I would like to thank SilverStone for supplying the sample.


The days are long gone where users grabbed ATX boards because they planned to fill their ISA or PCI slots with audio, network, and interface expansion cards to get the latest and greatest interfaces. Back then, we also could thus swap out the motherboard while retaining most of those connectivity standards. All that modularity is gone, and users are instead smothered by a long list of connectivity baked into motherboards to appeal to a mass market instead of being on the bleeding edge when it comes to every single interface standard. These standards are also evolving faster than ever before. USB-C is a great example with most board brands offering a 10 Gbps interface even though it has already been eclipsed by the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20 Gbps standard that has become especially useful with the rapid performance increase NVMe drives have seen as well. SilverStone offers two expansion cards which allow the user to easily add or upgrade their USB-C interface to the Gen 2x2 standard. The ECU06 offers a single, rear-facing port and caters to those who don't have that type of front I/O connectivity with their desktop case. The ECU07, on the other hand, provides a 20-pin Key-A plug for those users who have a USB-C connector but not a 20 Gbps plug on their motherboard.

Packaging and A Closer Look

Both the ECU06 and 07 ship in a compact, full-color, shrink-wrapped box with lots of images and details. This makes for a good brick and mortar retail experience and draws proper attention to the product while retaining branding consistency.


The SilverStone ECU06 is a compact PCIe 3.0 x4 and ships with a low-profile cover as well, so you may also install the expansion card in slim desktop systems. There is SilverStone branding on the card, and a revision number of 1.1. On the backside of the card is only a serial number sticker with a few smaller electrical components.


The SilverStone ECU07 looks very similar, using the same PCIe interface while also being accompanied by a low-profile cover. Besides the company branding, this PCB version is 1.0. You will find the 20-Pin Key-A plug in the center of the board facing upward. While this is fine, one facing backwards wouldn't block a neighboring expansion slot when in use. On the back of the black PCB is a similar serial number sticker, and again some smaller components.


Both the SilverStone ECU06 and ECU07 utilize the same ASMedia ASM3242 controller. A Universal Series Bus XHCI host controller bridging PCI Express to USB3.2 20 Gbps, it is also compliant with the USB3.2 Specification Revision 1.0 and Intel eXtensible Host Controller Interface specification revision 1.1. That means if your host system is XHCI capable, the expansion card won't need any extra drivers and will simply work immediately after installation. This was also the case for our Intel-based test platform, which had no internet connectivity during testing but worked flawlessly.

Use And Performance

Each expansion cards was installed in our ITX test system using the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot. for the ECU07, we used a modern case I/O cable with a Key-A connector that leads to the USB-C port. As soon as you power up the system, a blue LED lights up, but both cards have a second, red LED next to it. We sometimes triggered a switch to that red LED during testing on the ECU06, but never on the 07 for some reason. The manual does not state the purpose of these LEDs, and the cards worked and performed as expected at all times.


To test the cards, we used a Kioxia XG6 1 TB SSD, which features 96-layer, 3D TLC NAND and sequential read and write speeds of up to 3180 MB/s and 2960 MB/s respectively, which is much more than a 20 Gbps interface can handle and allows us to find the performance ceiling. The drive is housed in SilverStone's own MS12, which features an ASMedia ASM2364 IC capable of a maximum transfer rate of 20 Gbps.


Both the SilverStone ECU06 and ECU07 managed to push read speeds beyond 2 GB/s, which is close enough to the interface's theoretical 2.5 GB/s maximum. In terms of write speeds, these are a little below that 2 GB/s mark, and fluctuated a bit more during our testing (across both cards), but still performed essentially twice as fast a a 10 Gbps interface.


To test that theory, we connected the MS12 to a USB 3.2 Gen 2 motherboard port with that maximum of 10 Gbps, which essentially halved all those numbers immediately.

Value and Conclusion

The SilverStone ECU06 and ECU07 each perform exactly as you would expect them to, essentially doubling the performance from 10 Gbps to 20 Gbps USB-C interfaces. This is immediately noticeable with modern NVMe drive enclosures that also utilize the 20 Gbps standard. Thus, both cards deliver on their core promise of enabling that performance while providing the right interface type for your environment. There are several other options out there for both these interface types, using exactly the same ASMedia IC as well. Those clock in at around $40 to $60, putting the ECU06 and ECU07 $70 price tag a bit on the high.

However, most of these alternatives also market the ability to deliver power via a SATA connector - usually up to 60 W. While this may seem more tangible to the end-user those cards in turn tend to lack the ability to draw power from the PCIe slot which can deliver up to 75 W. This is something both the ECU06 and ECU07 are capable of.

But both the ECU06 and 07 use longer-lasting, higher-quality solid polymer capacitor while the cheapest alternatives stick with the cheaper electrolytic kind, which speaks to the quality of component used. In the end, no matter which one you end up picking, they all should work just fine, but the SilverStone ECU06 and ECU07 should give you better customer support and have a higher lifespan for the additional cost.