Exclusive: First USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 Expansion Card, Will Sell For $30
Posted 10/30/09 at 02:45:07 PM by Gordon Mah Ung
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If you were bummed like most of us that Intel’s shiny new P55 chipset didn’t include USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 support, Asus's new U3S6 should make you happy.
For a mere 30 smackers, the U3S6 card gives you two USB 3.0 ports and two SATA 6.0 ports in a PCI-E card. The card has three primary components: an NEC D720200F1 USB 3.0 controller, a Marvell 88SE9123 SATA 6.0 controller, and a PLX PEX8613. The PLX part is the same chip the company uses on its SATA6 boards to helps ameliorate a problem with the P55 chipset.
As you likely know, the LGA1156 CPUs moved PCI-E express controls directly into the CPU. In addition to the x16 PCIE-2.0 in the CPU, another 8 x1 PCI-E lanes are in the P55 chipset itself. On its motherboards, Asus said the PEX8613 chip gets plumbed into a x4 PCI-E in order to offer enough bandwidth for today’s drives. Running the Marvell chip directly into a PCI-E x1 would effectively cap any devices at 250MB/s. On the U3S6 card, bottlenecks are alleviated by running the card in a x4 PCI-E mode.
We gave the U3S6 card a whirl by firing it up in Windows 7 Ultimate. We unfortunately, did not have any USB 3.0 devices but the card performed on par with the USB 2.0 ports in the P55 board we tested. Likewise, we didn’t have a SATA6 drive available for testing at the moment but soon will.
Asus said the card is expected to available “soon” for about $30.
The NEC USB 3.0 Controller
The Marvell chip controls the two SATA6 ports
Bottleneck
Submitted by evanbarr on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 7:25pm
SATA 6G is 6 Gb/s
USB 3 uses 5 Gb/sThis card therefore needs a maximum bandwidth of 6 + 6 + 5 + 5 = 22 Gb/s
Unfortunately, PCIe X4 provides only 4 * 500 MB/s which is 15 5/8 Gb/s. This isn't even enough to fully use one USB 3 device when the SATA is saturated. This card should have been designed for PCIe X8.
Submitted by evanbarr on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 11:55am
If you need to connect a USB hub (such as to connect to multiple USB devices at a distance from the computer), then you will want to have the extra bandwidth to run all the devices at full speed. This will also be useful for high resolution color printers, digital video cameras, and high resolution digital cameras.
Submitted by FrankCDI on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 1:13pm
Thank you for the input.
Any idea when this is gonna be available? The ASUS P7P55D-E Motherboard already have eSATA 6.0 X 2ports built in and USB 3.0
Also, is the card gonna be ASUS motherboard only? $30 will be great if we can use it on our existing motherboards etc...
Related to the 2nd question, any idea if this card gonna work on lolMac, like using a Mac driver etc? I also have a MacPro...
Nicw FInd, Thanks
Submitted by Baer on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 10:12am
Great find, thanks. The only thing that I felt I was going to soon miss on mt Rampage II Ex was USB 3. I will for sure be looking for one of these.
Submitted by hifiaudio2 on Sun, 11/01/2009 - 4:39pm
a couple more sata ports and this makes a great cheap addition for pcs that are used as media servers. We have plenty of cases that can hold 10-13 hard drives, but no easy, cheap way to connect them all. We need quality 4+ port sata cards. The usb 3.0 is nice icing on the cake.
Great news.
Submitted by JohnP on Sat, 10/31/2009 - 11:58am
Definitely on my buy list AS SOON AS I see a BlacX USB 3.0 hard drive dock.
Submitted by DoubleR on Sat, 10/31/2009 - 6:14am
I hope thay come through with this product launch. Very nice indeed and would be glorious if it had a eSATA port. Now if only my evga x58 micro board had a spare pci-e slot open.
Submitted by JohnP on Sun, 11/01/2009 - 4:19pm
As far as I can figure out, ESata and USB 3.0 will be about equivalent in speed (theoretically at least). Will be interesting to see how they fare in a real world test. Obviously USB 3.0 will be geared more for external hard drive access than any other app (video to monitor maybe?).
Stress Reliever
Submitted by Hillyman on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 11:58am
Gordon,
Thanks for the article my friend. I have been struggling with a system build that incorporates Intel's Core i5, USB 3.0, and SATA 6.0. My client has been chomping at the bit for the new machine, but I have been waiting for Gigabytes new GA-P55A-x boards to be released. I was actually writing the client an email explaining my tardiness when I read the blog post! Knowing that I can throw in an add-in card down the line to fill this need puts my mind at ease. I'll just go ahead with the build. Thanks bro, right on time!
Jason Hillman
Submitted by Hillyman on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 11:57am
Gordon,
Thanks for the article my friend. I have been struggling with a system build that incorporates Intel's Core i5, USB 3.0, and SATA 6.0. My client has been chomping at the bit for the new machine, but I have been waiting for Gigabytes new GA-P55A-x boards to be released. I was actually writing the client an email explaining my tardiness when I read the blog post! Knowing that I can throw in an add-in card down the line to fill this need puts my mind at ease. I'll just go ahead with the build. Thanks bro, right on time!
Jason Hillman
Submitted by routine on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 10:57am
I dont need no stinking intel.
$30 and I get USB 3.0 in any machine?
I'm sold!
Submitted by SpazzAttack on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 10:47am
...Anything available out there yet to plug into this?
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