Help needed with USB3

razer

razer

Suspended / Banned
Messages
883
Name
Ray
Edit My Images
No
HI. can anyone tell me if its possible to install a USB3 card in my HP XW6400. and if so what will I need. thanks.
 
Thanks for that, im not into doing things inside a pc. it stats two sorts a 8x. and a 16x, what one of these would be beast to put the card into. ?.
 
16X is PCIe is for a graphics card, 8x is for other devices.
An 8x PCIe card (which a USB card will be) will not fit into a 16x slot so you will be fine.
It made more sense when we had AGP for graphics and PCI for other devices but that's the computer industry for you :D
 
Last edited:
Haha, its all new to me. Just one more thing if you don't mind, what card would you suggest. and thanks again.
 
That's great, many thanks for all your help.
 
hashcake said:
16X is PCIe is for a graphics card, 8x is for other devices.
An 8x PCIe card (which a USB card will be) will not fit into a 16x slot so you will be fine.
It made more sense when we had AGP for graphics and PCI for other devices but that's the computer industry for you :D
Click to expand...


It was even better when all the slots were ISA, Expansion & Graphics all went in the same slot type.

Showing my age again :exit:
 
Paul-H said:
It was even better when all the slots were ISA, Expansion & Graphics all went in the same slot type.

Showing my age again :exit:
Click to expand...

Well at least you didn't mention IDE, serial and parallel ports :D
 
Scarily it's not that long ago. I started in the IT business in 1990 building PCs with 8088 processors, 640Kb ram, monochrome screens, 10Mb MFM hard drives, 360Kb floppy drives.

Things have changed very quickly. :)
 
I recently installed this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007SJGGAE?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

on my Core 2 Quad PC together with this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006TOMSCO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

So I now have 2 USB3 ports at the back and 2 USB3 ports at the front - much easier than keep plugging things in at the back.

EDIT I had already installed the front panel on my i7 PC which already has a 20 pin USB3 header 3 months ago and it works fine there also

Even on the Core 2 Quad I get speeds of up to 150MB/sec transferring from SSD to external SSD so the speeds are also good.

On the Core 2 Quad it was plugged into the 1x PCIe slot.

.
 
Last edited:
hashcake said:
16X is PCIe is for a graphics card, 8x is for other devices.
An 8x PCIe card (which a USB card will be) will not fit into a 16x slot so you will be fine.
It made more sense when we had AGP for graphics and PCI for other devices but that's the computer industry for you :D
Click to expand...

An 8x will fit into a 16x. There just the number of lanes, the interface is identical you can even put a 16x in a 1x but you will get a much reduced bandwidth and require a converter.
 
Last edited:
Thanks all , I have no idea, when it comes to the inside of a pc, all I have done is installed extra usb2's in the lower slot, I just needed to know what slot to add the USB3 card into. I have not got a clue, I have two longish black connectors, and two shorter connectors, and I did not know what one to plug it into.
 
Best bet is put a picture on here and we can let you know which ones it can go in.
 
108395-1.jpg
 
All the black ones are your pcie slots, the white are pci. You can use any of the black ones even if the card is shorter.
 
Tank you, that's exactly the answer I was looking for. I just did not want to do any damage by putting it in a wrong slot.
 
hashcake said:
An 8x PCIe card (which a USB card will be) will not fit into a 16x slot so you will be fine.
Click to expand...


Yes it will. You can fit a 8x card into a 16x slot. It just ignores the other lanes. You can not however, fit a 16x card into a 8x slot.
 
Pookeyhead said:
Yes it will. You can fit a 8x card into a 16x slot. It just ignores the other lanes. You can not however, fit a 16x card into a 8x slot.
Click to expand...

Technically you can fit a x16 into a x8 slot, can either go nuts and cut it down or use an adapter.
 
If you have any other cards in there, I'd check what the board does when the slots they are in are populated. Often manufacturers will put on multiple PCIe slots but with shared lanes between them. When certain combinations are enabled, the PCIe lanes are switched around, reducing the numbers on other sockets. What is the motherboard (make/model) and what other cards do you have in there (and in which PCIe slots)?
 
Chances are even if it does do that the x16 will drop to a x8 which in 99% of cases makes no difference.
 
PS. I was right, the lower 3 PCI-e sockets are x4 electrically.... Only the topmost x16 is actually an x16.

PS2: I've also seen physical PCI-e sockets that are x4/x8 with the rear plastic section deliberately removed so you can fit a longer card in. PCI-e will use however many lanes it can - you are supposed to be able to put a x16 board into an electrically narrower slot (assuming it will physically fit) and use it. You won't get ultimate bandwidth, but it should work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top