Added external hard drive to an old computer, need to know pros and cons of connections

[jmjohnst]

I just purchased a samsung 2Tb external drive from newegg that one reviewer posted sequential read speeds of 189 MB/sec, and I'm connecting it to an old computer with an Asus a8n-e motherboard. The motherboard only has usb 2.0 external connections which seem like they would severely limit this hard drives speed so I'm looking at purchasing either a pci-e card or looking into finding a way to connect it to the sata on the motherboard. The pci is only version 1 or 1.1 on this motherboard so the pci-e lanes are only 250 Mb/sec (for a total speed of 1000 Mb/sec for the 4x card slot) so I was thinking of going with a 4x pci-e to usb 3.0 which may still limit the hard drive speed slightly. The other option I'm thinking of is trying to find a way to convert a sata to usb 3.0 if there is a way? If so would it be cheaper to go that route or the pci-e 4x card and living with a slightly slower speed? Any thoughts would be helpful!

 

[Someone Somewhere]

First off, first gen PCIe lanes are 250MB/s each way, not 250Mb/s.

Pulling it out of the case and plugging it in internally would be the best idea, though.

 

[jmjohnst]

I guess I missed that little bit of information on the pcie 1.0 speed being 250 MB/s instead of 250Mb/s per lane. That makes my question pretty easy to answer for myself since I purchased the external hard drive to be portable and speedy, I'll just pick up a pcie to usb 3.0 card and get the one that's made for a 4x pcie slot for future upgradability since it's not really any more money (just harder to find). Thanks for the quick response!