GA-970A-D3 with USB exp. card

[Jezzer]

Hi. New to this forum but not to Giga-byte stuff.

I have a new GA-970A-D3 mobo. When I fit my USB 2.0 expansion card and plug in a device I get a Windows message saying that the  device can work faster if it is plugged into a USB 2.0 socket.

Now it may well be that my expansion card is not W7 x64 compatible but before I go and buy a USB3.0 card I would like to be confident that the mobo will support it.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome.

There is no reason why your USB card shouldn't work in theory but as you say sometimes you do get incompatibilities. There are plenty of people with USB3.0 cards installed so just make sure that you get one that is a decent quality and says Win7 compatible.

[Jezzer]

BTW I just realised I am talking about PCI slot and not PCI-express (the small ones yes?).

Do I take it that USB3.0 will work in both types?

[Dark Mantis]

I think that you are talking about a PCIE x1 slot from the sound of things. Can you give some more precise details of size etc and then I can be sure.

[Jezzer]

Currently I am using the larger white PCI slot. According to my notes below this is slower than USB 2.0 and, therefore, could be the root of the error I am rceiving. Please correct me if I am wrong:

PCIE x1 slots: These are white and about 1 1/4 inches long. The mobo manual says they conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard. This I understand to mean that the throughput is 500Mb/s which is about the same as USB 2.0

PCI slots: These are white and approx 3 inches long. The throughput is either 133Mb/s or 266Mb/s. They have been superceded by PCI Express.

Is it as simple as this? Comments are encouraged.

[Dark Mantis]

The PCI slots are just under 3.5" long roughly. The PCIE x1 slots are about 1" long. The next size up are PCIE x4 slots at 4.24" the same as the PCIE x8 and x16 slots, they only differ electrically.


You say you are using a USB2.0 card but it is not possible to decide which slot it will fit in either PCI or PCIE. They are not interchangeable. If it is designed for PCI then that is where it must be installed. If it fits the PCIE slots then there is more choice. I would say that any USB3.0 expansion card you buy will be PCIE only and so will have available plenty of throughput.

[Jezzer]

I agree. I am currently using the PCI slots so I think I will splash out on a USB3.0 card for use in a PCIE slot. £11.99 delivered from Ebay 

Thanks for your input Dark Mantis.

[Dark Mantis]

Only too glad to be of help. Please let us know the outcome of your installation when completed. 

[Jezzer]

Ahem. After all this I went for a USB3.0 hub. This works really well but has an irritating blue light even when the comp is off. Oh well.