ECS Also Providing USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s Cards
ECS is also releasing two PCI-Express cards for USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s.
It looks as if a good handful of manufacturers is ignoring Intel's hesitancy and is jumping on the USB 3.0 / SATA 6 Gb/s bandwagon. ECS is the latest to produce new hardware, sporting two tasty PCI-Express expansion cards: one providing USB SuperSpeed and one providing the new SATA. These PCI-E cards provide access to the new technology without the need for replacing the entire motherboard.
The news originally appeared on XFastest, however TechPowerUp translated the post, reporting that the cards use the NEC µPD720200 controller for the USB 3.0 version and the Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2 controller for the SATA 6 Gb/s version. According to the post, the USB 3.0 card provides both ports on the rear-panel; the SATA 6 Gb/s card provides one internal SATA port, and one eSATA 6 Gb/s connection.
Currently ECS has not released pricing or ship dates for either version, but we're expecting them to hit the market during Asus's and ASRock's launch window of similar products. There may be a drawback to using these cards however: both supposedly remain in 1x PCI-E format. If that is indeed the case (for who knows why in a 16x world), the narrow pipeline may limit the overall Mb/s speed.
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Why PCI-E 1x? My motherboard has only one 16x slot and it's already occupied. I'm sure many current systems suffer the same affliction and ECS is just looking out us also.
why do they not roll them both onto one? USB3 on the plate and SATA6 on the PCB?
There are 3 reasons they don't roll them into 1 card.
1. They can make more money from selling 2 seperate cards.
2. Not everyone requires both features so it could make each card better value.
3. The PCIe 1x bandwidth will already be throttled enough with the SATA6 traffic, add USB3 and it's taking bandwidth that's already saturated. SATA2 already uses more than PCIe 1x can offer so why would you want SATA6 on it too?
PCIe 4x was deigned for these cards, it's about time for mobo makers to drop PCI for good and fill the boards with PCIe 4x and 16x slots, actually why not have them all 16x length and have the inserted card dictate the bandwidth required, any PCIe card can be installed in a slot of equal or greater length so this would allow the greatest flexibility for the end user for cooling requirements of Graphics cards while allowing better expansion card capabilities.
I believe the industry is a little stuck with the whole PCI to PCIe switchover, card makers don't produce PCIe cards because mobo makers aren't putting enough PCIe slots on the board because there aren't enough cards on the market to support them...Build them and they will come :-)
JKay6969