Does a PCI-E card with USB 3.0 and SD card slot exist?

[moneer]

Heyy guys. Firstly, I'd like to know if a pci card that adds usb 3.0 ports is any good? Also, is there one which adds an SD card or micro sd?

 

[UsandThem]

Just like any other product, there is a varying degree of how well they work. You can find inexpensive cheap ones that aren't very good, or spend a few extra bucks and buy one with good reviews and support. USB 3.0 is basically a commodity item now, so hardware sites like this one don't review the add-in cards. Just pick one with good user reviews.

As far as a SD card reader, you can simply buy a card reader or USB hub like these:

https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-mi...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=D5VPGEXY5MVBDQWDNR15

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BED52VI?psc=1

 

[Elixer]

What do you mean is any good? Are you asking if they work? Sure. Just pay attention what chipset the card is using.

They also make hubs for SD cards that you can get, or a USB dongle that has the ability to plug them into the dongle.

 

[Valantar]

From a quick ebay round, the answer is no. Makes sense, as 99% of PCs have the PCIe slots hidden away down in the dust and grime and mess beneath a desk. You wouldn't want to climb down there every time you needed to read an SD card, now would you? Not exactly practical.

There are PCIe-based readers that mount in front-panel 3,5" slots, though, like these: link.

 

[moneer]

From a quick ebay round, the answer is no.....

Thanks for showing me those products, I didn't know those things existed lol. I'll have to see if they can fit and work on my pc

Just like any other product, there is a varying degree of how well they work..

What do you mean is any good? Are you asking if they work?

I meant that the usb 3 speed is not compromised. And the reason I was hoping there was one with an sd reader built in is due to speed yet again. I tend to transfer many large files and would like the best possible speeds.

 

[UsandThem]

I meant that the usb 3 speed is not compromised. And the reason I was hoping there was one with an sd reader built in is due to speed yet again. I tend to transfer many large files and would like the best possible speeds.

Here's a previous USB 3.0/USB 3.1 thread where a few people recommended a couple of add-in cards:

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...rd-for-old-motherboard.2491135/#post-38559049

 

[moneer]

Here's a previous USB 3.0/USB 3.1 thread where a few people recommended a couple of add-in cards:

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...rd-for-old-motherboard.2491135/#post-38559049

I'm noticing that most of these need a molex power connector and/or usb 3 cable thing that usually goes into a mobo, neither of which the desktop I wish to upgrade actually has. Is my pc completely incompatible?

Are there hubs that support the use of sata power connectors?

 

[UsandThem]

I didn't look at many, but this one is powered by a SATA power connector:

https://smile.amazon.com/Inateck-Su...8&qid=1480818547&sr=8-8&keywords=usb+3.0+card

 

[Mike64]

I'm noticing that most of these need a molex power connector and/or usb 3 cable thing that usually goes into a mobo, neither of which the desktop I wish to upgrade actually has. Is my pc completely incompatible?

Any (proper) USB 3.0/3.1 card will have to at least "be able" to take an external power connection since the 3.x specs allow for supplying more power to USB-connected devices than the PCIE bus alone can supply.

I've looked at a number of USB 3.x cards and while some apparently do, not all of them actually require external power just to function at all, so if you don't actually need the extra juice for whatever device(s) you plan to use with the card, you could just go with one of those. As for powering a card via SATA connector, you can always just use a SATA-to-molex adapter cable. (I'm sure someone else knows for sure, but I don't think there's any real benefit to an on-board SATA connection versus using an adapter.)

ETA: What do you mean by "USB 3 cable thing that usually goes into the mobo"? Do you mean the cards you've been looking at have a socket to connect to an internal/case-mounted USB port? If that is what you mean, that doesn't matter as long as the card also has built-in external USB ports (the ones that stick out from the back of the slot/case.) You don't have to connect the internal port for the card to function, or anything like that.

 

[Valantar]

Molex-to-SATA power adapters are very, very easy to come by.

 

[Mike64]

Molex-to-SATA power adapters are very, very easy to come by.

Or at Newegg, Amazon, Microcenter, etc...

[ETA] Does your PSU really not have even a single molex connector (which seems a little odd)? Or just none that's currently unused? If the latter, you could also get a molex splitter cable, rather than a SATA↔molex adapter, if you want to keep the SATA power connectors free for other uses.

Oh, and to answer your original question, about full USB 3.x performance, no PCIE x1 card (regardless of chipset or overall build quality) will give you full USB 3.x speed for even a single device. A x4 card will, but I'm not sure how many devices one of those can support at full speed. (And of course x8 or x16 cards have the PCIE bandwidth to support that many more ports, but I have no idea if those even exist...)

 

[moneer]

I didn't look at many, but this one is powered by a SATA power connector:

https://smile.amazon.com/Inateck-Su...8&qid=1480818547&sr=8-8&keywords=usb+3.0+card

Thanks yes that would work, I wasn't sure if the "15-pin connector" was the sata power connector.

Any (proper) USB 3.0/3.1 card will have to at least "be able" to take an

The psu in my system is a barebones dell proprietary one sadly. And since you said power from the pci port won't be enough, does that mean that these cards require more than 75watts? My psu might not be able to handle that!

Molex-to-SATA power adapters are very, very easy to come by.

I heard those aren't exactly the most trustworthy of adapters.

 

[Valantar]

The psu in my system is a barebones dell proprietary one sadly. And since you said power from the pci port won't be enough, does that mean that these cards require more than 75watts? My psu might not be able to handle that!

I heard those aren't exactly the most trustworthy of adapters.

1) No, only x16 slots are rated to deliver 75W. IIRC, x4 and lower are up to 25W.

2) Why would that be? As long as the connections are of decent quality and the cables are a reasonable gauge for the required power (which wouldn't be all that much, at most 20-30W), all they do is take the 12V and 5V (and two ground) connectors from the SATA power cable and attach them to the correct corresponding pins on the Molex connector. I wouldn't trust one where the molex pins were completely loose or the wire gauge was surprisingly thin, but other than that, I wouldn't think twice. I use several like this in both my desktop PC and my HTPC. Got them from another site, not Ebay, but I'm willing to bet they come out of the same factories.

 

[Mike64]

The psu in my system is a barebones dell proprietary one sadly

But not even a single molex connector would be just weird. I also have a Dell desktop with a typical, minimally-sufficient PSU (in my case, 300W) and while it has no 6- or 8-pin power connectors for a video card, it certainly has at least one (4-pin) molex connector...

And since you said power from the pci port won't be enough, does that mean that these cards require more than 75watts? My psu might not be able to handle that!

I didn't say the PCIE port wasn't enough (necessarily), I said it might not be enough to provide full USB 3.0 power under all circumstances. Even x1 bus power is sufficient to drive the card itself along with a few low- or lower-powered USB devices.

USB connections provide not just a data connection, but power for connected devices as well. The maximum power a basic USB 2.0 connection* can supply is only 0.5A though, whereas for USB 3.0, it's almost twice that at 0.9A. But the connected devices draw only as much power as they need, and most devices don't draw very much power. And of course independently-powered USB devices (like things with separate, "wall wart" power adapters) draw very little power over the USB connection at all.

If you use the USB 3.0 card only with low(er)-powered devices, you won't need the additional power connection as long as the card was designed to work (at all) without the additional power connection. And I said before, some cards are designed that way, others aren't. (Manufacturers don't seem to state that in their specs, so check the reviews or a seller's "question and answer" section to figure out whether a particular card must have the separate power to function at all.)

I heard those aren't exactly the most trustworthy of adapters.

Where did you hear that? As long as they're not the absolutely cheapest, crappiest generic ones you can find, they generally work just fine.
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* I say "basic power spec" because there are different, higher power specs for higher-power "battery charging" ports, but those aren't the norm and I'm really not very familiar with the concept, or their technical specifications.

 

[moneer]

1) No, only x16 slots are rated to deliver 75W. IIRC, x4 and lower are up to 25W.

2)

1) oh I see, I didn't know that! I thought all pcie were 75w
2) I heard that about molex to 6pin for gpu cards, and thought that pretty much all molex adapters were kinda bad. My fault for assumptions.

But not even a single molex connector would be just weird. I also have a Dell desktop with a typical, minimally-sufficient PSU

I didn't say the PCIE port wasn't enough (necessarily), I said it might not

I'm really not very familiar with the concept, or their technical specifications.

In my pc, it was a sff 275 watt psu from 2008. They simply deemed it unnecessary to have a molex and even only had 1 sata power. I had to make the second cable by splitting the one power cable.

As for the usb I tend to use. It will have an external power. It's an hdd caddy with external power. I guess a decent x4 or x8 that doesn't need an external power would be sufficient.