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Useful PC Expansion Cards and 5.25 Drive Bay Accessories

ThatM1key

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As I gotten a computer job, I've gotten sick of seeing large-case computers with junky RGB fans and expansion cards that should be USB instead like WIFI and DAC's. In this sort of guide, we'll go over actually useful expansion cards that won't waste your precious slots and yes even 5.25 bays. This thread will be updated/edited from time to time like my others.

6-17-21 Update: I have learned that most PCI-e slots (1x to 8x) on the motherboard go through the BMI (Intel)/UMI? (AMD), which is the tunnel between the CPU and Chipset. These "left-over" slots share bandwidth between USB, on-board SATA, etc. The top slot (x16) talks to the CPU directly and that is why GPU's use them. Supposedly with Nvidia SLI motherboards the 2nd x8/x16 slot talks to the CPU directly. Please keep this mind when reading about expansion cards below.

SATA Cards:
SATA Cards are my favorite kind of expansion card. They add extra SATA ports to your PC, giving you piece of mind. People mainly use these with multi-optical-drive PCs and hard drives. There is many kinds and variations based on PCIE speed and Chip speed. Although I will not be talking about RAID.

1 common type is the "x1" PCIE 3.0 versions which come in 2 flavors, 2-ports and 4-ports:
71xlvF1NgZL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

Realistically, these "x1" cards can only do 1 SSD at Full Speed (SATA 3). So, when you add more SATA devices, the speeds gets divided between them. A good use case (4-Port versions), would be to use 4 optical disc drives, which each drive would be limited to SATA 1 speeds. Another case (2-ports/4-ports versions), would be to use 2 hard drives. Each hard drive is limited to SATA 2 speeds but most hard drives don't reach SATA 3 speeds, some don't even reach SATA 1 speeds. These cards are very cheap and takes up your x1 slots.


1 semi-common type would be the "x4" cards, there PCIE 3.0 and they start at 6 ports and go beyond:
71Mixn+oTVL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

These cards are popular with hard drive users and SSD users. These cards can handle 2-3 SSDs at SATA 3 speeds and 6 hard drives at SATA 2 speeds. Just like the card above, when you add a SATA device, the speed gets divided but the margin is a lot smaller. The downside is that there pricey and they take up a x16 slot on your motherboard, which if your a gamer, you would only have 1 left. Some motherboards use the 2nd x16 slot for NVME M.2 drives, so they get disabled for use.

USB Cards:
The famous kind of expansion card, the USB card. When USB 3.0 was coming around, the demand for upgrading USB 2.0-only PCs was very large and still pretty large. These days, the common USB card upgrade would be 10-gigabit cards and the "specific case" USB card would be the the 20-gigabit cards. I'm not gonna mention the USB name mess like USB 3.1 and USB 3.2.

The old but loved USB 3.0 cards:

71a6Rpp6hzL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

These cards took up x1, which wasn't asking much even back then. There cheap but since the bandwidth is shared, they can only 1 run USB 3.0 device at full speed.

The 10-gigabit USB cards:
61DaiKApFnS._AC_SL1500_.jpg

10-gigabit USB is found on many modern computers but there still a good amount of PCs running with only USB 3.0 (5 gigabits). Like the title says, they add 10-gigabit support. A popular use for 10-gigabit is NVME M.2 external drives (DIY and consumer-friendly variants). The 2 downsides is they take up a x4 slot (x16 slot) and there kind of pricey. (This is also 2X flavors)

The ultra-luxury 20-gigabit USB cards:
61e7msVSRHL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

Found on very few motherboards, its 20-gigabit USB. Like the title says, this adds 20-gigabit USB support to your PC. Same 2 downsides as the 10-gigabit card. If your willing to pay 10-gigabit card prices, I would aim for these 20-gigabit cards.

Honorable mention, the USB Headers cards (Currently USB 3.0 and 10-gigabits):
31ge4ztjYTL._AC_.jpg

Instead of adding ports to your PC, they add USB headers. There useful for PC cases that offer the port but the motherboard doesn't have a header for it. Another useful case would be using it with a 5.25 USB bay, even if your motherboard has these headers.

NVME M.2 Cards:
NVME M.2's are the most sought after kind of SSD, very very fast and good prices when compared to 2.5 SSDs and SATA M.2s (Ew). Even though currently the jump from a 2.5 SSD to a NVME M.2 (PCIE 3.0 and 4.0) isn't that big but Microsoft's "Directstorage API" will make the jump even larger in the future. The demand for NVME M.2's is very large right now even if your using the PC for web browsing unironically.

PCIE 3.0 & 4.0 x4 NVME M.2 SSD:
71U4C8-GqPL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

There is plenty of these adapters all over the market right now and for good reason. There dirt cheap and run NVME M.2's (PCIE 3.0 and 4.0 variants) at full speed but the only downside is that it takes up a x4 slot. Useful for motherboards that support NVME M.2s but don't have a slot and there also great for adding an additional M.2 slots if your motherboards got some already. Theoretically the PCIE 3.0 card can be added to any PC rocking a PCIE 3.0 x4 slot but I'm not sure if your motherboard would see this card as bootable if doesn't naturally support it.

PCIE 4.0 x16 Quad NVME Raid Cards:
817as0ayjKL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

Another example of "Ultra Luxury" and "Specific Case" cards. These cards offer quad PCIE 4.0 NVME M.2 support to your PC. Variant cards range from 128-gigabits (4000 megabyte per M.2) to 256-gigabits (8000 megabyte per M.2). There meaty (x16 slot), expensive, and motherboard/chipset specific.

5.25 USB Bays:
The go-to solution for PC Junkies craving the current USB tech. There many kinds of USB bays, fan controllers, card readers, quick charging, hot-swaping and of course 10-gigabit.

The USB 3.0 Bays:
51ebD-n2lFL._AC_SL1001_.jpg

A common upgrade for PC cases that don't have USB 3.0 ports, motherboards that have a 2nd motherboard USB 3.0 header and for people that added a USB 3.0 header to there motherboard using a USB header card. You will find many 5.25 USB bays that have 4+ USB 3.0 ports but do keep in mind, each USB header (2.0 and 3.0) can only handle 2 ports. One another downside is that there kind of pricey even though its 2022 as of writing this.

USB 3.X 10-gigabit Bays:

719NgHk2qbL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

The hottest kind of USB Bay, the 10-gigabit ones. Although 20-gigabit is the future, 10-gigabit is now almost common. I think 1 10-gigabit device is supported with each header. 1 downside is that also kind of pricey but they cost the same as USB 3.0 Bays, so I would get this plus an USB 3.0 to "Type E" adapter (If your motherboard only supports USB 3.0) or even a "Type E" 10-gigabit header card.

USB Charging Bays:
51z45vC6SYL._AC_SL1000_.jpg

Found on USB bays, they sometimes feature a simple 2.0+ Amp charging port to a full fledged QC 3.0 charging ports like the bay above. Charging ports on computers are not a new idea since they can found on motherboards dating to around early 2010s.

USB Card Reader Bays:
71QTfUji+sL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

If were dealing with tech in the 2000s, you probably dealt with the various portable storage formats and one of these was a bit of must back then. Over the years USB versions have gotten more popular, so the need for one of these bays is not needed if your on a tight budget. Although these kinds of bays are great for cases that have a couple bays and want a "all-in-one" package.

Honorable mention - Hot Swap USB Bays:
51ixtA1Lh-L._AC_SL1200_.jpg

Hot Swaps were the rage because people want to store all there drives into PC and wanted the option to use the drives on other PCs. There is USB Hot-Swap bays but I would just stick with an hot-swap-only bay unless you got limited amount of bays.

Another mention - Fan Control USB Bays.
71Z2Mz8it1L._AC_SL1500_.jpg

Since people wanted that "all-in-one" experience, companies made fan control USB bays. I don't have much to say about this.

Fan Controllers Bay:
These fan controllers were the rage and then quickly went away. With 3-pin fans, you can set the speed but the motherboard wouldn't ramp up the fans when your PC got hot. That's where these fan controllers used to come in. They offered easier fan control and sometimes even automatic fan speed with thermal probes (Before 4-pin PWM). Since LED fans were also a thing around this time and many hooked up there fans to these controllers. The problem is that as you turned down the speed, the LEDs would go dimmer due to fan controllers being just essentially voltage regulators. There still useful if you just want easier manual control and got 3 pin fans.

The manual-only fan controllers:
41eHMZOo8hL._AC_.jpg

These controllers were the basic kind, they controlled 1 to 2 fans per knob and didn't offer anything automatic.

The automatic fan controllers:
ANRBD200908JQ7IY.jpg

Since people wanted easiness, companies offered automatic fan controllers. These fan controllers come with thermal throbs, so the controller ramps the speed when it senses the temp as increased.

The touch-screen fan controllers:
11-998-150-01.jpg

If wanted to feel cool, you got one of these at-the-time fancy touch screen fan controllers. They offered animated touch screens along with automatic fan control.

The dual-bay touch-screen fan controllers:
tmpv12xt_01.jpg

If you got plenty of left over bays, you would get one of these dual-bay touch screen fan controllers. Overkill, yes.
 
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HammerSandwich

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re: SATA cards, Gary Cole said it quite well.

This is more opinion than absolute truth (do what works for you!), but I'll always take a good PCIe NIC plus a solid NAS over more drives in my primary PC. Done well, it's a local Dropbox/iCloud/OneDrive; with a single, redundant, versioned, dataset for multiple client devices. And, as you add more users & devices, a NAS offers ever greater rewards.
 

mansr

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expansion cards that should be USB instead like WIFI
That depends. I'd only use USB for a primary network connection as a last resort.

Regarding storage, I haven't run out of built-in ports for a long time. My newest motherboard has something like 12 SATA ports, all full speed.

I could use some more USB ports, though.
 

nerdstrike

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I would like to mention that the 5 1/4 USB hub and card reader unit I fitted a couple of years ago was a big pain to set up. It involved some seriously shonky driver installation, and with such poor documentation that I couldn't tell at all which headers were doing what. Still don't have the USB3 headers working, but I can get by without those.
 

pseudoid

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This thread will be updated/edited from time to time like my others.
@WhichM1key... Didn't you forget the most important add-in card of them all?
The graphics card.
 

pseudoid

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Maybe "Desktop/Laptop GPUs" deserve their own post.

In the interim, Intel's ARC (born 'Alchemist') series of new GPUs look to be competitive (performance/price), in a new 3-horse race.
The Intel ARC A770 is said to be 32 cores, PCIE 4.0x16, using 256bit bus, 16GB-GDDR6 but 250W TDP (TGP?), by TSMC@6nm fab.
In the meanwhile, nVidia is releasing their new 'Ada' and AMD is bringing out their 'RDNA-3'.
"Bring it on!" << I say.:)
 
OP
ThatM1key

ThatM1key

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Maybe "Desktop/Laptop GPUs" deserve their own post.

In the interim, Intel's ARC (born 'Alchemist') series of new GPUs look to be competitive (performance/price), in a new 3-horse race.
The Intel ARC A770 is said to be 32 cores, PCIE 4.0x16, using 256bit bus, 16GB-GDDR6 but 250W TDP (TGP?), by TSMC@6nm fab.
In the meanwhile, nVidia is releasing their new 'Ada' and AMD is bringing out their 'RDNA-3'.
"Bring it on!" << I say.:)
I think AMD will crush Intel (In terms of GPU).
 

pseudoid

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Do AMD GPUs work in a manner [ummmm...] 'more integrated' if/when the system is built around a Ryzen CPU???
 

Vacceo

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I wanted to add a little element on the fan controllers. I use a GPU+CPU water-cooled system. The fans are set to spin depending on how hot the water of the loop is running. The hotter it gets, the faster it spins. This is archived by a simple temperature measuring fitting. All this system is automated on the BIOS.

Yes, the system is overkill and leaning more towards aesthetics, but damn, it works great.
 

Berwhale

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To add to the collection of drive bay adapters...

I have one of these widgets:

1662142963972.png



It allows me to present rear USB 3.0 and HDMI ports on the front of my PC in a 3.5" bay. This makes it really easy to plug my Acer VR Headset when I fancy a play with it. The adapter is hidden behind a door when not in use.
 

Prana Ferox

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No mention of NICs? Almost all computers are going to come with a 1 gig Ethernet port but if you want something beyond that it's generally going to have to be on an add-in card. I've also used add-ins to give modern Wi-Fi / Bluetooth to ancient boxes.

I'm not a fan of hanging anything important off an external USB port. It seems to inevitably lose connection or have other problems. Not really an issue if you're the type that turns your computer on for an hour or two and then turn it off, but for 24/7 operation I don't trust it.
 

Doodski

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I'm not a fan of hanging anything important off an external USB port.
I picked up a CDN ~$500 ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-F GAMING WIFI motherboard recently and this is all it has for rear USB connections. After whipping out my camera and connecting, USB speakers, USB headphones and the usual other peripherals I'm pretty much out of non-USB-C ports. The manufacturers need to do a little better in providing the USB ports.
ROG%20STRIX%20Z690-F%20Gaming%20WiFi%20Rear%20panel.jpg
 

Kal Rubinson

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Doodski

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Perhaps you forgot the pads located on the motherboard itself?
There are plenty of them...
Yeah. There are headers for USB on the motherboard. I'm fussy and want them stock mounted at the rear breakout and no extra rear mounting plates. :D
 

Prana Ferox

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I picked up a CDN ~$500 ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-F GAMING WIFI motherboard recently and this is all it has for rear USB connections. After whipping out my camera and connecting, USB speakers, USB headphones and the usual other peripherals I'm pretty much out of non-USB-C ports. The manufacturers need to do a little better in providing the USB ports.
If the devices are low bandwidth (which those all sound like, depending on the camera) and don't need a lot of bus power you could get a USB hub and consume one port for that stuff, and leave the high bandwidth ports for devices that need it. I like doing this for stuff like wireless keyboard / mouse receivers and card readers because it also lets you move them somewhere you can get to them more easily. That is one nice thing about USB, you can get essentially endless ports on it, it's just a matter of whether your devices can share the bandwidth.
 

Doodski

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If the devices are low bandwidth (which those all sound like, depending on the camera) and don't need a lot of bus power you could get a USB hub and consume one port for that stuff, and leave the high bandwidth ports for devices that need it. I like doing this for stuff like wireless keyboard / mouse receivers and card readers because it also lets you move them somewhere you can get to them more easily. That is one nice thing about USB, you can get essentially endless ports on it, it's just a matter of whether your devices can share the bandwidth.
A USB hub would be handy dandy and as you mentioned make access much easier than leaning over a desk allll the way to the back of a desktop'er. It's a bit far back and a stretch... :D
 
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