USB 2.0 cards?

[Santilli]

Hi
I need a usb 2.0 card for a pci slot.

I also need a USB 2.0 long cable, and ports that go connect to the Supermicro motherboard. I had one, but the cable was too short for my box.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm looking for value, 6 ports are good,
and 2000 and XP compatibility?

Thanks

Greg

 

[mubs]

If you're not in a hurry, keep an eye on Bens Bargains. An NEC-chipset 5-port card pops up there from time to time. If you're in a hurry, buy an Adaptec, Belkin or Orange Micro; you can't go wrong. Buying a Syba / Sheba whatever is going to cause more grief than it's worth it.

 

[Mercutio]

A couple years ago I bought a bunch of cheapie $5 generic cards with Via chipsets from DVcentury.com for some of our classroom computers. They have been completely fine.

I think you'd be wasting money on Adaptec/Orange Micro/Belkin.

 

[Buck]

Ditto on the VIA based cards. They're cheap and always seem to work for me.

 

[Splash]

Santilli, we more or less went over this topic once in the past in The "Splash, What Systems Do You Use..." subject:

http://www.storageforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2615



Basically, if you get a combo USB2 + Firewire card, you only use one slot. The one I use, a Firewire Direct (brand) 6-Port Combo FireWire & USB v2.0 Combo Professional PCI Host Adapter...

http://www.firewiredirect.com/store/product.php?productid=115&cat=34&page=1

...has both internal and external Firewire and internal and external USB2 ports. The internal Firewire and USB2 ports do not use proprietary ribbon cables, instead, they use common external Firewire and external USB2 cables to route the internal Firewire and USB2 connections to front panel hubs. You're after front panel USB2 (and Firewire) capability, correct? By the way, all the FireWire Direct cards use TI Firewire chipsets (i.e. -- have a long track record for being "good").

With the Firewire Direct 6-Port Combo FireWire & USB v2.0 Combo Professional PCI Host Adapter, you will also have a full complement of external (backside) Firewire and USB2 connectors. As for the USB2 controller on the mobo, you can simply defeat it if you do not plan to use it.


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As for my front panel Firewire (400 Mb/s) and USB2, it's a Koutech Model 7102 FireWire/1394+USB 2.0 Combo Internal Front Bay Hub. It fits in a 3½ external floppy drive bay, or can be put in a 5¼ external floppy drive bay with an adapter. They are available in black as well.

 

[mubs]

AFAIK, Via had always been trouble for these kinds of things; connection issues, throughput issues, whatever. NEC & TI have always been considered the gold standard for USB & Firewire. Maybe things have changed now with VIA; I don't know. Given Sanitlli's luck, I thought he'd want a one-sure-shot strike at this thing.

I paid ~$10 for each of my Adaptec FW and USB cards after rebate from Adaptec. CrapUSA has them for similar prices quite frequently (price reduction + rebate).

 

[Santilli]

Well, I went with a VIA Kingwin two port for the Dell, and it's giving 3mb/sec writes, 11 mb/sec reads. Good enough.

I don't really like front USB stuff, since it's always getting in the way of the CD/DVD trays opening. Annoying.

I haven't figured out what I'm going to use for the Server, but, it may well look like Splash's solution.

GS

 

[Splash]

...NEC & TI have always been considered the gold standard for USB & Firewire...

That's exactly what the Firewire Direct card (mentioned above) use for chipsets: NEC for USB2 and T.I. for Firewire.

Everything above is on one PCI card, one slot taken.

I use a top grade external USB2 cable -- with ferrites on both ends -- for the internal USB2 connection and a spare 0.5 meter Granite Digital external Firewire 400 cable -- also with ferrites on both ends -- as the internal Firewire connection. No need to worry about RFI problems getting on the internal USB2 and Firewire busses that plug into the front panel hub.

 

[mubs]

Where on earth can you buy cables with ferrites on 'em? I've tried to buy such USB and Firewire cables, and could never find any. Is Granite Digital one source? Any others? Thanks, Splash.

 

[Santilli]

Where on earth can you buy cables with ferrites on 'em? I've tried to buy such USB and Firewire cables, and could never find any. Is Granite Digital one source? Any others? Thanks, Splash.

Ferrites??? :?: :skepo:

Are those like small, furry animals that Tannin has around the house?


GS

 

[i]

You could always buy some snap or clamp-on style chokes. Here's one link (to a PDF), but a search for "RF choke" on Google shows they're cheap and easily available. Just an idea.

 

[mubs]

Thanks, i. That's what I figured I'd do.

 

[Pradeep]

Where on earth can you buy cables with ferrites on 'em? I've tried to buy such USB and Firewire cables, and could never find any. Is Granite Digital one source? Any others? Thanks, Splash.

Ferrites??? :?: :skepo:

Are those like small, furry animals that Tannin has around the house?


GS

That would be a ferret

Ferrite is:

 

[mubs]

Thanks Pradeep. I had a senior moment and forgot to respond to Greg.

 

[Santilli]

I was just having a bit of fun. :wink: I happen to have one of these,

http://www.granitedigital.com/images/1394bfwcable9-9pin.gif



out of shear stupidity. The external DVD burner I have is USB 2, and the the only firewire to Panasonic firewire end, which is what that is, is a Liteon external CD burner.

I guess I was thinking about an external drive, for cloning, or at least that's my excuse. If figure when the 7200 rpm 2.5 inch drives come down, I might use that to clone drives?

See, it doesn't make any sense to me, either...


Gs

http://www.granitedigital.com/images/1394bfwcable9-9pin.gif

 

[Santilli]

What good are the ferrets, or ferrites, or any combination thereof?

gs

 

[Santilli]

Well I can't find the Koutech floppy insert, but, I've managed to find the cards I need. One is USB 2, and the other is the combo card I was looking for.

At the same time, found a 250 gig Maxtor for 135 bucks at Newegg, in a USB 2.0 housing. Solves the immediate problem, and, in the future I can do SATA
for my machine, and everything else is set for a long time, provided the drive doesn't break.

Happy New Year

Gs

 

[EdT]

I just went through the same exercise you did for my external drive, I was bidding on the 5 port Belkin on eBay, but it seems everyone is also bidding on it and the price is not so cheap, so I just got a generic no name NEC based card for $20 and everything runs fine. Write speeds improved on my 2.5" USB drive from 960kps on USB1.1 to 21.6MBs on the USB 2.0 card, so thats almost a 22X speed increase and defintely worth the upgrade of the card !

 

[Santilli]

The combo card went off with no problems at all. 40-70 dollars, for SATA, USB 2, and firewire 1.

the 5 port USB 2 card is going to work, and going in in the morning.

The first card works fine, and, FINALLY, I have USB 2. Drive wasn't shipped yet.

Thanks

I'll check up on it.

GS

 

[P5-133XL]

What good are the ferrets, or ferrites, or any combination thereof?

gs

The purpose of ferrets is to limit the production of Electo-magnetic noise eminating from cables. Or as it was described by an Electrical Engineer -- They are there to correct improper engineering of the cables: Someone, when they designed the cables didn't take into proper consideration that without shielding, cables tend to broadcast like antenna's and the cheapest after-the-fact fix is to add ferrite cores.

 

[Fushigi]

The combo card went off with no problems at all. 40-70 dollars, for SATA, USB 2, and firewire 1.

Linkie, please?

 

[Santilli]

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16815158019

If you search, you can find the same exact card in the 40 dollar range, but, every place that has it cheap, was out of stock.

GS