Socket 1151 with most USB ports? (i7-8700K)

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TroyTalksNoMore

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Thx - I have a USB 3 add-in card in my old box that gives me 2 added ports at the back.

It looks like I'll have to use an add-in card to have all of my drives plugged in.
 
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Keep in mind, the amount of USB ports tied to the chipset is a fixed number. It's 14 USB ports in multiple possible combinations of USB 3.1 and 2.0 ports. These can be allocated at the discretion of the manufacturer. You can have them allocated with 10x USB 3.1 ports and 4x USB 2.0 ports, or 8x USB 3.1 and 6x USB 2.0 ports and any other combination you can think of. Some motherboards, if not most of them use an internal HUB to multiplex the lanes and share bandwidth. You don't truly get more ports unless there is a dedicated add on controller. It's a bitch to tell one from the other by the specifications as the motherboard manufacturers rarely tell you. Basically, you almost have to look at the PCB and see what chips are on it. As an example: an ASMedia ASM1074 is an internal USB hub while an ASMedia 1142, 2142 and 3142 are actual controllers.

Usually what you get, is something like 6x USB 2.0 ports and 4x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports connected to the chipset. Then you end up with a dedicated ASMedia ASM2142 or Alpine Ridge controller which only handles 1x Type-A port and 1x Type-C port which are both USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports. After that, all the remainder of the ports usually come from an internal USB HUB's like ASMedia's 1074 which multiplex a pair of ports to provide upwards of four or more. You can also have multiple HUBs.

The moral of the story is having more USB ports doesn't work out as well as you'd imagine. HUB's and third party controllers often have compatibility with some devices. You can end up with a lack of power through these configurations and shared ports have less bandwidth than dedicated ports do.
 
Thx Dan_D (hehehe - dandy).

I thought about using a USB 3.x hub to expand the # of plug-in points I can have and what you're saying seems to work for me.

Basically, I have a ton of stand alone external drives + loose HD's (1, 2, 4, 6 TB) that I use w/ docks like this:
Amazon.com: Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA Dual Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station with Built-in Cooling Fan for 2.5 or 3.5in

I also have four ICY DOCK toasters (4 HD's per port / plug - but my setup is a mix of USB 2 / 3 + SATA).
Amazon.com: ICY DOCK Quad Bay 2.5” 3.5” SATA HDD/SSD USB 3.0/eSATA External JBOD Hard Drive Enclosure

All drives are plugged in via USB, but none are powered on until I want to backup a particular "set" of data.
~ these are - game streams / camera video / phone video / phone pics / DVR'd stuff, STEAM backups, etc.

I dump my local HD data to external drives + sync to an identical drive via Beyond Compare.
~ these are named drives - game streams / camera video / phone video / phone pics / DVR'd stuff, STEAM backups, etc.

Yeah, it's not ideal, but I shuffle a lot of media between 3 PC's and my phone & cams / cards, etc.

I'd still like a mobo w/ a ton of USB / SATA ports, and now I want to add a USB 3.1 hub - it's all backward compatible, right?
 
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As long as you aren't using multiple devices that have high bandwidth requirements at one time you'll be OK. I'd avoid USB hubs if at all possible.

It creates power loss and compatibility problems.
 
Yes, thx & I'm asking for a specific 1151 that I can buy today with 10 USB ports - similar to my MSI Z97 1150 (below)

Amazon.com: MSI ATX DDR3 2600 LGA 1150 Motherboards Z97 GAMING 7: Computers & Accessories

81Zn3Zi94sL._SL1500_.jpg
 
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Col_Hogan said:
I guess you could use this list to help find what your looking for.

https://us.hardware.info/reviews/76...ound-up-17-times-coffee-lake-connectivity-usb
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks a lot! I spent some time reading today & OMG there are a lot of features & choices in mobo's...

One thing became obvious - the Z170 board I like up above is "old" & I should look at Z370 and x299
~ even the Z270 is "old" considering I will might have USB 3.1 Gen 2 SSD external drives before this system is retired.
Z370 vs Z270: What is the Difference?
X299 vs X99: What is the Difference?
 
also.. Z170 or z270 cannot be used with Coffee Lake ..they are the same socket..but pins within the socket do different things. so if your wanting to go 8700K..it has to be a Z370 Motherboard.
 
Yes, I didn't know that last week, but picked it up in my recent reading - thx for pointing that out for future readers!
 
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