With all of the many different ports on a computer nowadays, it can become quite confusing for new users to figure out which port does what.
When you purchase a computer, in most cases, the specifications are listed on the manufacturer’s website from where you purchased your computer from. But surely, checking specifications can’t be the only way, right?
You can tell if your computer has USB 3.0 by looking for a blue edge in the computer’s USB ports, by checking the computer or motherboard specifications on the manufacturer’s website, or by looking for USB 3.0 or xHCI under the Universal Serial Bus Controllers option in the Device Manager.
For new computer users, all of the information and differences between the USB ports can get quite confusing. If you’re wanting to familiarize yourself with USB 3.0 and USB ports in general, you’ll want to keep reading.
How Can I Tell If My Computer Has USB 3.0?
Many new devices are equipped with USB 3.0 ports, which offer a speed of up to 10 times that of USB 2.0. But how can you tell if your computer has those modern ports? It’s actually pretty easy.
There are a number of ways to check if your computer has USB 3.0:
Visible Inspection
One of the easiest ways to check if your computer has a USB 3.0 port in it is to do a visible inspection. Move to the back, side, or front of your computer where your USB ports are located, and see if the inner portion of the port is blue.
There are also certain laptop manufacturers that will put a 3.0 label on the port, while others will write ‘SS’ near the port, and that means that it’s a SuperSpeed USB port.
Device Manager
If for any reason, you’re not able to do a visible inspection on the USB ports of your computer, there is another way to check. To do so, navigate to the device manager folder of your computer.
In the Device Manager, look for the item Universal Serial Bus Controller. Expand the item and look for items with USB 3.0 or xHCI in the title. Finding either of these here is an indication that your computer has USB 3.0.
Check Specifications
The easiest way to check is by looking at your computer’s specifications. If you have a desktop computer, these will typically be listed on the side or back of the box that it came in. But the specifications are also available online.
If the computer is custom-built, then look at the motherboard’s specifications on the manufacturer’s website to see if it has USB 3.0.
If you have a laptop, you can usually find the specs online—you might need to refer to the manual or search online if this information isn’t listed prominently on the website of the manufacturer or retailer.
Can You Add USB 3.0 To a Computer?
The short answer is yes. It’s entirely possible to add USB 3.0 ports to your computer, provided it has a free PCIe slot and you have the right drive controller card.
You can even add multiple drives with a single PCIe slot if you choose a multi-port card.
If your computer doesn’t currently support USB 3.0, you can replace the motherboard with one that does. A computer with a USB 3.0-capable motherboard can support multiple USB 3.0 ports, so you can add many more than just one through hardware expansion.
If it’s a desktop computer that you’re dealing with, there are many types of expansion cards that can be installed into one of the empty PCI slots on the motherboard.
A PCI card will give your desktop all the functionality of USB 3.0, including transfer speeds 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and support for devices such as external hard drives, digital cameras, and smartphones.
Getting one of these expansion cards is fairly straightforward. You can get them from both online retailers and local computer stores, with prices ranging from $15 to around $55 depending on features such as the number of available ports and whether the card supports the newer USB 3.1 standard.
The process for installing an adapter card is fairly simple, but it does require opening up your computer case (which may void your warranty).
What’s The Easiest Way For Someone Without Technical Knowledge?
While there are USB 3.0 cards that can be installed into a desktop computer, they’re less common in laptops because there isn’t as much space to work with.
Some models do have a slot open for upgrading, but you’ll have to check whether your laptop has this feature.
There currently isn’t any standardization among manufacturers about how many slots can be upgraded or what kind of upgrade can be done on each one. You should also make sure that the card will be compatible with your system before committing.
If you just need a few ports for connecting temporary devices like flash drives or external hard drives, there are hubs available that connect via USB 2.0 and then offer multiple ports for USB 3.0 devices to plug in to, giving you a quick and easy way to start using them without having to go through the hassle of taking your computer apart.
What’s the Difference Between USB 3.0, USB 3,2, and USB-C?
It’s useful to have a short history lesson on USB drives. In the early days of personal computers, many peripherals connected to the computer via serial or parallel ports on the back of your tower PC.
These ports were physical connectors that allowed you to plug in your printer or scanner via a series of pins.
The original Universal Serial Bus (USB) was designed as a way to standardize these peripheral connections so that any device could connect to any computer over a single cable with multiple wires inside it—the “universal” part meant that you didn’t need special adapters for each device anymore.
The first thing to know is that USB-C is actually a type of port and cable connector, while USB 3.0, and 3.2 are different versions of the USB protocol (for data transfer).
USB 3.0 was released in November of 2008. The majority of computers typically have a USB 3.0 port in them, but technology is never stagnant, and USB technology is always rapidly advancing. Throughout your average data transfer task, you can expect transfer speeds of around 3,300 Mbps.
USB 3.2 refers to the third major revision to the universal serial bus (USB) standard for computer connectivity, released in 2017.
USB 3.2 offers faster transfer speeds than earlier versions of USB and can achieve speeds up to 20 Gbps over short distances by using two lanes of data traffic simultaneously.
USB Type-C is the new, small connector shape that’s gradually replacing older USB-A and USB-B connector variations.
If you have a USB Type-C port, you can connect to USB 3.0 and later devices at speeds up to 10 Gbps. If you have a USB 3.0 (or later) port, you can connect to older USB devices at 480 Mbps or even slower speeds.
Should You Upgrade USB Ports?
Many people think about upgrading their USB drives for three reasons:
- How much data they want to store
- How fast they want to access that data
- Better encryption and security
If your computer is a thing of the past and your patience is starting to wear thing during file transfers, one thing you might be wondering about is if you can upgrade your USB ports.
With the new USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports out, you’ll be getting up to 40 Gbit/s in comparison to the drastically slower USB 2.0 drives.
Even though you might want to upgrade your current USB ports, there are a couple of questions you’ll want to think about.
- Can your computer support the newer USB ports?
- Will everything be compatible?
- Do you have the budget to pay a technician to install it if I don’t know how?
The introduction of USB 3.0 in 2008 (and now version 3.1 and 3.2) has brought more speed and functionality to how things are done.
While older versions were capable of speeds up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps), the new models can reach up to 40 Gbps, which translates into a much faster rate.
This level of speed is especially useful for transferring high-definition video files or large amounts of data from one device to another.
For example, it would take about 40 seconds for a standard USB 2.0 drive to transfer a video file that’s 100 GB in size, whereas the same file could be moved in about 10 seconds on a 3.0 drive.