PCI Express x1 question

[mjoliat]

I have an XFX nForce 680iLT motherboard. I want to upgrade my USB to USB 3.0. I was looking at the Buffalo Technology SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI Express 2-Port Interface Card IFC-PCIE2U3 on amazon. One of the requirements is that I have a PCI express x1 (rev 2.0) slot. I do have the PCI express x1 slot, but I don't know if it is rev 1.0 or rev 2.0.

Is there a way to tell?

Thanks for any help!

 

[TrainTrackHack]

PCI-E is backwards (and forwards) compatible so you should be fine either way.

 

[MineIQ1701]

Well, in this case, im not positive since rev 1.0 is half of the speed of rev 2.0, it will work, but it might not be fast enough to take full advantage of the usb 3.0 speeds.

 

[TrainTrackHack]

Most USB devices currently out there are still USB2.0 and even then the advertised speed of USB is only the maximum burst rate and can't normally be sustained anyway, so I doubt PCI-E is going to be bottlenecking him. It still wouldn't make a much of a difference since for most things USB is used for the bandwidth isn't a limiting factor.

 

[mjoliat]

Thanks for the replies. I was able to find some info on my mobo expansion slots and it only has a transfer speed of 250mb/s (if I remember right) which makes it a rev 1.0. SO to my thinking plugging in a usb 3 card would be wasting my time since it wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the faster transfer speeds.