USB 3.0 Card for a Z400?

[DGroves]

windows 10 has built in drivers for both the nec and the TI usb chips, and newer drivers will not really increase the speed

the z400 only has a pci-e 2.0 bus, due to this there is no way the HP usb 3.0 card is going to reach usb 3.0 speeds this is due to the number of pci-e links the hp card uses (it's pci-e  x1, which only uses one pci-e channel) and on a pci-e 2.0 bus that means it;s only  500 MBS per lane and this is shared between each device connected to the cards 4 usb ports so if you try xfering data between two usb ext drives it will be quite slow

in order to reach usb 3.0 (or faster speeds) you need a usb 3.x card that uses more pci-e links like the Startech cards i referenced earlier in this thread, these cards have a pci-e x4 interface allowing each port on the card to reach the full usb 3.1/3.0 speeds

usb 3.1/3.0 quad port card (2 front panel and 2 rear ports) for pci-e 2.0 based systems, this card uses a pci-e x4 link

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Port-10Gbps-Card-Type/dp/B01I39D15A?th=1

front panel usb 3.1 gen 2  (10MBps) for pci-e 2.0 based systems

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Internal-Connector-ReDriver/dp/B01MQUONVV

[jweaver100]

Cheers.. I am not too worried about performance.. As long as its working I am happy..

Just figured that I needed drivers and didn't realise Win10 had native support built in..

My first test was only with a USB2 stick and my reaction to it being "slow" may have been unfounded.. So when I get everything built and all my apps installed, I will go back and do some tests to see how quickly its working.

For my front ports I am using this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-25-PC-Desktop-Internal-Card-Reader-USB-3-0-M2-XD-Dashboard-Front-Panel-...

It was plug and play and worked first time.. Its only got a single USB3 but thats fine.. And also a USB2 Card reader.

It was a bit of a nightmare to fit, as its only 1/2 lenght, so I 3D printed some 'arms' to extend the mount points and it clicked in like any other device.

I am really happy with the solution to be honest.. 2xUSB2 ports on the front as standard and a USB3 (even if nto full speed) as an upgrade is more than I am going to need.

Many thanks.

Jon

[SDH]

Jon,

Good to hear you've got your project moving forward.  

Remember that there are different speed PCIe slots in your Z400 workstation, and you want to have that card in a PCIe2 slot.  You don't want it in the single PCIe1 x8 (4) slot (they don't put the "1" in there.... it is in the manual as "PCIe x 8 (4)" and don't use that one.  I put mine in the "PCIe2 x8 (4)" slot, but you could also put it in the spare PCIe2 x16 second (lower) video slot.

Get the last manual for that, version 7, HERE :

http://h20628.www2.hp.com/km-ext/kmcsdirect/emr_na-c02589908-1.pdf

Of course you will have slow speeds testing your USB3 card with a USB2 thumb drive... no further comment on that.

Nice front interface.....

[jweaver100]

I have put the card in the top slot.. The one closest to the CPU. The diagram on the lid says that its a "PCIe2 x8(4)" slot so I assumed it was OK.. Infact, i thought this was over-engineered since the edge connector on the card was a x1 card, so it was a bit wasteful "wasting" this slot.

I must admit, the whole PC world has passed me by.. Back into 80s and 90s, (086 and 286 days) PCs were my main passion.. But I got bored of tweeking and upgrading and have turned my back on them in favour of telecoms.. So a lot of the new technology is a mystery to me.

As for the USB speeds, I never expected USB2 via USB3 to be any quicker than the onboard USB2.. But it seemed REALLY slow (USB1 speed perhaps) so I thought something wasn't right.. So I need to go back and do some speed tests once I have got everything installed.

Thanks again for your help.. I really do appreciate it.

Jon

[jweaver100]

Just to close this topic off.. I finally got around to 'testing' the USB capability today.

I didn't realise but one of my HDs was USB3... And I am getting 4x the transfer speed on my new front panel compared to the standard USB2 ports.

Perhaps not quite as fast as USB COULD be, but I am more than happy... I don't need this PC to be a beast.. Its just a day to day workstation, and having a bit of extra USB speed is going to be helpful

.

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to help.. I really do appreciate it.

Stay Safe all!

Jon