[SOLVED] USB 3.0 card advice and recommendations?

[hbenthow]

I recently bought a Dell OptiPlex 9020 Mini Tower, which only has four USB 3.0 ports (two in front, two in back). I'm considering buying a USB 3.0 card to add some more ports, but don't know whether that's a good idea or which one to get.

Some of them have a cord to attach them to a power port on the motherboard for extra power, but my motherboard doesn't have any free slots for that. I was reading up on one of the ones that doesn't require a cord on Amazon, but one reviewer claimed that it fried a slot on his motherboard.

Here's the Amazon page of the one in question:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JFR2I2C/

Are these cards generally safe? And if so, what's a trustworthy one to get?

EDIT: Also, are the powered USB 3.0 splitters that come with a power adapter for a wall outlet and you can plug into a USB 3.0 port to split it into more (like 4 or 7) as effective as a USB 3.0 card, or do they perform more poorly (slower, etc)?

Also, below is a shot of the inside of my case so you can see what slots and ports are available and which ones aren't. If I were to get a USB card, I'd connect it to the black PCI slot at the very bottom.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Buy a mains-powered USB hub (what you call a "splitter", it's proper name is a "hub"). That's the easiest solution.
I bought one with "Pluggable" brand-name --- it''s got 7 USB ports, excellent quality and has never let me down.
Ideal for my four external hard drives. it's an older version of this one:

Legacy Products

This page lists our back catalog of products that are no longer in active production, along with links to archive pages with more information about those products.

plugable.com

 

[hbenthow]

Buy a mains-powered USB hub (what you call a "splitter", it's proper name is a "hub"). That's the easiest solution.
I bought one with "Pluggable" brand-name --- it''s got 7 USB ports, excellent quality and has never let me down.
Ideal for my four external hard drives. it's an older version of this one:

Legacy Products

This page lists our back catalog of products that are no longer in active production, along with links to archive pages with more information about those products.

plugable.com

Does the fact that all of the drives are hooked to a hub that is running off of the same USB port cause any data speed bottlenecking?

Also, thisi s the first time that I've heard the expression "mains-powered" as opposed to merely "powered". Is there a difference?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

"Does the fact that all of the drives are hooked to a hub that is running off of the same USB port cause any data speed bottlenecking?"

If it's a mains-powered USB 3.0 Hub there will be very little (if any) bottleneck.

"Also, thisi s the first time that I've heard the expression "mains-powered" as opposed to merely "powered". Is there a difference?"

Hubs are either bus-powered (powered from USB port) or mains-powered (plugged in to a wall-socket via an adapter) .

A mains-powered one ensures that all devices plugged in to it simultaneously will get sufficient power, whereas with a bus-powered hub some devices may keep disconnecting owing to lack of power.

 

[hbenthow]

If it's a mains-powered USB 3.0 Hub there will be very little (if any) bottleneck.

Thank you for that information.

It sounds like I should try to see if a hub is suffivient before bothering with a USB card.

Hubs are either bus-powered (powered from USB port) or mains-powered (plugged in to a wall-socket via an adapter) .

Ah, I see. I always called bus-powered ones "unpowered" and mains-powered ones "powered".