Tendak Superspeed PCI-E to USB 3.0 4 Ports Express Card USB 3.0 HUB Controller Adapter with 15-Pin SATA Power Connector for Desktops PC

While I was finally able to get the product to work, it would be VERY frustrating for a novice. To begin with, there were absolutely no instructions in the box. Also, it is a generic box with 15 possible check boxes to tell what is in the box, and NONE were checked. Next, there was a power cable that can not be used as is . . . wrong gender for normal SATA or STD connectors and no explanation if it needs to be used. While there WAS a driver disk with the unit, it DID NOT auto-execute, and I had to go into Device Manager and direct it where to look for changes. Finally, I had to have it do a driver update from within Device Manager THREE times in order to eliminate the "unknown device" icon, which most users would not think to look for. The final stra, however, was when I discovered that the power adapter in the box would not work because it was a female for the computer power supply and a male for the board, EXACTLY OPPOSITE WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN! I would NOT recommend this item unless the user knows their way around computers and does not mind frustration . . . and have on hand power cable gender changers. You definitely get what you pay for!

This works well, but like many cards that use this particular USB 3.0 chip/circuit, external hard disks sometimes self-disconnect unless you get the right driver. Some people have needed to go back to earlier drivers. I downloaded drivers from the Tendak website, and (in my case) RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-30230-setup.exe solved the problem. Thumb drives never had a problem, though, so you only need to be concerned if you use external HDDs; especially Seagate / WD. I haven't measured transfer speed, but it is noticeably faster.

This is a handy thing to have if you don't have a 3.0 on your tower

PROS:* Works out of the box* No drivers needed for many OSes.CONS:* Very weak power connector - be careful plugging in to it.* Comes with wrong-gender power cable adapter* 1/3 of the expected thruput when copying from SSD to SSDNARRATIVE:I got one of these for review. It took me a while to get back to it. I have a variety of USB3 systems, some add-in, and some on-board. Copying from USB3 to SATAIII or vice versa, I typically get 250-500MB/sec depending on the SSD, and whether the data is compressed/encrypted.With this adapter, I got 119MB/sec from an MX100 to an M4. On another system with integrated SSD ports, I got double that.Commonly, when I find USB is running at a third of normal speed, it has to do with protocol timing on the bus. If you have to wait a tick, or you go synchronous, then that drops you to 1/3 speed. Used to happen on USB2 cards all the time, running at 18MB/sec, but it's rare to see it on USB3 cards.I still need to try another SATA controller, just in case that was part of the issue. However, even the worst SATA-I I have will sustain 140MB/sec with streaming transfers.The only other issue was, when plugging in the aux power connector (it's there, so might as well), the plastic housing for it shifted out of the way. It's not secure at all. I had to carefully hold it together while plugging the cable in.Aside from that, I was happy. It worked with Apricorn's software, and with Windows 7, without any problems or driver needs.

It works perfectly for me. Easy install and USB 3.0 speeds.