Add SuperSpeed USB Connections to Your PC

Your PC has USB 2.0 ports, and they have served you well. Talk about compatibility - keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, joysticks, digital cameras, flash drives - what couldn’t you plug in? However, talk about performance, well that is where USB 2.0 ports are merely passable, as they limit data transfer speeds to around 25–30 MB/s. For most peripherals, that is perfectly adequate, but when you connect an external drive and expect great performance, that bottleneck is a problem, video editing, backing up and other data-intensive activities suffer as a result.

Enter Sonnet’s Allegro™ USB 3.0 PCIe, the bottleneck breaker! This Sonnet host controller is based on the new USB 3.0 standard that offers up to 10x the performance of the decade-old USB 2.0 interface. A single hard drive with a USB 3.0 interface is capable of transferring data at up to 125 MB/s, while SSDs (solid state drives) are capable of even faster transfers. Install an Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe card into your computer to exploit the full performance potential of these fast drives. (*1)

Sonnet’s Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe features a PCIe 2.0 bus interface to take advantage of your computer’s fast expansion card slots. Each of this card’s ports supports bus-powered peripherals (devices that work without a separate power supply, including some external drives and scanners). Not only is this card backward-compatible with your USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 peripherals, it also supports hot-swappable device connection. Install an Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe card into your PC to experience the super speed of USB 3.0 connectivity firsthand.

(*1) USB 3.0 devices require USB 3.0 cables to support USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed) transfer speeds (up to 5 Gb/s). Use of USB 2.0 cables between USB 3.0 devices and Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe is supported, but data transfers are limited to USB 2.0 speeds (up to 480 Mb/s).

• Simple way to add two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports to any compatible desktop PC
• Transfers data up to 10x faster than over USB 2.0 connections
• Supports hot-swappable device connection - plug in and disconnect peripherals without shutting off your computer
• Powered ports support bus-powered drives

Part No. USB3-E Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe

Hardware

• Warranty:
  1 year
• Bus Interface:
  PCI Express 2.0 x1
• Peripherals Supported:
  Supports all industry standard USB 3.0, 2.0, and 1.1 peripherals
• Cables Supported:
  USB 3.0 with Standard-A male connector, USB 2.0 with Standard-A male connector
• Chipset:
  >NEC

USB Support

• Number of Ports:
  2 external
• Standard:
  USB v. 3.0/2.0/1.1 compatible. Complies with OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface), EHCI (Enhanced Host Controller Interface) and xHCI (eXtensible Host Controller Interface) standards
• Data Transfer Rates:
  USB 3.0: 5 Gbps; USB 2.0: 480 Mbps;
  USB 1.1: 12 Mbps
• Number of Devices Supported:
  Up to 127
• Hot Plug:
  Supports hot-pluggable and hot swappable device connection
• Package Contents:
  Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe host controller card and quick start guide

Mac Compatibility

• Mac Pro
• Mac OS® X Version 10.6+

PC Compatibility

• PC with PCI Express slots (PCI Express 2.0 slots recommended)
• Windows® 7
• Windows Vista®
• Windows XP

Click here to download the latest drivers, etc. from Sonnet for the Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe