Gus
@projectgus@aus.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

This is a cheap USB 3.0 interface card I bought on eBay (real vs seller's photo). I picked this one because it would have the fastest shipping to me, but now I have some regrets.

Differences spotted include:

- PTC fuses vs 0 ohm resistor jumpers
- Most of the bulk caps missing
- Ceramic decoupling cap is totally missing on one of the ports (!)
- Two DC/DC converters vs one

Now taking bets on whether this thing works, and/or how noisy and flaky it is. (My bet is all three - works but also sucks)

#electronics
Gus
@projectgus@aus.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

Works, no errors yet... Testing the fastest USB SuperSpeed thing I have on hand (NVME interface) it's about 10% slower than my Zen 5 motherboard's built-in USB, which seems reasonable.

(It's actually more stable than the front USB port on this computer, which has noise issues at 5Gbps...)

The lack of any fuse or power limiter is a deal-breaker though, for something powered directly from an ATX power supply. I don't want to forget about this card until it burns my house down in a few years. Have asked seller for a return.