USB 3 PCIe card on a USB 2 motherboard?

I have this ASUS card, with 8 USB2.0 ports. I need to get USB3. Will this work (Plug'n'Play)? Or are there other things to consider?

David

Posted 2012-03-19T09:59:07.993

Reputation: 497

1All the card you link to provides is the ability to use USB 3 devices. As ZaB indicates you won't be able to boot to it. Your motherboard does not know how to do that, its not aware of the device, only your operating system is aware of your device. As to the reason graphic cards work, outside of an operating system, thats complicated. – Ramhound – 2012-03-19T12:21:12.730

1so, does that mean that it won't work at all? I just need USB3 capabilities. I'm not trying to boot from it, I just want to have USB3 capabilities when in Windows to test some USB3 hardware. – David – 2012-03-19T13:34:31.190

Answers

You will not be able to boot from USB3 unless the card has it's own BIOS.

ZaB

Posted 2012-03-19T09:59:07.993

Reputation: 2 365

so, does that mean that it won't work at all? I just need USB3 capabilities. – David – 2012-03-19T13:22:15.043

In most systems of today (Windows 7) it will need an extra driver, most BIOS-es of today do not detect it either. External disks are so low-power that you should not expect a big performance gain (if any at all) – ZaB – 2012-03-19T14:05:05.260

2@David It means it will work for everything except booting a operating system off of a device that is attached to the card. You also will possibly need to download drivers (or use ones that came with the cd with the card) for it to work in your OS. – Scott Chamberlain – 2012-03-19T14:46:19.727

You'll need an appropriate driver, nothing more. Windows will ask for it, and other OS'es will at least notice that it's there.

Your existing "USB2" motherboard contains similar chips, but for the USB2 ports on the motherboard. Adding this card will add two new USB3 ports to the back of your computer, but your existing USB ports will remain connected to the USB2 chips and run at the old USB2 speed.

MSalters

Posted 2012-03-19T09:59:07.993

Reputation: 7 587