Extra USB 3.0 ports

[JTD777]

Hello,
I am running an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 Mobo and have two USB 3.0 peripherals and only one usb 3.0 header. I'm guessing not but is there a way I can utilize both of these as USB 3.0?

 

[RealBeast]

Your on board USB 3 port should support two USB 3 ports on the front of the case and your back panel has like 4 more ports (the blue ones). You can also add a PCIe USB 3 card for a couple of ports, or you can use USB 3 hub attached to a port on the back panel.

 

[JTD777]

Let me clarify: I have one USB 3.0 header but have two cords that plug into it. right now I have one using a usb 3.0 to usb 2.0 but would like to use both cods (aka 4 ports) as usb 3.0

 

[RealBeast]

Got it -- then what you need is a PCIe USB adapter that has an internal header like THIS.

 

[JTD777]

sweet. will that plug into a PCI 1 and/or reduce the 16x my graphics runs on?

 

[RealBeast]

Your PCIe x1 won't slow your first PCIe x16 slot.

 

[JTD777]

awesomeeee. You rock. Also kind of unrelated but I have this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820223120) usb hub in my tower, and it somehow can run all of its ports off of one sata cable, one USB 2.0 header, one USB 3.0 header, and two 4 pin molex cords. I was under the impression that usb 2.0 ports had to have 2 per wires, so how does it run 4?

 

[RealBeast]

It acts as a USB 2.0 hub, which can split one connection into many. Of course the idea is that it will not really be trying to operate them all at once or they would have reduced bandwidth available, say if you put four USB sticks in there and simultaneously copied 4 large files, one to each, it would be quite slow. But something like that would rarely be done, it is really the convenience of having them all connected.

 

[JTD777]

Oh okay that makes sense. Thanks for the info I keep tweaking my computer build to be better and better and its posts like this that make it all happen smoothly.