ASRock brings reversible USB 3.1 connector to Z97 and X99 motherboards

ASRock has announced the Z97 Extreme6/3.1 and the X99 Extreme6/3.1. The manufacturer bundles the existing Z97 and X99 boards in the Extreme 6 series with expansion cards that are equipped with USB 3.1 interfaces. The X99 motherboard immediately gets a reversible Type C connection.

ASRock supplies the Z97 Extreme6/3.1 with a PCI-e card that has a single USB 3.1 port of Type A and a 3.1 interface of Type C. Type A is the connector like the current regular USB 3.0 ports have, but Type C is the smaller, reversible connection. The manufacturer bundles the X99 Extreme6/3.1 with a PCI-e card with two USB 3.1 ports of Type A and this board already contains a Type C connector as standard.

The theoretical transfer speed has doubled with USB 3.1 compared to USB 3.0 from 5 to 10 Gbit/s. However, ASRock’s PCI-e cards require both ports to share the maximum bandwidth of PCI-E 2.0 x2, 10Gbit/s. To be able to use the higher speed, better connectors and cables are needed than now, and we have to wait for devices that support USB 3.1.

With the combination, ASRock wants to quickly bring USB 3.1 ports to its motherboards, without having to adjust the boards too much. At the end of March, MSI will release motherboards that are natively equipped with USB 3.1 ports. It is unclear when ASRock will release the relevant motherboards and what they will cost.