Review on 💻 StarTech.com 2-Port USB 3.1 Gen 1 and eSATA PCIe Card - High-Speed PCI Express Controller Card - 1x USB-A and 1x eSATA (PEXUSB311A1E) by Don Taniguchi

I bought this on purpose to add 10 Gigabit USB 3.1 Type-C ports to my computer to maximize the performance of my new SanDisk Extreme 900 external SSD when I first plugged in the drive and tried to write data to it, I was sorely disappointed when I saw a transfer rate of around 30MB/s. It's ridiculously slow for an SSD. When I plugged the drive into my motherboard's 5Gb USB 3.0 ports, it got write speeds of around 300MB/s, so I knew the drive was fine. So I went to the StarTech website and started a chat with a tech support representative. . He asked me some standard diagnostic questions (What motherboard model? Latest BIOS update? Which slot am I using? Which PCIe version? Have you tried a different slot? Is your monitor microwave? etc. etc.). Finally, he asked the magic question: what drivers did you install? In my defence, since the card was "just working" in Windows 10 when I installed it, I assumed Windows had installed the correct drivers for it. It turned out that this card required 3rd party drivers to enable USB 3.1 Gen 2 functionality. So I installed the drivers while still chatting online with a support rep and then tried the 4.2 -GB file from my computer to hard drive. it ended so quickly I couldn't see how quickly it was being transmitted. It was literally a blink and you'll miss it moment. This external drive on this expansion card is SO FAST it's almost terrifying (considering the original drive I migrated from is an Intel PCIe P3500 series SSD). I have never experienced such speed from an external drive. I've seen other reviews mentioning that the drivers might not be compatible with some motherboards. For reference, my motherboard is a Supermicro X10SRA and the add-in card is in the x16 3.0 slot. So. GREAT product and StarTech customer support is top notch!