Best way to increase the number of USB (3.0) ports?

Marine-RX179 · 16 Sep 2015 at 20:29

I am looking at helping a friend to build a new PC soon, but wondering if I were to go with m-itx build, what would be the best and reliable way to increase the number of USB ports, as he has many external HDD?

stulid · 16 Sep 2015 at 20:40

A powered hub? if he has the expansion slot free then a add-in card.

mickyflinn · 16 Sep 2015 at 20:44

The H87I-PLUS has 6 usb 3.0 ports , 4 at back panel, , 2 at mid-board.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H87IPLUS/

deano-5 · 16 Sep 2015 at 20:45

Depends on the case

Marine-RX179 · 16 Sep 2015 at 21:26

stulid said:
A powered hub? if he has the expansion slot free then a add-in card.

I think at the moment he is using a USB hub, but I think he mention that connect external HDDs to it seem to get dropping the connection...has that got anything to do with the fact that the hub doesn't have its own AC power supply?

stulid · 16 Sep 2015 at 21:29

Possibly as it can only supply so much amperage and thats drawn from the board.

OspreyO · 19 Sep 2015 at 10:17

Marine-RX179 said:
I am looking at helping a friend to build a new PC soon, but wondering if I were to go with m-itx build, what would be the best and reliable way to increase the number of USB ports, as he has many external HDD?

Best way is not to go mitx and get board with a good controller and lots of ports, if you need it, an extra PCI card which will have its own controller.

http://www.ptgrey.com/white-paper/USB3-Best-Practices

A hub will share power and bandwidth. The mitx board itself might not be giving enough power to the port either. You'd have to check the controller specification for the motherboard you plan on using.

If you still go with a hub get a good one. I could find a review that gave a good indication of speeds.