Why do (desktop) PC have so few USB ports ?
I just bought a new PC, based on Lenovo Legion gaming desktop. It comes with 2 USB port in the front, 4 regular USB port in the back + 1 USB-C port. That's a total of 7 USB slots.
It's been like 2 decades that every possible hardware device comes with an USB interface. Keyboard, mouse, joystick, hard-drive, memory stick, headset, webcam, spot/photo camera, and many others.
Of course it's my fault, I should have thought about USB connectors when shopping for a new PC and check before buying. but seriously, 7 USB slots is so few compared to all the device I have using USB
Answer: the vast majority of people don't use 7 USB devices at a time. You are an outlier and should have purchased accordingly
Also, it's generally cheap and easy to install a PC IE board for the back of your pc, if you really need it, and you'll have another 6 or 7.
Thank you. I was getting very confused.
7 ports seems like heaps. How could anyone use that many at once.
Keyboard, mouse, usb extension to have a port on my desk, wireless charger, dac, xbox wireless controller dongle and a usb microphone. That's 7 and I'd use an 8th port to charge my vr headset. So yeah, it's not that hard to use 7 ports at once.
Now imagine charging your phone or watch, or using a thumb drive
Does your PC do full power to those chargers? Eg. full wattage from USB-C is 240W. Times 8 that would be 2000W.
Huh? Why would it? This is about having enough ports for your stuff. How much power they consume is completely irrelevant.
It's not irrelevant. Why would you connect more things than your PSU can support?
Why would you charge things from your PC?
My VR headset needs two more ports for the cameras as well.
I ended up with a 4 port switch on my desk and a PCI-E card for more ports.
You could save some ports by using Bluetooth keyboard, mouse and controller, maybe even a wireless microphone. Cables are whil
That way instead of having cables for data and power you can have cables for just power and pay more for the device.
I don't understand the appeal of Bluetooth mice and keyboards while at a desk.
Some people like them for the aesthetics. In my case, I have a custom made desk with a tray for the keyboard and mice so the cables are not even visible. Longevity wise they're obviously inferior and have an expiration date basically. The performance is also worse unless you're using a wireless dongle instead of bluetooth.
I just see three cables on my desk for keyboard, mouse, and headphones and I prefer it like that.
Aesthetics are illogical and often times social conformity rather than personal desire. Like those stupid coiled USB C cables for keyboards that do nothing.
My keyboard has a 2.4ghz dongle, bluetooth and wired connectivity. I choose to use it wired because it has lower latency and I don't have to worry about the battery dying. The mouse is wired and I chose the wired version because it costs half as much (razer deathadder v3) and I don't really have any benefits if'd bought the wireless version (which also uses a dongle). A bluetooth mouse would have much higher latency and a lower polling rate. Same thing with the controller. Bluetooth is slower and not as reliable. Regarding the mic, yeah, no. It's the mic I use for my camera as well and I'm not buying a dedicated wireless mic that would be more expensive and have a lower audio quality. Also, and this goes for everything, batteries can flat out die and they're usually not user replaceable. Not to mention that you have to charge all of these battery powered things and that's a pain in the butt.
Bluetooth latency makes that extremely unattractive
Bluetooth for comms not controls
Even that sucks. Random interference, low battery, etc.
Bluetooth audio is great when you're driving in the car, or like at the gym.
My bedroom media pc (old-ass enterprise tower) has 8 on the back and 5 on the front. So 13 usb ports. It doesn’t have any wireless anything, physical ports only, and there’s no room to add internal cards for it, but plenty of usb ports for dongles!
I use 3 of those ports at most (I use Ethernet, since it’s my acquisition machine, or it’d be 4), and 2 are for keyboards and mice (one handheld with touchpad, the other a normal set).
I’m struggling to even come up with 7 things that would all need to be plugged in together.. I guess webcam, mouse and keyboard if they can’t run off a single port, and headset maybe if you got one that bypasses the audio jacks for whatever reason.. but that’s still only 4.
There's plenty of legitimate reasons to need a ton of USB ports but it's not on the PC manufacturer to appease the edge cases like OP.
It's like getting confused why your house doesn't have a 20amp outlet to the dining room for your 48U server rack.
Chipsets have tons of connectivity available, there's more than enough physical space in the back panel and it's not expensive to add. So yeah, your analogy doesn't make much sense.
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I mostly use 3, sometimes 4 or 5 at most.
I have 4 things plugged in permanently (mouse, keyboard, audio interface, wireless headset receiver). It used to be 5 but I haven't used my wireless controller since I built this PC.
I have a midi keyboard I plug into the front when I'm going to use it. And a USB cable in the drawer if I ever need to plug my phone in (which otherwise sits on a wireless charger plugged into AC)
7 USB ports seems like a decent amount, to me.
Those modern high speed USB controllers are not free. They used up available PCIe lanes. The more you add the less PCIe lanes available in the motherboard.
If you have a lot of low speed USB peripherals, just buy some large USB 2.0 hubs so you can reserve the high speed ports for high speed applications such as external disks.
7 seems like a pretty good amount but if you need more, you can always add them if you have a free slot (if not, there's always hubs). Alternately, you could build your own next time you need to upgrade.
There are USB headers on EVERY motherboard most have 2 usb 2.0 that can be expanded into 4 usb each
Because the USB standard allows the number of USB ports to be significantly expanded through the use of hubs.
Try finding a simple 8 port USB hub with USB-C. It's a shitshow too!
I'd love to find additional hubs that have more than two type C. The largest number I am aware of is 4 from a company called Satechi, but the form factor is a little weird and I wouldn't mind more options.
I found some on aliexpress "USB C 3.2 hub". They also have a powered USB-C input but I'm not sure if that is just charging the upstream port (laptop) or also powered the 4 extra ports.
I'd love to find a vertical USB hub with like a 4x5 array of ports
I'd be happy with a simple and cheap PCB with 6-8 USB-C ports that I can integrate into my desk similar to wall sockets. And that can do both high speed and power delivery.
USB-C is a shitshow, period. Whoever invented that garbage needs to be fired. Out of a cannon. Into the sun.
Depending on just the cable I plug in (all else exactly the same, same PC, same port, same electrical plug, etc), I get fast speed (from PC) and charging (from a power outlet) on device 1 and slow speed and charging on device 2, and another cable gets me exactly the opposite. And others, slow speed and fast charging or vice versa.
What the fuck.
This is not the behavior of a fucking "standard". Meanwhile, microUSB just fucking worked regardless of which of the tons of cables I used, all exactly the same.
USB-C needs to fucking die. Oh, but boohoo, people had to figure out which direction to plug in a microUSB cable. Cry me a fucking river, nobody cares, that's not a real problem.
I like USB-C. The connector is significantly better than micro USB. It forms a tighter connection and can be plugged in in either direction. It allows for significantly faster charging and significantly higher data rates than micro USB. But it is a jack of all trades with a fairly loose standard, so manufacturers can implement what attributes they see fit. Overall, I think it's a big improvement.
Lol I get your frustration. But yeah USB-C cables can be "high speed" for data transfer or "high current" for charging. And the marketing when you look for cables in shops is confusing. But it comes from the requirements of wire gauge and shielding. I mean you now have one cable standard that can do everything, deliver enough data for 4k or more or deliver 48V and 5A - which is 240 watt and enough to power a small chainsaw. A USB-C powered chainsaw, think of the possibilities! :D
100% I hate this dumbass trend of putting multiple optional standards into a single cord. They did it with HDMI and confused everyone, and USB-C is the same.
I had that issue as well with a USB hub that has charging. Turns out it was the hub that was the issue because it would throttle or even shut off the charging to other usb ports when there's too high of a demand to prevent it from overheating. Swapped to a better usb hub and had no issues since.
I've actually found that I cannot add too many more ports without it being a powered USB hub. Expanding 3-4 is fine, but if you're trying to add on like 10-15, it won't work unless the hub is powered.
Yeah, the spec is only 1A or something, if you try to share that with 5 devices that all need 250mA it just isn't going to work.
Do you know how motherboards split up this 1amp spec? Does each USB port on a motherboard have 1amp, or do they often end up sharing?
To be compliant with standards, USB ports directly on the motherboard must supply at least 500mA each for USB 2 or 900mA each for USB 3.
They can supply more, but that's the minimum that should be expected.
Awesome thanks!
You can get an USB hub to expand that number as needed. With USB 3.2 ports you can connect all of the things you listed over a single port without any performance issues.
You could literally connect hundreds of devices to those ports, if needed.
Sure, but just like the PCIe USB port option, it's quite frustrating to add another device to a new PC.
You're the one with exorbitant usb needs. That means you'll be the one who expansions are made for. I don't have the stats in front of me, but I'd wager the vast vast majority of pc users don't use beyond 4.
Most people will only need 3-4 usb ports…. Ever.
1-2 for the KBM, another for a printer (which are increasingly WiFi enabled,) and another for a sub stick.
Hubs aren’t that difficult and a single cable will look neater to your desk anyhow. Run your KbM/joysticks to the hub instead. (And you can get some 3m VHB tape, or far less permanently, the 3m command adhesive that’s double sided, to mount it somewhere like the back of the KB tray.)
I've got 7 USB ports on my PC and every single one of them is used. I don't need anymore at the moment but I mean this adds up fast.
Then I've got my HOTAS. I just unplug my controller and plug that in to use instead.
This seems like a lot, though. Like, they are all reasonable items! But it seems more like a niche/enthusiasts situation, which would require a niche/enthusiasm solution.
Not saying it wouldn't be nice to have more usb as standard, but most decent motherboards I've checked out have around 4 2.0 slots, 2-4 3.0 slots, and 0-2 C slots. Just for back panel I/O
6-ish slots seems fine for most uses
Speakers > Why USB instead of optical/aux?
SSD, HDD, Memory card reader > Do you use all of them every day?
Headset + microphone > Why not combine/do you use both every day?
And I mean, you already have a hub, worst case if it's full just get a second one or one with more slots...
Speakers - It's both. They're RGB.
Storage - Yep. Everyday. HDD is media, SSD is games, memory card reader for my microSD for lemmy posts.
Headset + microphone - Yes I do use them everyday and no they cannot be combined. The microphone is studio quality. The headset has good audio but no headset on this earth has microphone quality comparable to a stand alone recording microphone.
.....you keep your games on an external drive?
Yes. And like I've said elsewhere, there is literally no problem with it.
I mean it's a bit more expensive, leads to some slightly slower initial load times, and causes some pop in on some games, but sure. There's no problem with it. For whatever reason you'd do it for.
I needed the extra space regardless so the price wasn't a factor to be specific to this, slightly lower must refer to like 1-2 seconds because it takes a max of 3-4 to load any game and I have no idea what pop in is but I haven't noticed any problems in performance.
I mean you should have had several open slots to install an internal drive if you needed more space, but pop in is where as you're moving through a world, things like trees or rocks or creatures etc don't appear from as far away as they should. It get pretty noticeable on games like No Man's Sky and Subnautica if the game isn't installed on a fast hard drive that can quickly send its data. Even the fastest drive they make won't totally eliminate the problem on NMS. Just lessens it.
You have games on an external SSD? That seems odd to me.
I don't know why. Works perfectly fine
Because there's no reason not to want them on an internal drive but there's good reasons not to want them on an external drive 🤷
Faster transfer speed and lower CPU usage are the main points but reliability too as you're adding one more interface in the way.
Calm your tits captain know it all. He said it works perfectly fine for him.
They said they don't know why it seems odd and I explained why. I'm not the one who mentions that USB stuff accumulates quickly while using hardware in a suboptimal way... They could have at least two free ports just by opening their computer case and moving their drives inside...
Modmic + headphones plugged in a USB soundcard (sound blaster g3 in this case) is my go to, but I'm no singer so I don't see the use for a studio quality microphone in my case...
As for the rest, if I was to use an SSD for games I would want it connected to the motherboard directly instead of through USB 🤔
Anyway, you do you 🤷
Nor am I
It's an expansion for the games. I've also had zero problems with it being through USB.
You obviously need a USB cooling beer glass stand, and a USB keyboard fan, and a USB lamp to spot on the game keys.
You are not utilizing the full potential of USB versatility! 😋
HOTAS, pedals, VR headset, earcans, KBM, webcam. Laser printer/scanner
A pi pico W that serves as control node for the adhoc pico network I’ve cobbled into a home control network. (Maybe I have a problem,)
A couple desktop 3d printers, plus their webcams.
A TX adapter for an R/C simulator.
And of course the hubs to manage all that.
We’re not normal, though.
Looks a pretty cool toy, don't worry you're normal it's the other which aren't.
But first I thought you were talking about the Pico USB oscilloscope (For this one, I dream of an Ethernet version as the standard, it's easier to debut electronic from an office chair near the PC controlling it)
I wouldn’t exactly call it a toy, exactly- it started with using the ultrasonic range finding modules (compliments of adafruit) to track movements for hvac zone control (similar to the smart thermostats,) and the expanding that to control RBGW lighting (its all neopixels in various forms,) and bringing them up and down as you move around the house.
It was a lot more work setting them up, but I get shivers anytime someone suggests an Alexa device is a good idea. I like my privacy.
What? It's easy as hell, man. Shut off pc, take off side and plug in the pcie hub, one screw, put the side on, and turn on PC again. Usually don't even need to install the driver yourself. I don't even think you listed more than like 7 things to plug in, anyhow.
I guess I've been using laptops for so long, the concept of not having a USB hub seems alien to me. But they are really cheap and you just need to plug them in (so much easier than installing a PCIe card).
Also some peripharals come with addition USB ports. My monitors provide 3 USB-A ports each when connected over USB-C. They are only USB 2.0 ports but that's perfect for plugging in the mouse and keyboard.
Buy a USB hub buddy
Exactly. USB is designed so that you can have multiple devices attached to one port. 7 slots on the PC is plenty.
And in fact, they probably already have a hub. I can't remember the last monitor that I bought that didn't have a couple USB ports on it. Put that thing to use. Webcam, USB headset/mic, keyboard and mouse can all run perfectly well off a monitor hub as can most other accessories. Save the direct ports on the mobo for things that need the bandwidth like storage devices.
You bought a prebuilt system, which in general tend to not be very expandable and cut corners in various ways because they target the average customer, and not the enthusiast.
On a similar note, my pet peeve is the limited number of pcie slots in modern motherboards (and to a lesser extent, pcie lanes), but this is also understandable given the trend away from using those ports (except for GPUs).
I don't know if this is a gaming PC or high end etc, but for me 7 USB slots is a lot. I usually need 2, in most extreme situations I would need 4 I think. So maybe the PC is just designed for an average person who is not too tech savvy? I have to think really hard about what I would do with 7 slots.
This is roughly what is plugged to my PC
Keyboard,
Mouse
Headset
Joystick
Rudder pedals for flight sim (OK that one is a bit specific)
Audio interface (OK another one a bit specific)
Webcam (which isn't even always on)
USB 2 wire to load/connect some devices
USB C loose wire to load/connect some device
USB stick/hard drive on a case by case basis
Why would you need usb headset when you have audio interface?
Audio interface is great to plug the guitar to the PC, and is used when I put sound the speaker. Headset (which is actually a wireless USB, It would make sense to update to Bluetooth) is used when doing voice call/chat(A decade back, I was living abroad, and playing TTRPG through voice chat, got the habit to use a wireless USB headset at this time, but indeed, it's something I could rationalize considering that I don't use it much anymore)
I find wireless USB to be superior to Bluetooth, probably just because windows and Linux don't handle Bluetooth audio right
Why use an audio interface when he can just use USB? Some people don’t give a fuck. Stop being such a snob ffs
that depends on what you bought, my motherboard has 10 in the back, and my case has 5 most are usb 3
granted my case and mobo are both 250 usd individually
Your mistake was buying a prefab.
Yeah, the pattern with a lot of prebuilt PC makers is they'll build the PC to be marketable with a few buzzwords that get the most attention and then go as cheap as possible for everything else.
Though even those big main ones can be gamed, like only reporting the CPU is an i7 or r7 when that covers new CPUs as well as ones from a decade ago. Or only giving RAM size because most people don't even think about the speed (and maybe aren't even aware that it's possible for a machine with 16GB of RAM to run circles around one with 128GB of RAM).
Some companies even use proprietary connections to make upgrading more expensive (in that you need a new motherboard to go along with your new PSU).
It all depends on the case and mother board you buy.
My x570 motherboard has like 10 usb ports lol. And then my case has 2 more on the front. I think Lenovo just sucks lol. They are the OEM for their desktop motherboards right? Like Dell?
My desktop has 12 USB ports with the option of installing quite a few more by using the internal headers.
I mean... That one's on you, you should have looked at the specs to make sure the PC fit your needs and could have built one yourself (especially if you're into flight sims, why waste money for sub par tech?)...
My motherboard has more ports than your whole PC plus I've got two ports at the front...
Install a PCIe USB expansion card. Will give you an extra 4-8 slots.
That's why I built my own PC, get it the way I want it.
Though even I rarely used more than 8 at a time.
the CD reader takes two, one for power and one for data, but that's only used rarely
if I'm playing games with my kids that's four controllers at most, and I don't leave those plugged in
A WiFi antenna doesn't plug into a USB port, it screws directly into the WiFi card. Or do you mean you have a USB WiFi card, instead of an internal one?
One of my PCs didn't come with wifi on the motherboard so wifi is through an USB antenna, nothing unusual with that...
It's not a USB antenna, though. It's a USB WiFi card with an antenna attached.
Ok buddy, you might be technically right, doesn't mean it's not annoying when people like you pretend to not understand what people are talking about just to correct them.
I'm not pretending to not understand. I original post was a question because I couldn't tell whether OP was saying he had an external WiFi card.
Could be one of those adapters with an antenna attached, so it looks like one big antenna.
not that big, it's the size of my pinky
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Nice counting. Now let's do SATA ports and fan power connections. only 3 or 4 for 20 years. What's up with that?!?
I think that depends on the power supply?
I had to buy an expansion slot to give my PC more USB ports lol
But it's my own fault
I have my keyboard, my mouse, my mouse pad wich is powered for a USB slot on it that I use to dock my wireless controlled, an external CD tray, aired headphones, a little USB powered desktop fan, USB flashdrive, and a USB cable I keep plugged in to easily plug in another device if I need like my phone
I got 5 type As and a type C. I'm kind of happy tbh. I need the type c for my yubikey so it comes it clutch.
if you connect a few USB hubs and like 20 devices at the same time, you will find out why
Usb PCIe cards are a thing.
As well as USB hubs. It’s generally true that the rear USBs are hard to reach anyhow, amd hubs on the desk are more convenient and offer better cable management than a tower case offers anyhow.
Hubs
Build your own PC bro. Its dead simple. And you can choose a mobo with lots of usb ports. You fucked up buying a prebuilt
Well things like motherboards can only be so large. It needs to be a certain form factor to fit in a standard case. And that motherboard needs to offer all the standard physical connections as well. So basically, there’s a finite space where everything needs to fit.
Adding ports to the case is quite nice. And technically there’s no reason why OEM’s couldn’t just add a ton more ports.
But I guess the average user doesn’t really complain about it. And us powerusers simply buy hubs.
Personally, I’d need about a dozen ports to connect everything.
Get a dongle or docking station. A laptop is supposed to be movable, so it makes very little sense to unplug and plug 7 cables every time you move it.
Also, if you're running Windows it will also make for a cleaner setup if the things are in a dongle and you always use the same port for the dongle. This is an issue for people using several midi controllers.
Sorry @Ziggurat but you might be the one behind the times; keyboard/mouse/headset - Bluetooth, External Hard drive/ memory stick - cloud/ WiFi, camera - WiFi/Bluetooth, Webcam is still USB.
The true connector crime here is that single USB-C, any new PC should have more than that.
Bluetooth keyboard and mice add latency which isn't great for gaming. Bluetooth headsets aren't great either since audio quality drops when you use the mic on it. Plus there's latency too.
In my experience the latency on Bluetooth mice and keyboards is so low that it doesn't matter. Most people who aren't playing in like the top 1% of their game should be fine.
Bluetooth is pretty much useless for peripherals and I’d never trust it.
Cloud storage is slow, expensive and small. External drives are still significantly cheaper per GB than cloud storage.
I think my keyboard and mouse use Bluetooth 5 and they have been rock solid.
While I use cloud for automatic phone and picture backups just because it’s built in to the OS, all manual and PC backups are to NAS via RJ45.
I suppose it depends on your needs but a NAS/external with the smallest disk you can find would take a while to pay for itself if you compare it to a 99p a month cloud storage package.
Worst part is, you can't even really find a USB c hub that's just USB c. Bunch of other shit you don't need because everything uses A or C. I just want like 5 USB c ports and I'll be happy. I updated everything I own to USB C, and I never have enough ports.
For PC, get a usbC pcie card. Lots of choice there. Possible issues with GPU clearance/ heat though.
5 full speed USB-C?
I have genuinely no idea how any of that works. I'm a monkey with a smart phone. I just want to be able to connect all my shit. Lol. I have a mouse, keyboard, external drive, et cetera. I ended up getting Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but I prefer my USB keyboard much more.
Usually there's a bottleneck at the CPU level for how many full speed USB-C you can have.
Bluetooth ftw