Question 1

is this compatible with Dell Optiplex 755 running windows 7?

Accepted Answer

According to the Dell manual for OptiPlex 755, there are 4 configurations of the 755 PC case, IE desktop, mini-tower, small-form, etc. All these have different provisions for adding a card.

Assuming you have a desktop [and assuming you never added a card before], you should have 2 available empty PCI slots.

Startech's PCI card is compatible with Windows 7 and will work with any PC with an available PCI slot. but you should familiarize yourself with the process, depending on your experience; a look at the Dell manual will help. If you need the manual, the Dell USA website support tab has a link to a downloadable PDF for your PC.

I run my Startech in a Gateway of about the same age as your OptiPlex. The install was fast & hassle free.

Hope this helps!

Question 2

Can I put this in older Mac Pro towers? I have a 2006 and a mid-2010

Accepted Answer

It has been good with my Windows 7. However, it is kind of intermittent nuisance if 4 ports are loaded (4th device may not be recognized).  It would be nice if there were a front 2.5" bay for quick access PnP.  XFR rate is > 20MB/s for USB 2.0 devices and >40MB/s for USB 3.0 devices and it also depends upon the number of xfr'ed files.

Question 3

Will this card work with my Gigabyte 78LMT-s2 motherboard? My PCI Express 2.0 and PCIEX1 slots are being utilized and I have one open slot labeled PCI.

Accepted Answer

It should.  That said a few things you should know, USB3 on a PCI bus will be only a bit faster than USB2 as the bandwidth of the bus is much slower.  The same holds true for a USB3 card in a PCIe slot as compared to builtiin USB3, it too will be slower but not by much.  The only other thing to make note of as I have had this issue with various USB3 cards is the chip on the card conflicting with a built-in USB3 chip on the motherboard if yours has one.  I have found that if the chips are the same brand, such as NEC or Broadcom, etc. one or the other will not work once you get into Windows.  Usually the card won't work.  It may POST on startup but that is all.  I have on numerous occurrences had to swap around USB3 cards between computers to get combinations that worked.

Question 4

Does this card have a connection for the USB3 port on the front of my case?

Accepted Answer

No, there are no ports on the back of the card that can be used to connect to a port on the front of the case.  The only ports are positioned to be on the back of the case.

Question 5

do the included drivers make the card bootable ?

Accepted Answer

Sorry - can't help you.  I never got that far with mine which I bought Jan of last year; couldn't make it work in a PCI slot to give me four extra USB3 ports so I shelved it, not worth the time/expense hassle of returning it.

Question 6

can anyone tell me how fast this would be?

Accepted Answer

Check the reviews.  Myself and another customers posted their results.  It's ~90 MB/sec or so, at least without PCI Conventional devices hogging the bus.
That's 720 Mbps, which is about on-part with (32-bit, 33 MHz) PCI Conventional's 1064 Mbps (133 MB/sec) limit.

It is NOT going to be as fast as native motherboard or PCI Express USB 3.0 card, but if you don't have PCIe slots, it's still faster than USB 2.0 which maxes out at 60 MB/sec (480 Mbps).

Question 7

Are the drivers compatible with Windows 10?

Accepted Answer

Yes.  It's a Renesas USB 3.0 controller, Windows Update will grab the necessary driver for you if you don't load the one from the box.

Question 8

I am installing this card in a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server.  (It has no PCI Express slots, hence having to buy this one that fits in a PCI slot, which it has.)  My question is, how can I power it?  If I use a split SATA cable, what item or model number cable would you recommend?  Thanks for your help.

Accepted Answer

The problem is that I have no spare power source on this server.  I ended up splitting the power from another source with a "Y" cable and that seems to have taken care of the problem.  Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.

Question 9

is this coventional pci? or pci express?

Accepted Answer

PCI Conventional, not PCI Express.
If you have PCI Express, get a PCIe card you'll get better performance.
This is aimed for folks who don't have PCIe and need more bandwidth than USB 2.0's 480 Mbps.

Question 10

Does this work with Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 Mother Board?

Accepted Answer

I looked up the specs of your motherboard and it has 3 PCI Conventional slots.  This card should work in any of those slots.  HOWEVER, your USB throughput will be limited to the PCI Conventional bandwidth which is only 133 MB/sec or 1064 Mbit/sec TOTAL, shared across the 4 ports.
USB 3.0 (aka USB 3.1 Gen 1) can go up to 5 Gbps, so you will be limited to 1/5th the speed of your motherboard's USB 3.0 ports.  If you have other PCI Conventional cards installed, the speed will be limited even more.

Instead of this card, I would recommend getting the StarTech PEXUSB3S44V 4 Port Quad Bus PCI Express (PCIe) SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card Adapter with UASP - SATA/LP4 Power that Newegg sells.  It's a PCI Express x4 card, so you can put it into your Gray PCI Express x16 (x4 mode) slot and you'll get WAY MORE USB 3.0 bandwidth on each of its 4 ports.  It costs more, but it'll give you better performance, especially if you're using high-bandwidth devices like USB 3 video adapters, fast flash drives or SSDs, or multiple devices.

Questions & Answers