USB 3.0 PCI cards...has anybody tried the ebay ones?

T

techtips

Gawd
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Jan 3, 2011
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Hey guys, I'm getting a hard drive dock which has USB 3.0 and I would like to make use of it but my motherboard is a few years old and doesn't have USB 3.0 ports.

I have come across some of these cards on ebay and wondering if anybody has any experience to how well they work?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/USB-3-0-4-Po...rt_Expansion_Cards&hash=item485b5f2ae8&_uhb=1

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ZH2A-2-USB3-...rt_Expansion_Cards&hash=item19e644d29f&_uhb=1


:::If this is in the wrong section, please feel free to move it.

Thank you!
 
I don't know about these particular cards but I bought a really cheap chinese one on ebay a few years ago and it works fine.
 
When it comes to these foreign unbranded products I consider the following:
1) The sellers reputation! (returns / warranty)
2) The chipset used in the device (Google the chipset to confirm it is what is good for you)
3) Stress test the hell out of the device before trusting it!
 
I have previously gotten two cards with 4 USB 3.0 ports and they have been working great the past year.

They were based on the VL800/805 chip.
 
I have a similar usb3.0 pcie card in my pc, works fine except mine has a molex power connector on it. also has the nec chipset.
 
The molex/sata power connector helps with USB voltages if all ports are used. Those cheap chinese/hong kong cards generally have fairly generic USB3.0 controllers. So your best bet is too find the best or well known USB3.0 controller card you can find for the price.

Nothing wrong in particular with those cheap cards since I have 2 similar type of cards and they've been perfectly fine. The one with the NEC controller tends to drop out the USB device after large file transfers (over 20Gb+)
 
The first card, which is something similar to what I purchased uses the NEC uPD720201.

I bought a card, some usb 3.0 cable (10ft) and a 3.5" front panel with usb 3.0 ports so we will test it out when it arrives :)
 
techtips said:
The first card, which is something similar to what I purchased uses the NEC uPD720201.

I bought a card, some usb 3.0 cable (10ft) and a 3.5" front panel with usb 3.0 ports so we will test it out when it arrives :)
Click to expand...

The NEC is usually a good chip. I think that's what I have in my server, but I bought a SIG card from Newegg. They're less than $30; I would probably go that route again.

I had purchased my card based on chipset for my OS.
 
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bought a cheap one on ebay for the onboard 20pin, and the pins bent like aluminum foil. I barely touched it and a handful of pins collapsed. good luck, if you find a good one let me know as I'm also in the market.
 
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