Question reguarding the use of External SSDs in motherboards USB headers

GabrielLP14 · Aug 4, 2021

Hey everyone, i have a good understandings of how SSDs work, however one question that i'm having trouble to find detailed information online is this:

Imagine the following scenario, you just bought a new USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps) and your motherboard has a Type-C connector for it, however it's wired to an ASMedia ASM3242 (Bridge Controller), the performance would be great, and this was very common on these first gen board that came with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 since these Chipsets like Z490 didn't have native support for USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 inside of them. Ok, however these new boards like Z590, a lot of them already offer supports for this connection wired directly for the PCH, which is cool, but i assume it could cause some higher latency performance, correct? Would there be a performance difference between then?

PS: Pardon my bad english, it's been a long time since i don't practice it

TheLostSwede · Aug 4, 2021

I doubt you'll see a huge latency difference, but yes, different USB host controllers perform differently.
I haven't done any testing since USB 3.0 was the hot stuff, but back then there was quite a big difference in performance between different host controllers.

For the ASM3242 it'll also depend on how it's connected to the chipset, as some board vendors have been known to only use one instead of two PCIe lanes for some of these types of chips.

Overall, I don't think you'll see a huge difference if the ASM3242 is integrated properly, compared to a native port.

You can find some testing here https://www.anandtech.com/show/16133/usb-32-gen-2x2-state-of-the-ecosystem-review

Keullo-e · Aug 4, 2021

I'd agree pretty much with @TheLostSwede on this. Probably you could see some differences on synthetic benchmarks, but in real use, probably not.

GabrielLP14 · Aug 4, 2021

TheLostSwede said:
I haven't done any testing since USB 3.0 was the hot stuff, but back then there was quite a big difference in performance between different host controllers.

First of all thanks for answering, and thats why i was asking ahah, i remember how it was like back in a day.

R-T-B · Aug 10, 2021

GabrielLP14 said:
First of all thanks for answering, and thats why i was asking ahah, i remember how it was like back in a day.

Yep, some of the X58 era early usb 3.0 addon controllers were truly trash.

System Name	Gabriel-PC
Processor	Core i7-13700K (All Core 5.7GHz)
Motherboard	MSI Z790-P PRO WIFI DDR4
Cooling	NZXT Kraken X72 360mm
Memory	Netac DDR4-3200 MT/s CL-16
Video Card(s)	RTX 4060 Galax 1-Click
Storage	Solidigm P44 Pro 2TB (OS), SK Hynix P41 1TB (Games) + 4x 4TB WD Black HD (Synology NAS DS1817)
Display(s)	AOC G2460PF 144Hz 1ms (Kinda trash)
Case	NZXT Phantom 820 Black
Audio Device(s)	Motherboard onboard audio (good enough for me)
Power Supply	Corsair RM1000X
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Software	Windows 11 Pro 23H2 + Windows Server 2022 + Synology in NAS

System Name	Overlord Mk MLI
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory	32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s)	Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage	1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s)	Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case	Fractal Design Torrent Compact
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Power Supply	be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
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Keyboard	Corsair K70 Max
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System Name	4K-gaming
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X up to 5.05GHz
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Cooling	Custom loop (CPU+GPU, 240 & 120 rads)
Memory	32GB Kingston HyperX Fury @ DDR4-3466
Video Card(s)	PowerColor RX 6700 XT Fighter OC/UV
Storage	~4TB SSD + 6TB HDD
Display(s)	Acer XV273K 4K120 + Lenovo L32p-30 4K60
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Software	Windows 11 Pro
Benchmark Scores	It runs Crysis remastered at 4K

System Name	Gabriel-PC
Processor	Core i7-13700K (All Core 5.7GHz)
Motherboard	MSI Z790-P PRO WIFI DDR4
Cooling	NZXT Kraken X72 360mm
Memory	Netac DDR4-3200 MT/s CL-16
Video Card(s)	RTX 4060 Galax 1-Click
Storage	Solidigm P44 Pro 2TB (OS), SK Hynix P41 1TB (Games) + 4x 4TB WD Black HD (Synology NAS DS1817)
Display(s)	AOC G2460PF 144Hz 1ms (Kinda trash)
Case	NZXT Phantom 820 Black
Audio Device(s)	Motherboard onboard audio (good enough for me)
Power Supply	Corsair RM1000X
Mouse	Have no idea (Generic)
Keyboard	Have no idea (Generic)
Software	Windows 11 Pro 23H2 + Windows Server 2022 + Synology in NAS

System Name	Pioneer
Processor	Ryzen R9 7950X
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Memory	64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-6000 CL30
Video Card(s)	XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage	2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs
Display(s)	55" LG 55" B9 OLED 4K Display
Case	Thermaltake Core X31
Audio Device(s)	TOSLINK->Schiit Modi MB->Asgard 2 DAC Amp->AKG Pro K712 Headphones or HDMI->B9 OLED
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Mouse	Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless
Keyboard	WASD Code v3 with Cherry Green keyswitches + PBT DS keycaps
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Question reguarding the use of External SSDs in motherboards USB headers

GabrielLP14

SSD DB Maintainer

TheLostSwede

News Editor

Keullo-e

S.T.A.R.S.

GabrielLP14

SSD DB Maintainer

R-T-B