The StarTech card like all cards was a breeze to install..........................W10 in Device Manager showed no "Yellow Exclamation Marks" unlike the Orico that did to start with. This is with Windows default Driver

USB stick recogised AOK :)

External HDD ~ recognised with the GUI to access its encrypted partition opens AOK
However, I tried copying multi GB files across and the initial speed was very USB3 like >60MB/s but fell away very quickly to zero with the drive "stuck" with the activity light flashing and inaccessible via Win Explorer of the GUI. NB the first time this happened I shut down but the PC hung for ages with a blank screen so had to force a powerdown. Upon reboot once at the desktop I got a message that indexing was switched off and it then ran its Indexing analysis and settled down (NB the external drive is not included in the indexing list.

Not sure what to make of this behaviour.....................might try updating the USB3 driver to the StarTech one even though they 'recommend' that if the card installs OK showing MS driver working to stick with that????
 
Maybe drive drawing more power for writing data than the card can sustain?
 
JohnM100 said:
Maybe drive drawing more power for writing data than the card can sustain?
Click to expand...

FWIW I still did not get to the bottom of this .........it is possible that the control circuitry built into the external drive is either not fully USB3 compliant (USB2 is absolutely fine) or has an incompatibly issue with the card...or the W10 v1803 build xTensible driver.

In regard to power, the card is connected to the PSU in the PC so the power available should not be a cause.
 
It's worth seeing if there are updated drivers. Have a look on Startech's web site to see if there's a more recent one than that supplied with the card.
 
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