This trifecta of chips is literally the same setup Asus uses on their latest motherboards to offer USB 3.0 and SATA 6 to their customers albeit with a higher markup than $30.Īsus U3S6 x4 compared with Gigabyte USB 3.0 x1 card. This is the chip that allows the onboard controller chips to take advantage of more than 1 PCI Express 2.0 lane of bandwidth. Rounding out the features of this board and taking it from the merely ordinary to the extraordinary is the PLX bridge chip. While it is unfortunate that the USB ports are external only and the SATA 6Gb/s ports are internal, this is a limitation of the controller chips and not an oversight on Asus’s behalf.īoth of these controller chips are rated for only two ports each and this is the most logical setup with such a limited number of options available. All ports are of course backward compatible with their earlier perspective standards. The controller chips responsible for this versatility are the NEC D720200F for the dual external USB 3.0 ports and a Marvell SE9123 chip for the dual internal SATA 6Gb/s ports. This does make this card extremely versatile as many consumers wanting to upgrade a system to USB 3.0 are doing so because it will make transferring files to and from their HTPC all that much quicker.įrom left to right, NEC USB 3.0 host silicon, PLX bridge chip, Marvell SE9123 chip. You simply have to be able to source out a low profile bracket (which is not included) or do without a bracket altogether to use it in a smaller footprint HTPC system (for example). One noteworthy feature is while the card is long for a USB 3.0 adapter card (especially compared to an x1 like the Gigabyte GA-USB3 card) it still is a low profile card. While it is longer than most, it still is only a single slot solution as all the controller chips are considered low power, with no bulky heatsinks required to keep them cool. For an expansion card, the U3S6 is certainly a beefy package measuring a good 4.8 inches long. This versatility coupled with its all-black PCB does make for one sexy upgrade. Unlike many daughter cards on the market today, the Asus U3S6 is not only a USB 3.0 card but also a SATA 6Gb/s expansion “combo” board. 2 Crystal DiskMark Synthetic Benchmarks.
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