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View Full Version : Is there a check for USB PORT speed that's simple?


Loose rivets
14th May 2016, 08:51
I've looked at several and they're either burdened with other stuff or seem to miss the point.

I just want to compare the R-W speed with the ports at the back v the ones at the front, which come off quite separate MB sockets.

The front ones often get a warning that I could be getting better data rate.

AMD 2 core on W10 32bit.

Saab Dastard
14th May 2016, 10:50
The front ones often get a warning that I could be getting better data rate.

There's your check...

It's easiest to read the manual for the motherboard. It will tell you which ports integrated into the rear panel are USB 2 / 3. It will also tell you which headers on the motherboard are USB 2 / 3. You can't connect a front panel USB I/O cable to a USB 3 mobo header and vice-versa. Simple.

Bear in mind that USB includes the device, the socket and cabling and the motherboard header - you can't have any USB 2 components (e.g. cable extender) between a USB 3 device and a USB 3 port or header, otherwise you will drop to the lower speed.

You can also have USB ports on a PCI / PCIx / PCIe expansion card - in this case the speed from the device to the system will be dictated by the lowest speed of either the PCI bus or the USB version.

For example, I've put a USB 3 PCIe V2 card into an older PC that only supports PCIe V1, so the limiting factor is the PCIe throughput, giving me USB 2.5, in effect!

SD

Loose rivets
14th May 2016, 14:46
Thanks for that - especially:

you can't have any USB 2 components (e.g. cable extender) between a USB 3 device and a USB 3 port or header, otherwise you will drop to the lower speed.

It's good to have the head-up on that cos it's exactly what I was going to do with the proposed build.

The motherboard is old. A FOXCONN A7GM-S Brisbane 2.7 Ghz, and despite loads of mentions, never did get a clear pdf of what was obviously a popular purchase in 2010.

But there were more than a few mentions of the test programs being bloated - and bloated by unknown individuals with heaven knows what. So, good old-fashioned stopwatch of an oil painting scan that's a quarter-gig.



FROM SSD TO STICK - 1:18 So about 2.7mb/sec. Front and back were the same. From my Samsung backup HD, it was much the same. That was a surprise, so I guess the bottleneck is the old USB speed.

My move into the modern world must come sooner than expected. :uhoh:

Looks like a gem.

USB Made Simple - Part 3 (http://www.usbmadesimple.co.uk/ums_3.htm)

Saab Dastard
14th May 2016, 15:59
Foxconn PRODUCT : Motherboard : Details (http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ProductDetail.aspx?T=motherboard&U=en-us0000424)

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/driverdownload/Motherboard/AMD/SocketAM2/A7GM-S%202.0/Manual/English/A7GM-S%202.0-Manual-En-V1.0.zip

Clearly stated 10 x USB 2, 4 rear panel, 3 x 2-port internal headers on the motherboard (seems excessive, but there).

The only way to get USB 3 would be to install a USB 3 PCIe card - if you have a slot free and usable. The board supports PCIe v2, so you would get nearly the full benefit of USB 3, assuming that you can use the PCIe X1 slot (500MB/s).

Unless your case supports USB 3 already, you could either go for a 4 x rear port USB card, or a 2 x rear / 2 x internal and buy a USB front panel to connect to the internal header.

I'm knowledgeable about all this having very recently done just that.

It was very much end of an era, as I removed the floppy disk drive to fit the 2 x USB 3 front panel!

SD

Loose rivets
14th May 2016, 17:46
Thanks again. Almost all of my USB needs are moving photos, so it'll be worth installing that card. However, next move is trying to get my W10 up to 64bit on a clean install. We've got a thread on that way back so I'll resurrect that at some suitable time.



EDIT. I tried it on the Vaio, and the picture made it in 9 seconds. I simply had no idea how far my old PC had fallen behind the times.