IOGEAR 2-Port USB 3.0 PCI-Express Card Model GIC320U

Pros: None

Cons: Bought and installed 3 of these. Does not work with Seagate USB3 Hard drive. latest drivers and firmware did not help. HDD works on another computer with built in USB3.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for choosing IOGEAR and we apologize for your experience. I will forward this information to the product manager for his review. Please contact our customer service at email: support@iogear.com and let us know in more detail on when and how you’re having this experience. We strive to ensure our customers are serviced with a properly working unit to exceed your satisfaction. Again, thank you for choosing IOGEAR.

Pros: Standard PCIe install process; Good instructions: install, firmware, and software not issue; Company Website is good; works as it should in Windows 7; Customer Consciousness High, as seen in reponses to other customer complaints below.

Cons: Big Con, and that accounts for the 4 vs 5 Eggs Award, is that this card, like other company UsB 3.00 cards, does not have the capability to support a boot drive inserted into it. In short, cannot boot from a thumb drive that is bootable so now fast Windows installation from it, no fast system recovery from it. Most of all, and to me this is very, very important; that non bootable function info is not to be found in the sales/maintenance/ porduct literature. You only come to know it after purchase, like the other companies that sell similar cards. So this adapter only works in the OS.

Other Thoughts: So far I have not been able to accurately pin down either the makes of these USB 3.0 adapter cards nor the bios maker of my system board regarding why a boot drive inserted in the card does not show up when tapping F8 during boot.

Pros: none

Cons: see previous review

Other Thoughts: No IOGEAR, the new firmware does NOT solve the issue. I had already tried that before I first contacted you for support. In my first contact with you I stated that I had already installed the new version of the firmware and loaded the latest driver but was told to "try downloading the new firmware" in your useless response anyway.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for choosing IOGEAR and we apologize for your experience. Please check the firmware version by clicking Start -> Program -> ->Renesas Electronics -> USB 3.0 Host Controller Driver -> "USB 3.0 Host Controller Utility". There should be a window pop up showing the firmware version. It it does not showing firmware version "3027, please visit IOGEAR website to download the latest firmware and driver. Please feel free to contact our customer support at 1-866-946-4327 or email us: support@iogear.com.

Pros: Bought it on sale. Five dollars off regular price. Works with flash drives.

Cons: Will not power up an external portable drive (which is USB powered). The drive just clicks repeatedly trying to spin up and can't. This is with the internal power connector connected to the power supply and confirmed voltage being delivered to the card.

Other Thoughts: I contacted IOGEAR support to try and determine if I had a defective card or it's just designed that way. They responded asking me if I had any other eSATA device I could try it with. Yeah, they actually said "eSATA". This is the first IOGEAR product I have owned. Needless to say, they have made my "do not buy from them" list.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for choosing IOGEAR and we apologize for your experience. Please download the new firmware and driver from the IOGEAR website. The new firmware/driver should solve the issue. Please feel free to contact our customer support at 1-866-946-4327 or email us: support@iogear.com. Once again, thank you for choosing IOGEAR.

Pros: Works right out of the box. Transferred 6.6gb in 50secs and then used same file to transfer by usb 2.0 which took 5.5minutes.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: using windows 7ult. 32bit w/3.2ghz processor. I like the usb 3.0 port so well, I ordered another one. Yes when I boot my system up and turn on the external usb 3.0 device before boot up is complete, I get a msg stating device could run faster if plugged into usb 3.0 port. But that msg disappears after bootup completes and the speed I get Is 3.0 speed.

Pros: None.

Cons: Have not got any USB 3.0 devices to be reconized as 3.0 devices in Windows 7 64bit. Always says it could perform better if you plugged the device into a USB 3.0 port.

Other Thoughts: Got the latest driver from the website and still no joy. It may have to go back.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for choosing IOGEAR and we apologize for your experience. Feel free to contact our customer support at 1-866-946-4327 or email us: support@iogear.com. We will be happy to assist you. If you can provide information of the device you try to connect to our USB3.0 PIC-Express card, our tech support will try our best to resolve issue you may have. Once again, thank you for choosing IOGEAR.