ASUS Ready with U3S6 USB 3.0 SATA 6 Gb/s Addon Card

[btarunr]

Just as ASUS was readying its first wave of socket LGA-1156 motherboards, the company picked up interest in offering SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 as a feature set. With the P7P55D Premium motherboard, the company even used a PCI-Express 2.0 bridge chip to ensure the SATA 6 Gb/s controller - the Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2 - got a PCI-E 2.0 x1 link, which other manufacturers end up wiring a PCI-E 1.1 x1 link from the P55 PCH. In a bid to propagate the design, the company had also designed an addon card that works on the same principle. The the card has finally taken shape in the form of the ASUS U3S6 (USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s), complete with its missing USB 3.0 controller that provides two SuperSpeed 5000 Mbps ports. The interface bottleneck for the NEC µPD720200 USB 3.0 controller is also reduced by provision of a PCI-E 2.0 x1 link. Both connectors are wired to a PLX PEX8613 3-port/12-lane PCI-E 2.0 bridge chip, which takes in four PCI-Express lanes (typically PCI-E 1.1 lanes from the southbridge or P55 PCH), and gives out the required two links. Although there is no word on the card's price yet, PCSTATS reckons something around $30 likely. In that case, the card would be a steal deal, considering recently announced SATA 6 Gb/s addon cards by HighPoint that hold just the Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2, are priced over $60.



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[WarEagleAU]

Would be awesome if anyone can use these. I love my new ROG Crosshair 3, but Id love to have a card like this with some awesome tech.

 

[PCpraiser100]

Well it's about time someone put on a USB 3/SATA 6GB/s combo card! I was about to pick up a screwdriver!

 

[LittleLizard]

i need now a pci4x slot

 

[tkpenalty]

i need now a pci4x slot

just plug it into any spare 16x slot lol.

EDIT: oh wait G31...

 

[Tartaros]

We need new chipsets supporting usb 3.0 and sataIII already If intel releases a new chipset with it's new 32nm cpus...

 

[Andy77]

We need new chipsets supporting usb 3.0 and sataIII already If intel releases a new chipset with it's new 32nm cpus...

Didn't they say they're not so keen of USB 3?

 

[Sasqui]

$30 does seem cheap. Can you plug this into a 16x slot?

 

[Mussels]

that is PERFECT for my PCI-E 4x slot !


edit: to all the askers, this will work in any PCI-E slot it physically fits in.

 

[Sasqui]

edit: to all the askers, this will work in any PCI-E slot it physically fits in.

Thanks from "an asker"

 

[BazookaJoe]

I LOVE THIS CONCEPT - I wish all Mobo Mnfr's would start putting all their extra embedded crap on cards instead - so you can CHOSE what you want to use - or use them somewhere else when you ditch the board later on.

 

[Shyska]

I LOVE THIS CONCEPT - I wish all Mobo Mnfr's would start putting all their extra embedded crap on cards instead - so you can CHOSE what you want to use - or use them somewhere else when you ditch the board later on.

They embed stuff because it is A LOT cheaper that way - embedded they would only cost 3$ instead of 30$...

 

[Mussels]

They embed stuff because it is A LOT cheaper that way - embedded they would only cost 3$ instead of 30$...

but on the flip side, embedding only gets the profit on that motherboard, this would get them profit from everyones motherboards

 

[btarunr]

They embed stuff because it is A LOT cheaper that way - embedded they would only cost 3$ instead of 30$...

On the contrary, spinning off stuff onto dedicated PCBs (addon cards) is cheap. 6-layer PCBs cost like $0.2 per square inch? So it's far from $3 onboard compared to $30. On board, since the components are the same, it's not going to be that much more cheaper.

 

[BazookaJoe]

Indeed.

It also reduces the track complexity of the MoBo somewhat making overall layout a lot simpler.

I just love the whole idea of being able to CHOSE what goes on my system - or use the components elsewhere, or whatever.

It's a step backwards, in the RIGHT direction, I've never liked being FORCED into specific chipsets & parts by having them embedded, if one thing fails or is just generally a crappy performer you cant just replace it - you have to add MORE junk and keep the old broken cancer lurking.

And although in THEORY you can usually disable the onboard junk (I wont take any Sh!t from anyone - almost ALL on board controllers ARE LOWEST BIDDER JUNK ESPECIALLY ON-BOARD SOUND CARDS - and if you cant tell the difference you're deaf! and your speakers are useless) it can still cause problems, where as external cards can just be completely replaced or discarded.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

So are these slower vs lets say onboard integrated USB 3.0/Sata 6gb? Im thinking a delay because it has to be routed to pci-ex rather than direct to the controller?

 

[BazookaJoe]

Actually no - these are usually a LOT faster due to a properly dedicated controller infrastructure - remember, ANY onboard device also has to go through the bus just like an add on card, however onboard devices usually all share a cheaper common, momolithic controller that is responsible for a number of devices rather than dedicated to one specific device as in a separate add on card.

This allocation of a dedicated controller in the add on card ultimately makes them a lot more efficient than an embedded onboard cheap solution. Provided of course that you buy reasonable brands that use properly rated components.

 

[Makaveli]

This will go sweet with my recently purchased Asus P6T Deluxe V2, just waiting to pickup an SSD around Xmas.

 

[_h2o_]

http://translate.google.com/transla...noloji-testi.html&sl=tr&tl=en&history_state0=

Asus U3S6 review. Vantec's USB 3.0 external HDD box has been used for usb 3.0 test. It's very fast.