Motherboard and hardware installation question

OK, here's the deal. I bought an external hard drive (Western Digital MyBook 3.0) intending to back up important stuff, pictures, video, stuff like that. Going to install it, I ran into a problem: the PCI card requires a PCI express slot and I don't have a free one.

The motherboard is an Asus M2N61-AX, as pictured here:

http://www.softwaredriverdownload.com/dell_asus_m2n61-ax_motherboard_spec.html

Now there is a PCI-e slot as you see....but the problem is that mine is blocked by the rather large cooling fan on my video card. The video card is an NVIDIA GeForce GT 620 which is a replacement for the original one that fizzled out and crashed my computer. It sits in the top slot, a PCI-e 16x1 which is the only place it will fit. The bottom regular PCI slot has a network adapter card that I don't think I need and could remove, but doing so by itself wouldn't solve the problem at hand. The hard drive card will fit into the PCI-e 1x1 slot if it weren't covered up.

Therefore if I want an external hard drive I need to do one of three things. Either replace the video card again; get a new hard drive with an adapter card that fits into the regular PCI slot that's available; or else go all-out and replace the motherboard with something a little more up-to-date.

The latter is tempting, since the computer is now six years old, who knows what further upgrades it might need in the future, and I rather suspect any such upgrades might also need a PCI-e slot. It just seems fraught with peril, however, and is perhaps overkill. So I thought I would run this by the experts. I could run out and get another video card or another hard drive, but doing so willy-nilly without considering these issues of fit is how I ended up with this conundrum in the first place.

So if anyone has any suggestions on a video card that won't block the one last PCI-e slot, or a hard drive that can use the regular PCI slot, or the feasability of motherboard replacement (I can poke around in a computer and eventually make things happen, but finding a better motherboard that fits in this computer let alone actually swapping it out seems like a pretty daunting task) any such input would be highly appreciated.

 

True, but with the size of some of the files I'm moving, was hoping to use the USB 3.0 capabilities.

 

Then that is NOT a PCI card!!!!

PCI is not the same as PCIe. They use different, and totally incompatible slots, drivers, and communications protocols. You cannot insert a PCIe card in a PCI slot, and you cannot insert a PCI card in a PCIe slot without physically damaging the card, slot or both - and the motherboard (and potentially everything connected to it) once power is applied.

The ONLY way you can take full advantage of USB3.0 is (1) your motherboard supports 3.0 AND (2) the USB device is 3.0.

You can add a USB 3.0 PCI card (if you can find one), but note the PCI bus will bottleneck 3.0 speeds.

So that leaves PCIe, or use one of your USB ports.

That said, IF ME, I would avoid the external drive and install an internal SATA drive using one of the motherboard's 4 available SATA II ports.

 

OK, I forgot the -e when I typed that. I found out plenty fast enough when I opened the case that tab A wasn't going to fit in slot B and that I didn't have a usable slot B. I know they're not compatible and it's not like I tried to force that square peg into the round hole and blithely turn on the computer.

What I don't know is whether that motherboard will in fact support 3.0 speed even through the PCIe card. Among the things I was hoping to find out. The USB cable is 3.0 and the PCIe card is designed for it, and if I can access the one PCIe slot on the motherboard then I assume I can get the 3.0 speed but I don't know that.

 

PCIe is fast enough to keep up, but again, you are not getting 3.0 speeds unless the device supports 3.0 too. A USB3.0 port will not increase the speed of 2.0 devices. So the speeds will default to the slowest device in the chain.

You would be surprised how often stuff like that does happen - though I see it more with folks trying to shove the wrong type RAM in a slot.

 

Your USB male or female connectors should be BLUE if they are USB 3.0.
Your motherboard Manual should state whether you have USB 3.0 capability. Neil.

 

I was thinking the same thing, myself, although I would use the external drive via USB 2.0, or return it (if possible).

 

That motherboard has 4 USB 2.0(Back) and 4 USB 2.0(Front). I only use WDC HDDs internal and external.. WDC My Book connects through USB. My rule of thumb Desktops a second Internal HDDs for backup and Laptops External HDDs for backup(WDC My Passport Essentials).

 

While USB1.0 are "usually" white, and USB 2.0 are "usually" black, and USB 3.0 are "usually" blue, there is no compulsory "industry standard" prescribing color codes for USB connectors.

So always verify with your motherboard and device manuals (or if lucky, labels) to be sure. Fortunately, unlike power supply cables (which also have only "suggested" color coding), no damage will occur if you use the wrong USB connection.