PCI-E to USB 3.0 Extender Card 5-Port

First things first.  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND reading the WARNING below as some may be shipped damaged.   At first, I wasn’t going to make a review because of that issue.   However, the card is worth a review.

Second thing.   This card apparently has other names but it’s the same thing.  Mailiya / Rivo or SupaHub.   Must be a Chinese thing on selling it under other names.  I’ve seen this done with other products in the past.

I believe since the drivers are Renesas This might be the 4-Port version of the card here. The real manufacturer of the device.
µPD720201
https://www.renesas.com/us/en/products/usb-assp/upd720201.html#productInfo
I could be wrong so I do have this link too.  https://www.renesas.com/us/en/products/usb-assp.html

 

In this day and age, there are plenty of reasons to have a 3.0 or higher USB ports from, SATA Drives, Faster transfer speeds, Capture cards like the Elgato and the list goes on.
The problem is, not all computers have USB 3.0 or higher.  A large amount that is still being used as USB 2.0 or even still 1.0 yet.  In my case, I have an Alienware Aurora – R4 and the R4 motherboard does support (2) 3.0 ports.  One in the back and one in the front.  The rest are USB 2.0.  I wanted to pick up a card that can support more.  Mostly for a 3.0 docking station for extra drives.

Things To Note

• You will need to make sure your board is compatible.
• You will need to see if your board has a PCI-E slot 1X
  The joy’s of PCI Express is the ability to use any type.  Since this is a 1X card, you can use a full-on PCI 4X slot.  The same size as a GPU card slot.  or any others like 2X and 3X.
• Make sure you have additional power in your computer for the USB card.
  Check to see if you have 15-Pin SATA Power Connector Pinout (Usually for SATA HDD or SSD.  If not check for a Molex Connector (White plug with 4-Pin Connector with Yellow, Red and two black wires) available.

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There is a major issue with this card.  Some cards will come damaged due to the box being small.  The box comes with the driver disk, PCI-E to USB 3.0 and the cables.   Now all that is cramped inside a small box.  The cables can and most likely push up against the capacitors and can bend or break them right off the board.

There are a lot of people that have reported this issue and mine was also one of them.  For mine, two capacitors were bent and one of the ends of the capacitor broke off the board.  I did fix it with solder.  If you are not tech-savvy, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND STAYING AWAY FROM THIS CARD.

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Speed Testing

All tests have been done with SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 64GB with CrystalDiskMark 6.0.2 x64 on Alienware Aurora-R4
I thought it would make sense to use the same exact USB 3.0 stick to make the test as accurate as possible and comparing the Extender Card to USB 2.0 and the 3.0 on my motherboard.
You also need to remember that the SanDisk Ultra has a limit on its speeds. But it’s still a good example.

USB 2.0 Front (Alienware-R4 Motherboard Connection)
Read [MB/s] 34.63
Write[MB/s] 20.89

USB 2.0 Back (Alienware-R4 Motherboard Connection)
Read [MB/s] 30.05
Write[MB/s] 19.92

USB 3.0 Front (Alienware-R4 Motherboard Connection)
Read [MB/s] 129.7
Write[MB/s] 49.96

USB 3.0 Back (Alienware-R4 Motherboard Connection)
Read [MB/s] 149.6
Write[MB/s] 47.10

USB 3.0 (PCI-E to USB 3.0 Extender Card 5-Port) Port 1
Read [MB/s] 134.9
Write[MB/s]

USB 3.0 (PCI-E to USB 3.0 Extender Card 5-Port) Port 3
Read [MB/s] 136.3
Write[MB/s] 46.00

Also did a test with the Samsung SSD 860 PRO 256GB on the Thermaltake BlacX Duet USB 3.0 Docking Station
I did a review on that here: https://www.destructiveburn.com.local/thermaltake-blacx-duet-usb-3-0/
Attached to this: PCI-E to USB 3.0 Extender Card 5-Port

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Data from CD

If for some reason you don’t have a CD drive.  I pulled the drivers and information from it.
The CD has:

• Linux Driver
  – xHCI Driver for Linux Kernel V2.6.20 (sample source)
  – – USB3-HOST-DRV-LNX-2_6_20-20120302.zip
  – xHCI Driver for Linux Kernel V2.6.28 (sample source)
  – – USB3-HOST-DRV-LNX-2_6_28-20120302.zip
  – ISG-NK1-100024_LinuxUSB3DriverPortingManual.pdf
• RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-30230-Setup-x86-x64-Binary
• PCIE to USB 3.0 Card User Manual.doc
• PCIE to USB 3.0 Card User Manual.pdf
• RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-30230-setup.exe

Download: PCIE to USB 3.0 Card CD 18.6 MB

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PCI-E to USB 3.0 Card User Manual

 

Features

• Fully compliant with PCI Express Base Specification Revision 2.0
• Single-lane (x1) PCI Express throughput rates up to 5 Gbps
• Compliant with Universal Serial Bus 3.0 specification Revision 1.0
• Supports the simultaneous operation of multiple USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 devices
• Supports the following speed data rates as follows:
• Low-speed (1.5Mbps)/Full-speed (12Mbps)/High-speed(480Mbps) / Super-speed (5Gbps)
• Supports 2 or 4 downstream ports for all speeds
• Built-in 15-pin power connector for receiving extra power supply from the system
• Hot-swapping feature allows you to connect/disconnect devices without powering down the system
• Support Windows® XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 (32/64 bit)

System Requirements

• Windows® XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 (32/64 bit)
• One available PCI Express slot (Recommend PCI Express 2.0)

Package Contents

• 1 x USB 3.0 PCI Express Card
• 1 x Software Drivers CD
• 1 x Low Profile Bracket (4 Port PCI Express Card without Low Profile Bracket)

Note: Contents may vary depending on the country/market.

Hardware Installation

1. Turn Off the power to your computer.
2. Unplug the power cord and remove your computer’s cover.
3. Remove the slot bracket from an available PCIe slot.
4. To install the card, carefully align the card’s bus connector with the selected PCIe slot on the motherboard. Push the board down firmly.
5. Replace the slot bracket’s holding screw to secure the card.
6. Replace the computer cover and reconnect the power cord.

Driver Installation For Windows® XP/Vista/7 (32/64 bit)

1. Please insert the CD driver bound with USB 3.0 PCI Express Card into your      CD-ROM Drive.
2. At the Windows desktop, click Start, Run.
3. Type D: \RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-30230-setup.exe, click OK. (Change D: to match your CD-ROM drive letter)
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

To Verify Driver Installation

Click on the “Device Manager” tab in System Properties, which you access from the Windows Control Panel. You should see a “Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller” under the “Universal Serial Bus controllers” item.

Notice:

1. Please make sure the power cable strand colours match each other when connecting to the power augmentation, as to avoid faulty currents.
2. The extended compatibility works better if insert the card in the first slot or the 16X slot.