Here are the hardware components we used in the process of upgrading both computers. The second computer has a modern motherboard (purchased in late 2013) that features both USB 3.0 ports on the back port panel as well as USB 3.0 pin headers on the motherboard to support USB 3.0 ports on the front of the case and/or via expansion bay hubs.

The first computer has a dated motherboard (purchased in mid-2006) that has neither USB 3.0 ports on the back port panel nor USB 3.0 pin headers on the board itself. Depending on your needs you can mix and match the hardware we used in the two machines to achieve your desired outcome. Rather than list off every potential combination of hardware add-ons and their permutations, we’re going to highlight two very common upgrade paths.įor the purposes of this guide we upgraded two computers with several different USB 3.0 related upgrades to showcase the different upgrade paths you can take. This tutorial is slightly different in that there are several ways you can go about upgrading computers both old and new to support USB 3.0. Normally we have a cut and dry list of the hardware you need for a given tutorial. The external powered USB 3.0 hubs found therein are an excellent way to expand the port capacity of a USB 3.0 capable laptop. If you have a laptop that has a USB 3.0 port or two and you wish to expand upon that we would encourage you to check out The HTG Guide to Purchasing the Perfect USB Hub for Your Needs. While there are, in fact, USB 3.0 expansion cards for laptops with expansion card slots, those cards perform poorly, consume large amounts of power, and are generally not worth the hassle. This tutorial will not cover the upgrade process for laptop computers as laptops are difficult to upgrade to USB 3.0. Note: This tutorial will cover the upgrade process for desktop computers. In addition to significantly increasing the speed, the USB 3.0 standard introduced better bandwidth management (USB 3.0 devices and connections use two omnidirectional paths instead of the one-way communication available with USB 2.0), better power management, improved bus utilization (which translates to faster at-ready times when new devices are added to the host computer), among other minor but welcome improvements. Same hardware, same disk size, different USB ports and standards. During the disk cloning process we employed in our article How to Upgrade Your Existing Hard Drive in Under an Hour, for example, we were able to clone a 120GB SSD over a USB 3.0 connection in a mere 15 minutes but the same clone process over a USB 2.0 connection took around an hour.

Even when USB 3.0 connections don’t hit the theoretical limit they are still staggeringly faster than USB 2.0 connections. The maximum theoretical speed of USB 3.0 is ten times faster than USB 2.0. The most obvious benefit is the increase in speed.

Usb 3 to 2 converter