ASRock Extreme4 Front Panel USB 3.0 ports Performance Issues!

iTwins

n00b
Joined
Oct 7, 2004
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27
Did you know....?

Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme4 with latest firmware
Thumbdrive: ADATA N005 32GB USB 3.0 Thumbdrive:

Plugged in via the ASRock Front Panel USB 3.0 ports:


Plugged in via the USB 3.0 ports at the back of the motherboard:




The AData's packaging didn't mention any specification and what it is capable of - I bought it with a leap of faith. I didn't notice this and accept the thumbdrive's 45mb/s performance UNTIL I read various online articles about it able to achieve 95 mb/s READ speeds. That's when I started toying with it....

The weird thing is that if I plug in an external USB 3.0 HDD case with its own power supply, the performance are normal for both front panel and back of the motherboard. And if I plug in the Thumbdrive to a USB 3.0 extension cable and connected it to the back of the motherboard, it too have the same performance as the thumbdrive connected via the front panel. So I suspect it may have something to do with the front panel's limited power output....

The ASRock USB3.0 front panel is connected to a dedicated plug on the motherboard. There is no option for me to use whatever controller I see fit. But I assume all USB 3.0 ports use the Etron chipset for both front and back.

The ASRock Extreme4 Z68 motherboard:
Z68%20Extreme4(m).jpg


See the light blue socket at the lower left of the picture, that's the dedicated USB 3.0 socket for the USB 3.0 front panel.

The USB 3.0 Front Panel shown:
Z68%20Extreme4(m).jpg


I always thought a USB thumbdrive can either WORK or NOT WORK. I've never experience that not enough power could degrade performance. That's a first for me! :)

.

Any comments, anyone?
 
Last edited:
I am already using the latest Etron driver from the ASRock site, v0.96_WHQL.

Thanks for the link. I'll try my luck there. I hope they have a solution there....it costs me $1 just to ask a question. :)
 
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