USB Expansion Card Question

[Guest]

I am planning to build a gaming PC/HTPC in either the early or middle part of next year. I plan to add a USB 3.0 expansion card with at least four ports. My question is should I go with PCI Express or PCI Express x1? Thanks

 

[DarkSable]

Why not just get a motherboard that comes with USB 3.0 ports / a case with front USB 3.0 ports? Makes a lot more sense to me.

If you really need the card, go with PCIe.

That being said, is this going to be a gaming PC or an HTPC? You should make up your mind, because the beasties are very, very different.

 

[popatim]

I wouldn't say they are very different except in terms of how powerful they are. Any gaming pc can be an htpc.

 

[Guest]

This setup is intended to be a cross between a gaming PC and a home theater PC.

 

[popatim]

as for pcie slots, It depends on how many ports you want to have. The more ports you want the more pcie lanes you'll need. to expect a pcie slot to support the full bandwidth of usb3 you would need 10 lanes per port. 1 pcie v2 lane is 500mb/s and usb3 is 5000mb/s you see. A good coomprimise is a pcie x4 lane card with dual controllers for 4 ports. or a 2 port single lane card with 1 controller.
If you're not planning much really high speed stuff like usb ssd's then a 4 port x1 card might do for you, for slower things like printers, modems, mice, keybds...