I’ve had a Windows 7 (previously Windows Vista) in my living room serving as a media center for a few years. The PC works fine, but over time it had become noticeably slow compared to the new machines I have. I’ve upgraded memory and that has helped a lot. Now I had an opportunity to upgrade the USB slots to the latest 3.0 standard, and that has made more of a difference than I had originally anticipated.

The first thing you notice about this expansion card is its build quality. This is not some cheap knock-off card, but a well-designed and solidly manufactured piece of hardware. The card was easy to install – it just snapped into the appropriate slot. Most of the modern PCs are designed with the upgradability in mind, and many of them can be opened and upgraded without requiring any tools. However, if you have never upgraded a computer or are generally elecronics-phobic, you might want to consult with a family member or a friend who is more into these tasks.

The card was immediately recognized by my system, but only as a 2.0 USB standard. I installed the additional drivers that came with the included CD, and after that the card worked as advertised. I only have a handful of external USB 3 accessories (including a USB 3.0 HDD), but the card worked perfectly with all of them. The transfer speeds were quite noticeable faster, but I haven’t really benchmarked them.

The reason why this card is particularly useful in the media center is a) helps with the playback of large video files directly from an external HDD, and b) USB 3 allows you (with appropriate add-ons and software) to use it to for additional monitors and TVs.

This is indeed a very good card that has completely lived up to its promise. I highly recommend it.