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Review on πŸ’» Enhance Your PC's Connectivity with PCE-U31AC: PCIE to USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps Expansion Card for Windows and MAC by Daniel Mandal

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Works well, easy to install, has a flat mount

I was actually looking to upgrade my PC to have an extra Type-C port and USB 3.2 is just an added bonus. This is a great way to upgrade an old computer or add more ports to a new computer. This card comes in handy when you want to add extra Type-C ports to a new or even old computer. The best part is that this device comes with a flat mount. I can install this on my old Dell mini computer that uses a bottom profile mount. The advantage of a Type-C card and a USB 3.2 port is that you get faster data transfer speeds. It also does not require an additional power supply to operate, so you can just plug and play. Also, you need to make sure your motherboard has a PCI-E slot, at least PCI-E x 4. This will also work with your graphics card slot if you have a free slot. If the port is PCI-E x 1 it will not work, but for most other PCI-E slots it will work. Another nice thing is that you just plug it in and it should work automatically on your PC. I have windows 10 and it started working at boot. I didn't have to install a hard drive driver or additional drivers. I'm not sure how this will work for Windows 7 or 8, but it works very well for Windows 10. I can connect two additional portable hard drives at the same time and they all get power with no issues. The transfer speed via this card is incredibly fast, but please note that this also depends on the connected device. There is only one Type-C port and one USB 3.2 port. They're side by side, which is good for the bulkier USB ports. You can connect a hub to it to get more slots if you really want. Seems to be well supported. The distance ensures that the devices you connect do not interfere with each other. There are no problems with connection and heating. It looks like the device already has a heatsink, so it should keep it relatively cool. It doesn't support video, so don't expect to connect HDMI to Type-C and get video output. I've tried this just below my GPU, above my GPU and it still works fine with no heat issues. It comes with any screw to screw this card to your case so you may need to find one, but most cases I've seen currently have screws or latches built in. It again has a low-profile mount if you're using it on a low-profile desktop, but I found that it usually only has PCI-E x 1, which unfortunately doesn't work with this card. Replacing the brackets requires a screwdriver to remove the plate. All in all, this is a pretty good card. It is very easy to install and works automatically with Windows 10. It has a pretty good transfer rate even when using both ports. There are no bottlenecks or connection problems. The only downside is that there is no screw included to install the card. Also, it doesn't count as a Lightning Strike, so if you try to just plug a Lightning Strike drive into it, it won't be read.

Pros
  • Great for a small home
Cons
  • No insurance