Yes, you can connect a USB3 device using PCIE 1X on an older motherboard with the right adapter or cable.
Yes, you can connect a USB3 device using PCIE 1X on an older motherboard with the right adapter or cable.
You can connect your old PC as a media server with a PCIE X1 to a USB3 card, but there are limits based on your hardware. Your Asus P8H61-M LX and Intel Core i5-3470 should support it if the card meets the required specifications. Make sure the card is compatible with USB3 and has sufficient power delivery.
PCI_e x1 Gen 2 supports around 5Gbit, matching the baseline for USB3.0. It should suffice for a single device operating at maximum capacity, but for higher performance such as USB3.1 you’ll need to upgrade to x4 or Gen 3.
PCIE x1 500 per slot applies overall, so you could add more slots and use them independently.
It works per lane, mainly in the x1 slots, though they all link through the South Bridge/PCH. The bottleneck is likely the slowest connection, but typically the South Bridge handles 4 or 8 lanes from the CPU, so you should be able to use both X1 slots without major issues.
pci-e 2.0 delivers around 500 MB/s per lane. Real-world speeds typically hover near 480 MB/s after accounting for overhead and other factors. pci-e 3.0 offers roughly 970 MB/s per lane, with similar performance drops due to overhead. The design of pci-e aims to separate the physical slot layout from electrical signaling, allowing compatibility across different slot configurations—such as a PCIe x16 card functioning in an x16 slot with fewer lanes or being inserted into an x16 slot connected to a chipset with fewer lanes. You can also adapt pci-e slots by using riser cables or adapters to connect devices like USB 3 controllers, which simplifies installation. While USB 3 ports support speeds up to 5 Gbps (equivalent to about 600 MB/s), practical limits remain due to protocol constraints and packaging requirements. The 500 MB/s ceiling from pci-e 2.0 is therefore only a minor constraint, usually resulting in throughputs above 400 MB/s depending on device capabilities.