Can I upgrade my computer's USB?

[Brownie]

My computer has 3.0 ports. I would like to get something that will transfer faster, like 3.1 or preferably 3.2.

My investigation so far revealed that I can't update ports and/or software, the USB connection are baked into the motherboard. However, it does appear that I can get a USB 3.2 card and install it in a slot.

My question is, what will be the deciding factor as to whether it's worth it or not? Processor? DRAM? What should I look at to make the decision? Even if I don't get full performance, I can get a card for $50 +/-. That would be worth even a 50% improvement.

I'm at work and will check when I get home, but I believe I have one slot left. I am running 36G (I think, seems I recall installing a 24 and a 12) of DRAM. Hard drive is a disc, not an SSD. Cannot recall the processor.

Any thoughts or pointers?

 

[iamdlewis]

Unless you have a motherboard from the pre 2015 era you should be find to add. You will see an improvement in speed but you should not expect to hit the claimed top end speeds. You are well beyond the point in which RAM will have an impact.

 

[Brownie]

Unless you have a motherboard from the pre 2015 era you should be find to add. You will see an improvement in speed but you should not expect to hit the claimed top end speeds. You are well beyond the point in which RAM will have an impact.

Probably not much newer than that, I'll look when I get home.

And a correction, I think I have 24G of DRAM. It came with an 8 and a 4, I pulled the 4, moved the 8 to the second slot, and installed a 16.

 

[Brownie]

I didn't have a lot of time last night, but I did learn the processor is an i7 quad core and there's 24G DRAM.

I need to dig into the hard drive. It's a mechanical drive, not SSD. I'm thinking that will be the bottleneck.

 

[iain clyne]

Have you not got space to put a SSD in as well.

 

[Brownie]

Have you not got space to put a SSD in as well.

Checking that today, I've been busy in the evenings after work.

 

[Jeff A]

Have you not got space to put a SSD in as well.

I once bought two PC's for a client. They were identical except one had an SSD, the either had a SATA Hard drive. These two machines were used side by side for several years and you could not tell if one was faster than the other. We forgot that we ordered them this way from Dell, as a test. 3 years ago, I bought a new PC. I was forced to buy a new one when I got into drones and my other PC would not even play 4K movies, much less edit them. My new PC (3 years old now) is also a Dell. It is an XPS series box that is what Gamer's usually buy. It has, among other things, an SSD drive, and it FLIES, even though it is 3 years old now. My two Data drives are both SATA drives. To be fair, there were other improvements in design, notably, a Graphics Adapter that costs as much as some PC's! When I told this story to someone with lots of knowledge of computers, he said that a few years back, the infrastructure of the PC's would not take advantage of an SSD. My Motherboard was designed for an SSD in the beginning. I'm now "Hooked" on PC's that cost too much money. It wasn't "Mac Money", but pricey non the less. I could never go back.

 

[Brownie]

Dead in the water. No SATA port, no more card slots.

 

[iamdlewis]

Dead in the water. No SATA port, no more card slots.

Guess time to start the new PC fund.

 

[Brownie]

Guess time to start the new PC fund.

The old one works fine, was just hoping to be able to transfer files faster. Figured for a $50 card and a $75 SSD it'd be worth it.

 

[Jeff A]

Dead in the water. No SATA port, no more card slots.

But, you put a smile on the PC salesman face!

 

[Brownie]

But, you put a smile on the PC salesman face!

My brownie points are currently in transit!