Anker - Uspeed USB 3.0 PCI-E Express Card with 4 USB 3.0 Ports and 5V 4-Pin Power Connector for Desktops [VL805 Chipset]

Installation went well on a Hewlett-Packard Windows 7 64-bit computer. I did have a bit of a scare when seating the card into the PCI-E slot. When the card seated, there was a snap sound. I think it was the silver metal of the card clanging against the body of the computer box. Not exactly a sound I want to hear but nothing broke and everything is working. Read on.The package contained:1) Anker Uspeed USB 3.0 PCI-E Express Card with 4 USB ports (with 5V 4-pin power connector)2) 5V 4-pin power connector to SATA power connector adapter cable3) USB 3.0 PCI-E Card Driver on mini-CD4) 2 screws (I didn’t need them)5) Instruction ManualInstallation steps are easy and are provided on the box as well as in the included Instruction Manual (which is more of a small four-page leaflet).This is what I did:1. I first connected the provided SATA to 4-pin adapter power cable to the Anker USB 3.0 card.2. With computer off and unplugged, I installed the Anker USB 3.0 card into the available PCI-Express slot and connected the power cable to an available SATA power connection in the computer. The available 5V- 4pin power connector in my computer was too short to reach the Anker USB 3.0 card but the provided SATA to 5V 4-pin cable adapter acted like an extension cord allowing me to connect the card. This was really helpful and I’m glad the adapter cable was included.3. Turned on the computer. The computer recognized the new hardware and attempted to install a driver but driver installation was unsuccessful.4. I put the mini-CD in the DVD drive and opened the disc to reveal one file: VIA_XHCI_Driver_V4.00B_NoAp.exe. I double clicked on the file and it installed the VIA XHCI Host Controller Driver v4.00B successfully5. Rebooted the computer to finish the installation.Note: The Instruction Manual states “Each USB port can only provide a 0.9A max. power current. For high-power devices, such as hard disks, please connect these to an additional power source to ensure sufficient power supply.”After reading this I was disappointed because I wanted to use a USB-only-powered portable USB 3.0 drive I have and not mess with an AC power cord. I decided to try it thinking what’s the worst that could happen? A system crash wouldn’t be the end of the world and I already imaged my System before installing the card. I’m happy to report everything worked well when using a USB-only-powered external hard drive.After the installation was complete I decided to see if I spent my money well. Here are some comparisons between the USB 2.0 port and my computer and using a USB 3.0 port in the newly installed Anker USB 3.0 card. I used the same ports on the computer for each data transfer and I used the same file for consistency. I listed each of the external hard drives I tried and put the time it took to transfer a large file below.Western Digital Elements External Desktop 2 TB 3.5” USB 2.0 AC-powered hard drive –USB 2.0 port: Time to transfer large file from Desktop to Drive was 3 minutes 5 secondsHGST Touro 2 TB 3.5” External Desktop USB 3.0 AC-powered hard drive -USB 2.0 port:Desktop to Drive: 2 minute 56 secondsDrive to Desktop: 2 minute 18 secondsAnker USB 3.0 card port:Desktop to Drive: 1 minute 45 secondsDrive to Desktop: 1 minute 2 secondsWestern Digital Elements SE Portable 1 TB 2.5” USB 3.0 USB-powered hard drive -USB 2.0 port:Desktop to Drive: 2 minute 48 secondsDrive to Desktop: 2 minute 18 secondsAnker USB 3.0 card port:Desktop to Drive: 1 minute 12 secondsDrive to Desktop: 1 minute 2 secondsI expected to see an improvement in data transfer time and I was not disappointed. The USB 3.0 connection greatly outperformed the USB 2.0 connection. I had no trouble with the USB-powered-only hard drive despite the notice in the Instruction Manual and the transfer time between the AC-powered and USB-powered external hard drives were similar. Interestingly, the Western Digital Elements SE portable drive significantly outperformed the HGST drive when transferring data from the Desktop to the Drive.If I have problems in the future I will post an update.

This Anker PCI-E USB 3.0 product deserves 5 stars because of the price as well as performing exactly the way I expected. Why I didn't do this sooner is a mystery to me. Maybe it was because I didn't think I could do it but then I thought; How hard can it be? I did my due diligence, researched the products available and the installation process as any good retired person would do and then I pulled the trigger. Amazon sent it out immediately and it arrived in my mailbox 3 days later.I would recommend this Anker USB 3.0 PCI-E card to any computer user wanting to add the faster functionality of USB 3.0 ports to an older computer that only has USB 2.0 ports. First of all, you don't need to get a more expensive USB 3.0 card to accomplish this upgrade even though they are available and honestly I don't know why you would want to spend more. OK, now for the good part where I tell you my experience. I use Windows Backup every week to an external USB 3.0 Drive which happens to be a Western Digital My Passport. Using this Anker USB 3.0 card I expected the backup to finish much faster than using the USB 2.0 path. Also, I occasionally copy large folders from my hard drive to this external disk so I expected this task to finish much faster for the same reason. NOTE: The speed difference you experience will depend on the PCIe Bus Type slot in your computer, e.g., 1.0a, 2.0 or 2.1. As a general rule of thumb, the older your computer the more likely the speed increase will not be the maximum this USB 3.0 card is capable of but do not let that dissuade you. Even the PCIe Bus type 1.0a with this Anker USB 3.0 card is still 5X faster than just plain USB 2.0 transfer speeds. If you happen to have the PCIe Bus type 2.0 or 2.1 then you'll smile a lot more because the transfer speed difference is 10X faster.Here are a few links I found that brought me up to speed pretty quickly about the subject of USB 3.0:[...][...]This PCI-E card comes with a CD that contains the driver for the card as well as a SATA to Molex 4 Pin power cable about 6" long. For what it's worth I also ordered a Molex Power Supply Y Splitter Cable but it was taking so long to arrive I decided to use the supplied cable which worked just fine. First I shutdown my computer then I installed the Anker 3.0 card which was as easy as all get out. Then I reassembled the computer, powered it up and installed the driver by double clicking the executable file on the CD. After answering a few "Next" questions the install procedure said it needed to reboot the computer. After the reboot the Anker USB 3.0 PCI-E card was active and it was time to test it out. Sadly my computer is 4 years old and I only had a PCI Bus Type 1.0 but available for the Anker card but I knew it already so I was not surprised by expecting the full speed increase. My Windows Backup usually takes about 2 hours. I performed an impromptu backup and the expected time to completion was happily verified as taking only 25 minutes. Alright, now we're talking! That happened to be the exact elapsed time to completion I was expecting. Happy, happy, happy!!!I hope the links I entered for more information get through because they helped me a lot in making my decision. So go ahead already, add this item to your shopping cart and prepare to have a good time. Remember to read your computer User Manual for the procedure to disassemble the chassis and be careful to support the plastic power connector on the Anker card while plugging in the 4-Pin Molex power cable because as is typical of Molex connectors it is a tight connection and requires a little more force than you might think is appropriate. Also the Molex connector is "keyed" to connect one way only so pay attention.