Hi all,
I am looking to add some USB ports to my desktop computer; I'm seeking advice on whether some particular USB adapters might be too slow to keep up with my peripherals.
I currently have 6 USB slots (4 on the back, 2 on the front of my case). My USB peripherals are a bluetooth mouse/keyboard dongle, an HD webcam, external harddrive, smartcard reader, and wireless internet adapter. I am looking at switching from my wireless mouse/keyboard to a wired mouse and wired keyboard, which would of course take up 2 USB slots rather than 1. So, I would max out the 6 slots I currently have. I want to keep some slots free for USB sticks, camera cords, and the like; so I figure it's time to upgrade!
My motherboard is the ASUS M4N68T-M-V2; it has 2 available USB 2.0 10-1 pin headers still available, with which it can support an additional 4 USB slots. I also have 2 conventional 32-bit PCI slots available, as well as a PCI Express x 1 slot (although I'd ideally like to save the latter for either a soundcard or SATA III controller later on down the road).
Given that the headers are already there, I'd like to use them rather than fill a PCI slot; so I'm looking at getting this 4 x USB 2.0 adapter for my motherboard headers. However, I noticed it only says "USB 2.0 compliant" in the specs. (I know some Newegg reviewers have said that their USB 2.0 devices work with it; but they didn't specify anything about the speeds of their devices). So I interpret "USB 2.0 compliant" to mean that you can plug a USB 2.0 device into it and it will still work; however it does not mean that the data will be transferred at USB 2.0 speed. Is this correct? If so, I believe it would be less than optimal; I wouldn't want to plug in a device that can operate up to 480 MB/s and have it transfer at only 12 or 1.5 MB/s. (For example, my external hard drive runs at about 50-70 MB/s and the wireless internet adapter needs about 3.75 MB/s to transfer the ISP's 30Mb/s connection). If anything in my math there is incorrect please let me know as well; I enjoy researching this and want to understand it better!
If I am correct about the product above being a potential bottleneck, I would consider something like this 4 x USB 2.0 PCI adapter. But again, I am concerned that the speeds available via this particular connection, might be less than optimal. According to Wikipedia the PCI data rate can be up to 133 MB/s; however PCI is of course outdated, and the notion of depending on it for many modern peripherals seems suboptimal.
So, what I would essentially like to know are whether I need to be worried about bottlenecks given my peripherals; and if so, whether the motherboard adapter or PCI adapter above might present any bottleneck problems.
Thank you for reading; I appreciate any insights you all can offer!
Alex
I am looking to add some USB ports to my desktop computer; I'm seeking advice on whether some particular USB adapters might be too slow to keep up with my peripherals.
I currently have 6 USB slots (4 on the back, 2 on the front of my case). My USB peripherals are a bluetooth mouse/keyboard dongle, an HD webcam, external harddrive, smartcard reader, and wireless internet adapter. I am looking at switching from my wireless mouse/keyboard to a wired mouse and wired keyboard, which would of course take up 2 USB slots rather than 1. So, I would max out the 6 slots I currently have. I want to keep some slots free for USB sticks, camera cords, and the like; so I figure it's time to upgrade!
My motherboard is the ASUS M4N68T-M-V2; it has 2 available USB 2.0 10-1 pin headers still available, with which it can support an additional 4 USB slots. I also have 2 conventional 32-bit PCI slots available, as well as a PCI Express x 1 slot (although I'd ideally like to save the latter for either a soundcard or SATA III controller later on down the road).
Given that the headers are already there, I'd like to use them rather than fill a PCI slot; so I'm looking at getting this 4 x USB 2.0 adapter for my motherboard headers. However, I noticed it only says "USB 2.0 compliant" in the specs. (I know some Newegg reviewers have said that their USB 2.0 devices work with it; but they didn't specify anything about the speeds of their devices). So I interpret "USB 2.0 compliant" to mean that you can plug a USB 2.0 device into it and it will still work; however it does not mean that the data will be transferred at USB 2.0 speed. Is this correct? If so, I believe it would be less than optimal; I wouldn't want to plug in a device that can operate up to 480 MB/s and have it transfer at only 12 or 1.5 MB/s. (For example, my external hard drive runs at about 50-70 MB/s and the wireless internet adapter needs about 3.75 MB/s to transfer the ISP's 30Mb/s connection). If anything in my math there is incorrect please let me know as well; I enjoy researching this and want to understand it better!
If I am correct about the product above being a potential bottleneck, I would consider something like this 4 x USB 2.0 PCI adapter. But again, I am concerned that the speeds available via this particular connection, might be less than optimal. According to Wikipedia the PCI data rate can be up to 133 MB/s; however PCI is of course outdated, and the notion of depending on it for many modern peripherals seems suboptimal.
So, what I would essentially like to know are whether I need to be worried about bottlenecks given my peripherals; and if so, whether the motherboard adapter or PCI adapter above might present any bottleneck problems.
Thank you for reading; I appreciate any insights you all can offer!
Alex
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