Upgrade media center with USB3.0 express card?

[jaydec]

I've had a Windows 7 (previously Windows Vista) in my living room serving as a media center for a few years. The PC works fine, but over time it had become noticeably slow compared to the new machines I have. I've upgraded memory and that has helped a lot.
Would it be useful if I upgrade it with USB3.0 express card?

 

[Fardringle]

Do you do anything with USB on that computer that would make upgrading worthwhile?

Movies stored on an external USB drive, for example?

If so, then possibly, but only if the external drive is also USB3.0 compatible.

 

[DesiPower]

Did you reinstall your OS? maybe invest in a SSD.

I agree with Fardringle above, USB 3.0 card is a nice addition to have but its just a novelty unless you do a LOT of data transfer to and from a External drive

 

[jaydec]

Now I had an opportunity to upgrade the USB slots to the latest 3.0 standard, and that has made more of a difference than I had originally anticipated.

The card was immediately recognized by my system, but only as a 2.0 USB standard. I installed the additional drivers that came with the included CD, and after that the card worked as advertised. I only have a handful of external USB 3 accessories (including a USB 3.0 HDD), but the card worked perfectly with all of them. The transfer speeds were quite noticeable faster, but I haven't really benchmarked them.

The reason why this card is particularly useful in the media center is a) helps with the playback of large video files directly from an external HDD, and b) USB 3 allows you (with appropriate add-ons and software) to use it to for additional monitors and TVs.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I would have thought this suggestion would be the best:

invest in a SSD.

Glad to hear that your transfer speeds have improved. I don't think you addressed the problem of a "slow" computer (if that was/is your problem), but it's always nice to be able to move data faster. I'm sure moving from Vista to Windows 7 helped make things faster, and installing a small, cheap SSD for the OS would most definitely make things faster if you don't have one already.