Adding Orico USB 3.0 PCIe card to Acer Veriton X480G

Iggy

Not a question but here to document the process of installing an Orico USB 3.0 PCIe card to an Acer Veriton X480G we have at work in Sydney Australia. I thought this installation was going to be very easy and fast but there are a lot of pitfalls in installing a PCIe card into a slimline case that I didn't realise. I'll give the quick version of this install then tell you the long story and how I would have done things differently.

So if like me you had to install an Orico USB 3.0 PCIe card into the spare x1 PCIe slot of an Acer Veriton X480G, you will need extra cables and connectors to make it happen. This PCIe card needs power from the power supply which is where all the problems started. You need a Sata power splitter cable to share power with the CD-ROM. If your Acer Veriton X480G never had a CD-ROM or other 5.25 inch device then you will have a spare Sata power cable from the power supply. The second thing your will need is a right angle molex connector similar to this one in the link below.

https://www.jaycar.com.au/idc-pc-power-plug-4-pin/p/PS0740



You need this because there is very little room once you fit the Orico supplied power cable to then close the computer case again. When fitting the connector, mark the 1st pin on the connector and on the supplied cable. If you incorrectly wire the connector you will more than likely blow something up.

1) So first step turn off computer, touch the metal case while the power is connected to ground yourself, unplug and press power button to release any residual electricity from the computer.

2) Open case. The spare PCIe slot backpanel is covered. Push out the panel from inside to out. If you go the other way you can damage the motherboard. Be patient. I just kept poking it with a screwdriver. The card comes with a slimline backing plate. You have to unscrew the full case backing plate and replace with the slimline backing plate. Insert card into PCIe x1 slot.

3) Disconnect the Sata power cable and install the Sata power splitting cable. 

4) Place the molex 4 pin right angle connector into the power socket of the Orico USB 3.0 PCIe card. Lay the supplied Molex to Sata power cable onto the connector then press down on the connector so it splices itself into the cables making contact with the metal wire underneath the insulation. I used a flat head screwdriver to help with this. Close connector with supplied clip on lid.



5) Connector the 2nd Sata power splitter connector to the supplied Orico USB 3.0 PCIe card molex to Sata power cable.

The cabling should look like the photo below



6) Before closing the case, plug the computer power back in and turn on the test. For some reason the first time I did this windows 10 gave me a black screen. I restarted and Windows 10 started as normal. Test the new USB port. I was getting a 70Mb/s transfer from external SSD to Internal Hard Drive. The old USB 2.0 ports do about 26Mb/s. Shutdown pc, unplug power, turn on to drain electricity and double check cabling is secure before closing case.

7) You may wish to download driver from Orico to perhaps get even better transfer speeds. With the amount to effort I had to get to this stage I would rather not try and fix things if they are not broken.

So the long story to all this. I wanted to install this USB 3.0 PCIe card to use to clone the hard drive with an SSD. I haven't built a whole PC since the late 90s so very rusty. Luckily there are lots of youtube videos to learn. I only realise afterwards to clone the hard drive to a 2.5 inch SSD all I had to do was temporarily borrow the SATA connections off the CD-ROM drive. So this card installation was more a luxury rather than a necessity.

Anyway I did a search on USB 3.0 PCIe cards and found the ORICO USB3.0 2-Port PCI-E Expansion Card(PVU3-2O2I-V1) at a "cheap" price. Was the cheapest card I could find. Actually has 2 internal ports if I ever want to have USB 3.0 ports on the front of the computer. I thought the installation of the card would be as easy as slotting it into the spare x1 PCIe slot. It was only when I opened the box and read the instructions that I realised the card needs power from the power supply. So next day got a new Sata splitter power cable. Installed that and I thought I was good to go until I realised you can't close the case as the power cable over the cable was sticking out. I was already regretting getting this card and this was another headache. At this stage I at least got to test the card and it worked well so I just needed to sort out the cabling to be able to close the case.

A search for a suitable solution included trying to find a right angle molex to Sata power cable. Doesn't seem to exist. Then a search for a right angle molex to molex cable. I could only find something like this from overseas in the USA. Out of desperation I ended up going to the Jaycar store and asking for help and I'm luckily the manager knew exactly what I needed, a right angle molex connector only costing less than $4. The jaycar page is horribly keyword optimised. They called this connector an IDC power plug. If I hadn't gone to the store I might have been waiting for a cable from overseas.

Out of curiosity I tried searching for a USB 3.0 PCIe card that didn't need power from the power supply. I couldn't find one in Australia. There is one on the Orico site and I found a used one from the UK. The second best option if I had to do this again is buy a card that uses a Sata power connector. These cards seem to be $20 extra and the power connector on some of these cards on opposite the port so I would only need the Sata power splitting cable, assuming this other card supplied a Sata power cable.

billsey

Very nice, detailed instructions. Thanks!