Inateck 5 port USB 3.0 PCI-e card - anyone using it?

Sprayingmango

Sprayingmango

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 20, 2012
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I added the Inateck PCI-e USB 3.0 card to my system to take the load off the USB controllers on my motherboard.

On my Rampage V Edition 10 I had filled all of my USB ports except for the USB 3.1 Type C ports. Everything was working fine but I wanted to have open ports for charging things, etc.

My question is if I plug my Logitech G933 headset wireless receiver into the Inateck USB ports the audio is totally wrecked. It flat out doesn't work. Also, if I plug my Rift headset into the Inateck it disconnects every few minutes. Is this a driver issue?
 
Sprayingmango said:
I added the Inateck PCI-e USB 3.0 card to my system to take the load off the USB controllers on my motherboard.

On my Rampage V Edition 10 I had filled all of my USB ports except for the USB 3.1 Type C ports. Everything was working fine but I wanted to have open ports for charging things, etc.

My question is if I plug my Logitech G933 headset wireless receiver into the Inateck USB ports the audio is totally wrecked. It flat out doesn't work. Also, if I plug my Rift headset into the Inateck it disconnects every few minutes. Is this a driver issue?
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Can you link the one your using?
https://www.amazon.ca/Inateck-Expre...01&sr=8-4&keywords=Inateck+PCI-e+USB+3.0+card
I found this one that seems to match your descption, but reviews say it works great including with the Oculus so I would check things like the power connection you have going to it. What drivers are you using? Do you have the latest from Inatecks website? I've also heard some people sale try using the drivers windows installs itself
 
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Ragenrok said:
Can you link the one your using?
https://www.amazon.ca/Inateck-Expre...01&sr=8-4&keywords=Inateck+PCI-e+USB+3.0+card
I found this one that seems to match your descption, but reviews say it works great including with the Oculus so I would check things like the power connection you have going to it. What drivers are you using? Do you have the latest from Inatecks website? I've also heard some people sale try using the drivers windows installs itself
Click to expand...


That's the exact one I'm using. I'm running power to it. I'm using the latest driver from the Inateck website and it's seen as the exact Fresco Logic controller that is on the board in Device Manager. I'll try uninstalling it and letting windows use a default driver I guess?

I also made sure to disable the windows power management for the Hub controller in Device manager, no change.
 
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Sprayingmango said:
That's the exact one I'm using. I'm running power to it. I'm using the latest driver from the Inateck website and it's seen as the exact Fresco Logic controller that is on the board in Device Manager. I'll try uninstalling it and letting windows use a default driver I guess?

I also made sure to disable the windows power management for the Hub controller in Device manager, no change.
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weird, reviews say it works great with the oculus rift so either its drivers or a bad card :(
 
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interesting info on the 5 port USB. I have the 4 port version with no issues.

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And I just bought the 5 port version for the internal USB connection. I have not install it yet. I wanted to run extra USB in the 5.25 bay . So much for that idea lol. I'll probably give it a try someday

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I started with the 4 port Inateck card, but ended up upgrading to the 4 port Startech card. I had lots of driver issues, but ultimately, it was the fact that the Startech card offered a separate/dedicated USB 3.0 controller for each of its 4 ports that really sets it apart. The Inateck card has its ports share the controller, so it doesn’t provide the full USB 3.0 bandwidth for each port simultaneously, whereas the Startech card does. It’s sharing lanes vs. having dedicated lanes that separate the two cards as to performance... also, I’ve had no driver issues with the Startech card. Only con is that its $80... but then you are getting 4 fully dedicated USB 3.0 controllers for each of its ports rather than multiple ports sharing controllers.
https://www.amazon.com/Express-SuperSpeed-Adapter-Dedicated-Channels/dp/B00HJZEA2S

718egbQPzHL._SX522_.jpg
 
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Supercharged_Z06 said:
I started with the 4 port Inateck card, but ended up upgrading to the 4 port Startech card. I had lots of driver issues, but ultimately, it was the fact that the Startech card offered a separate/dedicated USB 3.0 controller for each of its 4 ports that really sets it apart. The Inateck card has its ports share the controller, so it doesn’t provide the full USB 3.0 bandwidth for each port simultaneously, whereas the Startech card does. It’s sharing lanes vs. having dedicated lanes that separate the two cards as to performance... also, I’ve had no driver issues with the Startech card. Only con is that its $80... but then you are getting 4 fully dedicated USB 3.0 controllers for each of its ports rather than multiple ports sharing controllers.
https://www.amazon.com/Express-SuperSpeed-Adapter-Dedicated-Channels/dp/B00HJZEA2S

718egbQPzHL._SX522_.jpg
Click to expand...


Now THIS is a proper [H]ard find!! Thank you sir, just canceled that Inateck order and ordered this!! Thanksfully the other one was out of stock so it didn't ship yet.
 
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I have the 7 port version of this card. It works great. But these ~$20 Inateck cards can only connect up to two sensors at once, and nothing else. The card only has one USB3 controller, and it can't handle more than that.

I personally have two of my three sensors connected to the Inateck card, one sensor connected to one of the motherboard's USB2 ports, and the HMD connected to one of the motherboard's "unsupported" USB3 ports.

You also need to be sure power saving is disabled on the Inateck card. The easiest way to do that is to use the Oculus Tray Tool and let it manage all of that for you.

The card Supercharged_Z06 bought has one controller per port, so you can fill all the ports at once. On the other hand it's also $80.
 
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I would of bought a nice quad channel for my setup but my mobo only has spare 1x pcie lanes open so it wouldn't of helped. All I can use is the single channel expansion cards
 
Ragenrok said:
I would of bought a nice quad channel for my setup but my mobo only has spare 1x pcie lanes open so it wouldn't of helped. All I can use is the single channel expansion cards
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Good point. Yes, the quad channel card does eat up PCIE lanes, so there is that trade off - especially if you already have them dedicated to other things like an M2 socketed internal SSD drive. If you can spare the lanes though (which I could), the quad channel capability is really nice - especially if you want to also be able to transfer data with multiple USB 3.0 based external drives at top speed.

For those that really just need an extra USB 3.0 port (or two), the Inateck card is a workable solution as well for the Rift.
 
Supercharged_Z06 said:
Good point. Yes, the quad channel card does eat up PCIE lanes, so there is that trade off - especially if you already have them dedicated to other things like an M2 socketed internal SSD drive. If you can spare the lanes though (which I could), the quad channel capability is really nice - especially if you want to also be able to transfer data with multiple USB 3.0 based external drives at top speed.

For those that really just need an extra USB 3.0 port (or two), the Inateck card is a workable solution as well for the Rift.
Click to expand...

Yeah,if you need the USB 3.0 ports for something else then getting the more expensive Startech card is worth getting. Getting one just for the Rift is a bit of an overkill. You can easily plug mouse, keyboard and two sensors into the Inateck card and then plug your headset into another USB 3.0 port on the motherboard, or plug your headset and sensor into the Inatack card and plug all the remaining sensors into USB 2 ports. The tracking will be the same either way.
 
I've got a 5+2 port Inateck, the one with two internal ports not the front panel connector.

If you look closely at either of the 5+2 cards, you'll see that the first three ports are attached directly to the controller and the other four are connected through a hub chip. Don't plug your Rift sensors or HMD into any of the hub ports. Oculus also says you shouldn't use more than two sensors per controller, but I wouldn't know. I've only one sensor on it.

I've also read that some people aren't having good luck with the newest drivers, but they seem fine so far to me. Again though, I've spread my sensors around to three different USB controllers - USB 3.0 on mobo, USB 3.0 on Inatek, USB 2.0 on mobo.

There are also some power management and driver tweaks that help out. Have you started using Oculus Tray Tool yet? If not, get it it. Not only does it have the power management and Inateck driver tweaks built in, but it also gives you handy control over supersampling, and possibly it's greatest feature - adding a SteamVR icon to your library in Oculus Home. It does replace another icon though, so download something useless like DISCOVR WA.


The StarTech is good solution, but you should be able to make the Inateck work.
 
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