Transcend PCI Express Interface USB 3.0 Dual Expansion Card

Great value card - only problem was it didn't recognise my WD "My Passport" USB 3.0 drive, which was the only reason I bought it. Tried all sorts of drivers - nothing helped until I changed the BIOS settings on my Asus M4A78 Pro motherboard to disable "PCIE Spread Spectrum" - now it works like a charm. So, a bit of a hassle to set up but not totally the card's fault - well worth the investment for the improved speeds.

I bought this a few weeks ago to upgrade my PC to USB. Simple I thought. This requires a molex power supply which is not standard on newer pcs and certainly not if you bought one off the shelf (basically any pc that isn't self made). This thus meant I either had to buy a new power supply or get an adapter and piggy back off some other power supplies.

Complicated and annoying, it doesn't say you need a power plug free in the description!

Otherwise seems to work fine, not sure it is 10x faster but is quicker than USB 2.0

Lights up blue as well, pointless round the back of a pc but different....!

Small and neat card, its illustration is a little misleading in that the large white chunk at the top far-most corner could have been almost anything. Despite building several PCs for my own use and that of others, it did not scream POWER CONNECTOR to me. A further illustration may have made that clear, as may have an inclusion in the technical data.

My PC, bought about 18 months ago, is 100% SATA internally and thus is provided with a power supply fitted only with SATA connectors. Not having cause to venture inside before now, I was not aware of that this would be a problem. There is nothing MOLEX or even an old-style floppy power connector although I do have a spare SATA power connector available. Hence the card is currently unsuitable for me and, I guess, many PC owners. I bought mine from another supplier as Amazon were out of stock at the time and there was no warning about the additional power requirements, either in the technical information or in a user review available at the time it was ordered, although others have since added appropriate comments. It is made clear in the internal documentation that the power connection IS ESSENTIAL.

I have a laptop that provides for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 and e-SATA and I had wished to be able to benefit from faster data transfer rates between the two machines and with each machine alone without needing to commit to a new PC that provides for one or both of the faster connection types. It may now be a consideration for the future.

Without the additional power provision, the card cannot obtain the required level of power via the PCIe-x1 slot and will provide USB 2.0 transfer rates at best. With the additional power provided, full speed is possible.

UPDATE @ 16-02-2011:
It is not clear from other reviewers' comments whether or not they have used the card with a USB 3.0 device. I most certainly have attempted to do so!

I have since located the required power adapter leads (SATA pass-through and SATA to Molex) to enable the card to be used. It and its relevant drivers (Win7) installed reasonably easily. The card appears to be 'working' as it appears in Device Manager as a valid USB controller and hub, but does not recognise a connected and previously formatted USB 3.0 drive and 'bongs' incessantly, recommending that the drive be formatted but is itself unable to do so. The same drive works perfectly well on my laptop at full USB 3.0 speed. A USB 2.0 drive connected to one of the card's 2 ports was IMMEDIATELY recognised and worked correctly. I now know that it is Transcend's driver that is at fault.

UPDATE @ 17-02-2011:
I have discovered via Transcend's Technical Support staff that there are combinations of the card with certain motherboards that are apparently incompatible with the supplied Transcend driver. If you own one of these cards and have experienced a failure for it to recognise USB 3.0 drives, there is a driver that should work. It is one written by NEC who originally designed the controller used by this card and can be requested if required. Using this driver, my USB 3.0 drive was instantly recognised and allowed transfer of 25GB of data in under 4 minutes.

As the card is now working well, I have upgraded my original 1-star rating to 4-stars, and would have given more but for the headaches that this card caused.