A new Mobo with more physical USB Ports

[DigitalNinja]

Hello everyone,

It's nearly Christmas and I'm in the market for a new mobo. I currently have a Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 (Socket 1155) and all it's USB ports are being used, my current case has 2 USB Ports but my motherboard is incompatible with the extension to use them.

I do a lot of video calls to family, so I usually unplug my external speakers and plug in my Webcam and put on my headphones so I can hear and talk to my family.

I no longer want to do this, and I'm looking for a mobo with more physical USB Ports so I don't have to fiddle with unplugging extra accessories and not having to worry about running out of USBs.

I was looking to upgrade to a new motherboard anyways, I just want one with more USBs. I was originally looking at this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0126R2LBK/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1RH3JJZU91AIB&colid=2GEI8MACHG5HT&psc=1

Even though it has less physical USB ports than my current one, it has more via onboard expansion, I'm looking for one with more physical, within the same price range, but I'm not opposed to going a little over. I am also aware that the Processor and the RAM would have to be changed also as they haven't aged well. Something that I will put thought into once I decide on a mobo.

 

[jaslion]

Hello everyone,

It's nearly Christmas and I'm in the market for a new mobo. I currently have a Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 (Socket 1155) and all it's USB ports are being used, my current case has 2 USB Ports but my motherboard is incompatible with the extension to use them.

I do a lot of video calls to family, so I usually unplug my external speakers and plug in my Webcam and put on my headphones so I can hear and talk to my family.

I no longer want to do this, and I'm looking for a mobo with more physical USB Ports so I don't have to fiddle with unplugging extra accessories and not having to worry about running out of USBs.

I was looking to upgrade to a new motherboard anyways, I just want one with more USBs. I was originally looking at this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0126R2LBK/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1RH3JJZU91AIB&colid=2GEI8MACHG5HT&psc=1

Even though it has less physical USB ports than my current one, it has more via onboard expansion, I'm looking for one with more physical, within the same price range, but I'm not opposed to going a little over. I am also aware that the Processor and the RAM would have to be changed also as they haven't aged well. Something that I will put thought into once I decide on a mobo.

Why not just get a usb hub?

 

[DigitalNinja]

Why not just get a usb hub?

Because I looking to upgrade to a new motherboard.

 

[jaslion]

Why not just get a usb hub?

Because I looking to upgrade to a new motherboard.

Ok so you basically want half a new system right or a complete new system?
If you are just doingg the motherboard , ram and cpu can you list the parts that you are keeping so I can find you a good match?

 

[DigitalNinja]

Ok so you basically want half a new system right or a complete new system?
If you are just doingg the motherboard , ram and cpu can you list the parts that you are keeping so I can find you a good match?

All I'm after is a motherboard, everything else I've got covered.

 

[Karadjgne]

You are using a Z68. That's lga1155. That hasn't been in production for several years, having moved to lga1150 and currently lga1151. That said, your cpu is also lga1155 and the mobo uses ddr3 ram. Lga1150 was the last to use ddr3, anything newer, such as Ryzen or lga1151 uses ddr4.

So there literally is no upgraded mobo, the only option being find a used lga1155 mobo that physically has more USB 2.0 headers.

The only other option for mobo upgrade will also include a cpu upgrade and possibly ram as well, depending on if you go with older Haswell lga1150 or newer skylake/kabylake/CoffeeLake cpu.

There is 1 last option, the same as what I currently use. It's a 5.25" faced all in one card reader that is pcie x1. This adds 4 ports directly to the front of my wife's pc and uses the pcie_x1_1 slot on the mobo instead of the USB headers. Fits in an optical drive bay. Cost $16 at time of purchase.

 

[DigitalNinja]

You are using a Z68. That's lga1155. That hasn't been in production for several years, having moved to lga1150 and currently lga1151. That said, your cpu is also lga1155 and the mobo uses ddr3 ram. Lga1150 was the last to use ddr3, anything newer, such as Ryzen or lga1151 uses ddr4.

So there literally is no upgraded mobo, the only option being find a used lga1155 mobo that physically has more USB 2.0 headers.

The only other option for mobo upgrade will also include a cpu upgrade and possibly ram as well, depending on if you go with older Haswell lga1150 or newer skylake/kabylake/CoffeeLake cpu.

There is 1 last option, the same as what I currently use. It's a 5.25" faced all in one card reader that is pcie x1. This adds 4 ports directly to the front of my wife's pc and uses the pcie_x1_1 slot on the mobo instead of the USB headers. Fits in an optical drive bay. Cost $16 at time of purchase.

Like I said in my initial post, I am aware that the CPU and RAM would need to be changed, I am aware that changing a mobo often requires a CPU change also. So I am OK with changing these components.

 

[Karadjgne]

Well mobo's generally come with 4-8 actual ports in the rear, everything else comes from the headers on the mobo. New mobo's have 1-3 usb3 headers, which can be split into 2x ports each and 1-4 USB2 headers. My msi z77 mpower lga1155 has 8 in the rear and 4 USB2 and 1x usb3. It's also in a cubby under the desk making the rear ports permanent, and the USB3 powers the front 4x usb2/usb3 ports.
That's why I suggested the pcie all in one as an alternative, most older cases had 2x optical drive bays, but only 1 had a DVD in it.

Not knowing exactly what your needs are its kinda hard to suggest a replacement as costs can be anywhere from @$200 to @$2000 just for cpu/mobo/ram, depending on exactly just how much you need. But thats not really going to change the physical amount of USB ports in the rear, the rest being reliant on case or addin card.

 

[DigitalNinja]

Well mobo's generally come with 4-8 actual ports in the rear, everything else comes from the headers on the mobo. New mobo's have 1-3 usb3 headers, which can be split into 2x ports each and 1-4 USB2 headers. My msi z77 mpower lga1155 has 8 in the rear and 4 USB2 and 1x usb3. It's also in a cubby under the desk making the rear ports permanent, and the USB3 powers the front 4x usb2/usb3 ports.
That's why I suggested the pcie all in one as an alternative, most older cases had 2x optical drive bays, but only 1 had a DVD in it.

Not knowing exactly what your needs are its kinda hard to suggest a replacement as costs can be anywhere from @$200 to @$2000 just for cpu/mobo/ram, depending on exactly just how much you need. But thats not really going to change the physical amount of USB ports in the rear, the rest being reliant on case or addin card.

That's a pretty good response, thank you. Like I said in my initial post, I'm only after a mobo, that's it, I know that the CPU and RAM will need to change and I'm ok with that, I'm just looking for a mobo, if 8 is the max ports in the rear, then I want to find a mobo with 8. I supplied a link to a mobo I was originally looking at to upgrade to, so anywhere around that price range would be ideal but not essential as I'm ok with paying more.

I also have a Corsair Carbide 400C Case, it has no actual space for any sort of Disk Drive, which is fine because I never used the one in my previous case.

 

[Karadjgne]

Oh, that's a really nice case, I love the way it looks.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£158.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B350-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard (£82.98 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£213.44 @ More Computers)
Total: £455.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-01 04:30 GMT+0000

All of the Intel boards I looked at had 5-7 usb2/3/3.1 ports and a type C port making the 6th/8th port, but considering the price of just a 7 port board and I doubt you have use for a type C, coming from lga1155, paired with an i5-8400 at its lackluster 2.8GHz, you'll end up paying through the nose for no gains. The amd option is looking far better and cheaper.