how to find usb 3.0 port in my computer

Whether y'all're sporting an older computer without a single USB iii.0 port or you'd like to aggrandize and amend the roster of USB 3.0 ports on your newer computer, nosotros're here to help. Read on as we outline how to pack in all the USB goodness you lot crave with back, front, and example ports.

Why Do I Want To Do This?

If you already have a USB 3.0 port or 2 on your estimator, you can pretty much skip this section: yous already know how swell USB three.0 is and yous're hither for more. If you're thinking about upgrading an older estimator to support USB 3.0 you might not realize just how many improvements USB iii.0 offers over USB two.0.

The most obvious benefit is the increase in speed. The maximum theoretical speed of USB iii.0 is 10 times faster than USB two.0. Even when USB three.0 connections don't hit the theoretical limit they are still staggeringly faster than USB 2.0 connections. During the disk cloning process nosotros employed in our article How to Upgrade Your Existing Hard Drive in Under an Hour, for example, we were able to clone a 120GB SSD over a USB iii.0 connexion in a mere fifteen minutes but the same clone process over a USB 2.0 connection took around an hour. Aforementioned hardware, same deejay size, unlike USB ports and standards.

In addition to significantly increasing the speed, the USB 3.0 standard introduced better bandwidth management (USB iii.0 devices and connections employ two omnidirectional paths instead of the one-manner advice bachelor with USB ii.0), better ability management, improved charabanc utilization (which translates to faster at-gear up times when new devices are added to the host computer), amongst other minor just welcome improvements.

Note: This tutorial will embrace the upgrade process for desktop computers. This tutorial volition not cover the upgrade process for laptop computers every bit laptops are difficult to upgrade to USB three.0. While at that place are, in fact, USB 3.0 expansion cards for laptops with expansion bill of fare slots, those cards perform poorly, consume large amounts of power, and are generally non worth the hassle.

If you have a laptop that has a USB 3.0 port or 2 and you wish to expand upon that we would encourage you to check out The HTG Guide to Purchasing the Perfect USB Hub for Your Needs. The external powered USB three.0 hubs plant therein are an fantabulous way to expand the port capacity of a USB 3.0 capable laptop.

What Do I Need?

Normally we take a cut and dry listing of the hardware y'all demand for a given tutorial. This tutorial is slightly different in that there are several ways you lot tin can get almost upgrading computers both sometime and new to support USB iii.0. Rather than list off every potential combination of hardware add-ons and their permutations, nosotros're going to highlight 2 very common upgrade paths.

For the purposes of this guide we upgraded two computers with several different USB 3.0 related upgrades to showcase the different upgrade paths y'all can accept. Depending on your needs you can mix and match the hardware we used in the 2 machines to reach your desired effect.

The beginning computer has a dated motherboard (purchased in mid-2006) that has neither USB three.0 ports on the dorsum port console nor USB iii.0 pin headers on the board itself. The second computer has a modern motherboard (purchased in belatedly 2013) that features both USB three.0 ports on the back port panel too as USB 3.0 pivot headers on the motherboard to back up USB 3.0 ports on the front of the case and/or via expansion bay hubs.

Here are the hardware components we used in the process of upgrading both computers.

The HooToo HT-PC002 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 2-Port +19-Pin Header PCI-E Add-on Card, ~$17
The HooToo HT-PC001 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 4 Port PCI-E Add-on Carte, ~$16
The Rosewill RDCR-11004 Multi-Port USB and Card Reader Bay Expansion, ~$30

The first 2 pieces of hardware are expansion cards that must be inserted into an open PCI-East slot in your figurer to function. The third item in the list is a bay expansion that allows you to plow an unused 5.25″ drive bay into a USB hub and media menu reader.

At that place are two important considerations when purchasing a USB iii.0 expansion carte du jour. Let's take a moment to look at the hardware specifics to ensure you pick the correct card for your needs.

First, you always want to purchase a card that includes a power connector of some sort (some cards have an older molex 4-pin power jack and typically come with a molex-to-SATA adapter and some have a SATA ability adapter onboard). You should never purchase a USB 3.0 expansion card that lacks a power adapter as the PCI expansion slot cannot supply enough power to meet the demands of a fully loaded USB 3.0 card. In the photo beneath you can see the molex ability port, the 4-pivot/milky white port on the right, on the HooToo-PC002.

Second, if you need to connect the USB 3.0 ports on your case or on whatever sort of bay expansion (like the Rosewill model listed hither) you will either need a free header on your motherboard or you volition need a USB bill of fare with a xix-pivot header that can accept an internal USB 3.0 male cablevision. Again, referencing the above photo, you tin can encounter the header in blue on the left mitt side.

At present let's accept a wait at the actual process to highlight when you would want to use each slice of hardware by walking you through the upgrade process for the two computers.

Upgrading an Older Computer

The first calculator we're upgrading is an old car that's nevertheless going strong. We recently transplanted the motherboard from it's original case (a media center PC case) into a new mid-tower case. The new case sports a USB iii.0 port built right into the front port panel only, alas, the circa-2006 motherboard doesn't support USB three.0 and has no 19-pivot header for the instance cable to plug into.

That should come as no surprise as the motherboard precedes the outset USB 3.0 compliant motherboards by roughly four years. The lath, as you'd expect, also lacks any rear USB three.0 ports (and doesn't accept very many USB 2.0 ports for that matter) which makes it a perfect candidate for a USB expansion card with a 19-pin header. If y'all have a computer with an older motherboard but a newer example with USB 3.0 ports, an expansion menu with a header port, like the HooToo HT-PC002, is a must if you e'er desire to get that instance port upwards and running.

Card in hand information technology's fourth dimension to crack open the case and become to work. The photograph above shows the empty PCI-Due east slot we'll use for the new carte. Installing a new PCI card is i of the easiest computer upgrade tasks this side of plugging in a new stick of RAM, just yous all the same need to handle everything advisedly. Brand certain to follow basic electrostatic safety guidelines like wearing rubber soled shoes on a not-conductive surface (wool socks and a shag rug is a bad thought), continue the computer instance plugged into a grounded outlet (merely turned off) so that you can use the instance itself as a grounded discharge indicate for any accuse on your body, and get out the menu in the electrostatic shipping bag until you lot've grounded yourself and y'all're set up to install it.

Installation is a cakewalk. Remove the slot guard from the case (the perforated piece of metal that protects the opening when a menu is not inserted; seen white and at left in the paradigm above). Gently insert the expansion card and secure the metal bracket to the example with the same screw that previously held in the slot baby-sit. Plug in the power cable and the internal USB 3.0 male person cablevision. The resulting configuration should wait like this.

Close the case and boot up the computer. USB expansion cards with pin headers on them almost always require additional drivers to interface with the motherboard. Load the drivers from the included CD or download them from the manufacturer'due south website to consummate the installation process.

Your older motherboard at present sports USB 3.0 ports on the back and interfaces with whatever USB three.0 ports on the instance via the header on the USB card.

Expanding a Newer Computer

In the previous section we added USB 3.0 functionality to a figurer that had no capacity for USB 3.0. In this section we're expanding the USB 3.0 capabilities of a computer that already has USB three.0 back up. The motherboard in our second computer is a late 2013 gaming-oriented motherboard that has both USB 3.0 ports on the back and a USB three.0 header on the lath.

The upgrade path on this detail machine is focused on calculation fifty-fiftymore USB three.0 ports to the dorsum as well as expanding the functionality of the instance by replacing an quondam USB 2.0 hub/card reader (seen in the photo in a higher place) with a front drive bay with a new USB three.0 reader.

Just like in the previous section you'll need to open the case, locate an empty PCI-E slot, and, of course, obey the same rules for protecting your computer from electrostatic belch. Equally the PCI-E slot and the process for insertion is identical, you may reference the photos in the previous section.

Unlike the previous card, however, the HooToo HT-PC001 does not have an onboard pivot header for an internal USB 3.0 cable; you'll only exist required to hook up a unmarried cable, the molex power cable, to the card.

Instead we'll plug the USB cable from the Rosewill hub directly into the motherboard, as seen in the photo above. In improver to plugging in the USB 3.0 cable, the Rosewill hub also has USB 2.0 ports and an eSATA port. The cable for the eSATA port tin exist plugged into a regular SATA port on your motherboard (if yous take a port to spare) and allows yous to hook up HDD docks and some external hard drives direct to your hub for SATA-speed transfers. The USB two.0 cablevision only needs to be inserted into a USB two.0 header on your motherboard; USB 2.0 ports are 9-pin ports that wait similar the smaller sibling of the 19-pin port nosotros only plugged the USB three.0 cablevision into.

Once all the appropriate ports take been hooked upward, it'due south time to put the example dorsum together and adore our handy work.

The old dying USB 2.0 hub is gone, the new 1 is installed, and we have an extra 4 ports on the back of the machine. Not a bad return on less than ten minutes worth of time and under $fifty in parts.

Different the previous upgrade where we installed a new USB 3.0 host, this time around nosotros simply added more than USB three.0 functionality to a machine that already had it; no driver installation needed.

That'southward all there is to information technology! The hardest part of the unabridged USB 3.0 upgrade process is simply taking the fourth dimension to figure out what hardware yous need. Y'all'll spend more than time checking the specs on your motherboard and selecting the appropriate hardware than you volition really installing the expansion carte du jour and/or USB 3.0 hub in your machine.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/199461/the-htg-guide-to-upgrading-your-computer-to-usb-3.0/

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