USB 3 ports to top of aspire MS5201 casing?

turbopete

just wondering if the USB2, microphone and headphone jack unit/board can be removed and replaced with one featuring USB 3? if so where can I get them (preferably cheap!)

the motherboard has failed so I will be rebuilding with a newer, upgraded motherboard which will be USB 3 compatible (just sorting out the details with our IT guy at work!) so that wont be an issue, its just a case of is it possible and how?

billsey

I expect no matter which motherboard you go with, if it's new, it'll have mostly USB 3.0 ports. It might have a couple of USB 2.0 on the back, for keyboard and mouse, but the rest should be the faster ones. There are differences in speed between external drives that are not directly related to the USB speeds. Spin speed on the drive (5400, 7200, 10000 RPM) and average seek time can be more important for overall speed than the interface speed. An external SSD will be quite a bit faster to access than a low power 2.5" drive. If you're using the external drive only for backing up data that might not be much of an issue though, since you won't be waiting for something to load. Depending on how much data you keep on the computer you might find it better to keep the important stuff backed up to a thumb drive or an external SSD. Spinning drives are more likely to fail in a mechanical way that solid state. You might think about a low cost, low power 2.5" drive in the 1-2TB range for system backups and a 128-256GB thumb drive to hold the really important stuff.

The other differences between USB 20 and 3.0/3.1 are mostly in the power budget. USB 2.0 can provide up to 500mA of power to devices, USB 3.0 does 900mA and has a charging mode that bumps that to 1500mA. USB 3.1 bumps it again to 3A normal and 5A in charging mode.

billsey

...

Boy, there's an oldie! The headers, cabling and port form factor are the same from USB 2.0, 3.0 and 3.1, though you might see issues when trying to run the full 3.1 speed through the same cable as was designed for 2.0. If it were my system I'd give it a try with the existing front ports adapter. More problematic is likely finding a motherboard with that many ports on it, didn't yours have something like 12 USB ports? Unless you know someone with mad prototyping skillz I don't think you're going to find a direct replacement that has the blue or red port connectors instead of the black ones you have now.

turbopete

you are correct. 9 usb ports in total. 4 in the rear attached to the motherboard (ideal for keyboard etc) 4 in the top, and another 1 which was attached as part of the memory card reader in the front. im not entirely sure what the spec is of the motherboard (ive let my IT guru at work go through the benchmarks or whatever it is he does to decide the best board for the budget I have to rebuild this thing) and internally there were 4 plugs that led from the original USBs (top and front) that went to the motherboard. its entirely possible I might have to change the casing BUT I was working on the theory that id like to keep this one if possible, mostly because its been part of my furniture since new almost 10 years ago! 
USB 3 isn't essential, I just thought if it were possible at reasonable cost without major headache I might upgrade since I have the unit apart anyhow! and if I do lose some ports its not a big deal. I had USB for keyboard, mouse, printer, Bluetooth, then a memory stick from time to time or to update my satnav. the card reader gets used to transfer family videos from my camcorder to the PC as im simply too lazy to bother to work out how to do it via USB!!! I just remove the micro SD card, into the SD adapter, into the card reader and job done! however I will point out that im considering an external hard drive for important things that cant be replaced, but as far as im aware, the only difference is the read/write speed between the variations of USB, is that correct?

thanks for all the help so far

billsey

I expect no matter which motherboard you go with, if it's new, it'll have mostly USB 3.0 ports. It might have a couple of USB 2.0 on the back, for keyboard and mouse, but the rest should be the faster ones. There are differences in speed between external drives that are not directly related to the USB speeds. Spin speed on the drive (5400, 7200, 10000 RPM) and average seek time can be more important for overall speed than the interface speed. An external SSD will be quite a bit faster to access than a low power 2.5" drive. If you're using the external drive only for backing up data that might not be much of an issue though, since you won't be waiting for something to load. Depending on how much data you keep on the computer you might find it better to keep the important stuff backed up to a thumb drive or an external SSD. Spinning drives are more likely to fail in a mechanical way that solid state. You might think about a low cost, low power 2.5" drive in the 1-2TB range for system backups and a 128-256GB thumb drive to hold the really important stuff.

The other differences between USB 20 and 3.0/3.1 are mostly in the power budget. USB 2.0 can provide up to 500mA of power to devices, USB 3.0 does 900mA and has a charging mode that bumps that to 1500mA. USB 3.1 bumps it again to 3A normal and 5A in charging mode.