Recommend a USB 2.0 Header PCIe Card Please?

Quaternion

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Oct 12, 2014
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Title says it all. I've run out of USB 2.0 headers on the motherboard, and need one more port for Corsair Link (the two headers on the mobo are used by the front panel I/O, and I don't want to remove any of those). Could you suggest a card for me?

(Note: just to clarify, I need the internal (motherboard) pin/socket/header connectors, not the external USB 2.0 ones for flash drives and whatnot)

EDIT (02/10/15 @5:58 PM EST): http://www.cyberguys.com/product-details/?productid=77678&sk=MC71419&gclid=Cj0KEQiA9eamBRDqvIz_qPbVteABEiQAnIBTEObz7GkjKV0gwIbWob4TMMEAXMOdwzSobK1t2ph14VcaAh1d8P8HAQ but with USB 2.0 instead is what I need.
 
Solution


Why don't you buy a USB 3.0 pcie card? It has way faster transfer rates than a PCIE USB 2.0 card.
 

Quaternion

Honorable
Oct 12, 2014
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Because Corsair Link uses USB 2.0 headers...?

TO BE CLEAR: I need a card that provides the internal USB 2.0 sockets... you know, the thing with the 9 pins?
 


Your motherboard doesnt have dedicated slots for the USB 2.0 headers? Or you ran out? I am having trouble understanding can you please go into more detail?
 

Nadahar

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Mar 23, 2016
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I'm having the exact same problem. @Quaternion did you ever find a solution?

To everyone else, I have enough USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports at the rear panel. I also have enough internal USB 3.0 headers, but I have too few internal USB 2.0 headers. The motherboard (ASRock X99 Extreme 3) only has 2 internal USB 2.0 headers (which constitutes 4 ports) - and my front panel has 4 USB 2.0 ports in addition to the USB 3.0 ports. In addition I have two Corsair Link devices (H100i GTX and RMi 850) that each use one internal USB 2.0 header. That means that I'm short 2 internal USB 2.0 headers.

Actually I'm only short two USB 2.0 ports (one header), but since Corsair in their infinite visdom equip their devices with a full 9 pin plug (that only use one of the ports) I either need two additional headers or one additional header and some kind of a splitter to split the two ports from one header. The X99 Extreme 3 doesn't have any PCI slots, only PCIe - and thus the controller with the USB 2.0 headers must be PCIe (preferrably x1, but I don't use all the x16 ports either so I could "waste" one of them if I have to).

It seems that the combination of 9-pin USB 2.0 headers and PCIe is somewhat rare. I'm pretty sure it exists, but I haven't been able to find it.

I don't actually need 4 USB 2.0 ports on the front panel, but I keep forgetting which ports are connected and not and that is a slight annoyance e.g when booting from USB stick to do disk cloning etc. To have any front panel USB 2.0 ports at all I'd still need to split one header to connect both Corsair Link devices, so the "simple" solution seems to me to have a PCIe controller with at least two internal USB 2.0 headers.

Any suggestions are welcome, but keep in mind that USB 3.0 is of no use as these have a completely different pinout.
 

Tcow1015

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Apr 16, 2016
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Try a NZXT IU01 it takes one usb 9 pin header and makes it 3, it is about $20 on amazon this way you don't nead to waste a PCIe slot

Here is a link to the amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_7?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=nzxt+internal+usb+expansion&sprefix=Nzxt+in%2Caps%2C191
 
Solution

Nadahar

Commendable
Mar 23, 2016
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1,510


I didn't want to do that as I thought that the BIOS/UEFI wouldn't recognize the hub and thus those ports wouldn't be bootable. But, I didn't find any such card and ended up buying the NZXT IU01, and I'm happy to say that all ports are bootable, so in the end it's probably the best solution. I'd love if ASRock had thrown in some more internal headers instead though - instead of having loads on the back panel that I never use anyway.
 

Tcow1015

Commendable
Apr 16, 2016
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I agree, MSI did the same thing I have 6 unused USB 3.0 ports on the back of my computer but no more USB headers, glad to hear that the NZXT worked, I think I will pick up one for my self soon. Did you just mount it in the basement of your case, my only drawback with it was finding a hidden place for it, (I have a s340 and there is very little space it the basement left after the PSU and my 1tb hard drive)
 

Nadahar

Commendable
Mar 23, 2016
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I didn't really have space at the bottom either, so I mounted it at the side of the "HDD rack". I could also have mounted it on top of the PSU space wise, but that would be bad if I needed to swap the PSU. It comes with a self-adhesive velcro so you can mount it anywhere you want with that has the space within cable reach.