Aukey DS-E1 4 Ports PCI-E To USB 3.0 Expansion Card

Sunday, December 18, 2016

The easiest way to upgrade and increase the USB ports of your computer is by getting an expansion card such as Aukey's DS-E1 that allows you to slot a printed circuit board into the PCI Express slot 1 of your motherboard.

My computer's motherboard has two PCI Express slot 1s so I'm able to fit a USB 3.0 expansion card and a USB Type C PCI expansion card.

Aukey's DS-E1 USB 3.0 expansion card features four USB 3.0 ports and a female molex power connector socket where a male 4-pin molex power connector will be inserted to power the USB 3.0 expansion card.

Unlike the USB Type C PCI Express card, which doesn't require DC powering, the USB 3.0 PCI Express card does require a 5V supply in order to be able to run devices that are not self-powered (bus-powered devices).

female P3 socket

You can use any 4-pin molex power connector available in your computer as a standard 4-pin molex supplies both 12V and 5V.

this microchip is brain of the expansion card

Installing the USB 3.0 PCI Express card is very easy. Simply slot it in a PCI Express slot 1 and then connect the 4-pin molex connector.

I fitted the USB Type C on this computer also

After Aukey's USB 3.0 PCI express card is slotted in, you now need to install the required drivers in order for the expansion card to work.

If your computer has a Windows 10 operating system, you won't need to install any drivers as Windows 10 operating system will install them automatically.