USB Ext. cables / adapters

[mubs]

I use the front top USB 2 & 3 ports on my case a lot, so am worried that I'll wear them out. Decided to buy short USB 3 extension cables. Good ones don't seem to exist; decent ones are 6' long. Unusable for me at that length. Then I bought a couple of right angle usb 3 adapters that were highly rated on my local Amz. They seemed good, but an external drive I plugged in was crawling. Did a Crystal Diskmark on it running thru the adapter.



Plugged the same drive directly into the case USB3 port. Did a Crystal Diskmark on it again.



Why does life have to be so complicated

If anyone can recommend USB 3 male-female adapters or short USB 3 extension cables that are known to be good, I will try to obtain them from the US. Thanks.

 

[Mercutio]

Rather than extension cables, have you considered using a USB hub with a short cable? Anker, for example?

These guys are the USB extension cables I use. They're a no-name nothing company, but almost every use I have for actual USB extension is just to get low-speed devices across a room. They come as short as half meter lengths and they seem well made.

 

[mubs]

Thanks Merc. I ordered a couple and somebody will bring them to me.

Another odd thing. I was reading reviews and one bloke said he switched the adapter and ports and things worked fine. Why? USB3 is USB3, right? Anyway I thought I'll try it for grins. Sure enough, Adapter A is slow in port x, but fast in port y. Adapter B doesn't care, it's equally fast (USB3). After a few trials, Adapter A will not work in port x but works fine in port y. Have left them like that. Why, oh why??? I must be in the Twilight Zone.

 

[Mercutio]

The controller can implement less of the spec depending on the root hub. A lot of laptops will have a "Hi-Speed" 480Mbps root hub that exists to support a mouse or Logitech receiver, even though the 3.x controller supports some form of 5, 10 or 20Gbps Superspeed. Those little markings around the port actually do matter.

I most often notice this on Dell and HP consumer notebooks but for example I've seen mini PCs that have one 20Gbps port and the rest of the ports are just 5Gbps.