There's no reason to replace USB A on most desktops since it would break 20+ years of backwards compatibility without any real benefit. Maybe 1 or 2 would be useful.
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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Thats the thing, with a small adaptor that has no logic/silicon, usb-a device is fully compatible with a usb-c port. And things like framework solved this issue ages ago to make hardware expose either, or both, usb-c and usb-a...
If anything, i think the usb-c price might be why its nowhere to be seen. However, with the eu laws that might change in the next 8y, but i doubt it as usb-c to usb-a are a thing
If manufacturers start making printers, mouses, keyboards, headsets and all other peripherals with usb-c cables and provide c to a adapters in the boxes, then motherboard manufacturers should start adding more ports to support them without those adapters.
But the Apple way of changing all ports to USB-C because "you can just use dongles!" is dumb. Motherboards have plenty of space for both, usb-c is like the smallest connector that exists right after the 3.5mm audio plug.
Having lived through the initial rollout of USB, I remember a period of time when a PC would come with a few USB ports, printers had parallel and USB ports on them, mice came with USB to P/S2 adapters in the box etc. so there was a transitional period. Everyone seemed to be onboard with the idea that USB was the future. Within a decade, P/S2, RS-232 and parallel ports disappeared from PCs.
That same drive to move the fuck on and complete the transition doesn't seem to be there this time. Mobile device manufacturers have adopted USB-C as entirely as they can because of their weird obsession with making devices uselessly thin. Peripheral manufacturers really haven't; displays are still HDMI or DP, Logitech outright refuses to make a USB-C Unifying Transceiver..."dongle life." And desktop PCs have relatively few USB-C ports meaning if you do manage to collect up USB-C peripherals for your mobile life, they're a pain on desktop.
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If y’all still have desktops, there’s just no excuse. There’s room to include any port that may be convenient, and having some extra would let you modernize as you need to replace accessories.
At least with laptops, there may be a space argument for limited ports
Still any more than 2 seems like a waste since PCs also have dedicated video, audio, power, and data ports. USB-C makes sense on laptops and phones because you can lump all those things into one or two ports. This isn't necessary on a PC and just adds extra cost with little benefit.
My board from 2018 has a rear USB-C and header for front USB-C. I've only used only one of them a handful of times in all these years to transfer large files to/from a phone and this is coming from someone with a lot of different devices that use USB to interface with the PC.
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Am I throwing away all my mice, keyboards, DAC, digital pens, and other peripherals just so I can have a connector with more bandwidth than I'll ever need? Nah.
Am I buying them or adapters all over again just so I can be compatible with a new universal standard that I don't need? Double nah.
KVM switches, or breakout hubs that these devices plug into, then a single USB c device goes to the computer is the most logical avenue for a migration. But this will take a long time. Most people don't even have that kind of luxury.
On the other side of that, I’m already stuck throwing away all my Lightning cables and chargers, and ideally want to change only once. Why is it so hard to jump right to C for everything?
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I agree most motherboards should at least come with 2 or 4 USB-C ports.
That being said, people upgrading all their peripherals happens significantly less often than the PC upgrade itself, and 90% of my current setup relies on USB type A, so if a motherboard (specially mATX) needs to decide what ports to fit into limited space, I'd prioritize USB A for sure.
Yeah, I've got mostly USB-A peripherals, and the USB-C ones are using a USB-A to C cable anyway. What I'd actually want is graphics cards with the same Thunderbolt type ports that laptops have, so the USB stuff can be pushed through the same cable to your monitor.
Usbc connectors are expensive and more difficult to drive. Usb-a connectors are cheap and easy to drive
Not to mention the numerous amount of accessories that use USB-A. My keyboard, mouse, and flash drives all use USB-A.
In my cable collection, odds are that if a cable has USB-C on one end, then either USB-A or C is on the other end. That means every other connector still requires USB-A or a dongle.
USB-A‘s longevity (~20 years) basically ensures that until it’s much cheaper to use USB-C, it won’t replace USB-A.
Because there is no reason to have more than 1 or 2 since almost everything uses a type A connector.
How the heck is USB-A a legacy port and what would I do with 11 USB-C ports on a PC when everything I plug into it besides my phone (depending on the cable) has a USB-A connector? Like how would I even use something as simple as a flash drive or Bluetooth/wifi/radio transmitter?
USB-C makes a ton more sense for mobile devices, docks, and charging, but not so much when you're plugging them into a suitcased size brick that doesn't move. I could see useful applications for something powered that needs a lot of bandwidth, but PCs also come with dedicated ports for all those peripherals too.
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I don’t understand why I would want a bunch of usb c ports? On a phone where there obviously isn’t space for a full sized port sure, but I find that fiddling with the one usb c port on the back of my desktop is a pain in the ass and the port really struggles to keep a good connection when attached to a stiff or heavy cable.
Back in the late 90's why did we want USB ports when serial and parallel and P/S2 worked so well? There were decades worth of hardware that were compatible with the old standards.
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Most desktop peripherals are still USB-A. For low-power, low-data things like keyboards and mice, what would be the point of USB-C? It would increase the cost of the product but provide no real benefit to the user.
Also, if you had a new desktop motherboard with say 6 USB-C ports, would you expect all of them to be capable of delivering 20V at 5A so they can be used to drive USB-C monitors &etc? Because that's a lot of power to be running across your motherboard, even if you have a power supply that can handle it. You'll need a separate cooler just for the USB-C bus controller, and pray that nothing ever goes wrong with power delivery because it will probably fry the whole board.
Would make much sense. You still want USB-A ports for most peripherals as using an usb-c port to connect a single mouse would be pretty much wasting a port.
However adding a Thunderbolt4 port or two along side the usual USB-A ports would be nice.
Ofcourse you'd still want some type a ports, but I have 6 type a ports and a single type c on my rear io but i would definitely give up 1 or 2 a ports for 2 more type c.
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I'd honestly love to see everything USB-C-ified. Would be great to finally just have one standard to concern yourself with.
Nobody tell them about the massively fragmented set of standards using the USB-C connection.
I know, but at least we'd only have one physical connector at that point. While there are indeed a lot of standards for USB C, many of them are not all that relevant in day-to-day use when you're mostly just looking to connect some basic USB peripherals like a mouse, a thumb drive or charge your phone.
I disagree.
More technical people would understand, but your average Joe would try to plug in their external monitor and RMA PC because it's not working, same with slow charging phone speed etc.
I'm honestly all in for keeping USB-A for basic I/O devices. Although inventing an USB-A female connector that works both sides and is backwards compatible would be neat.
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Standard USB type A ports are cheaper, and more importantly, STURDIER then USB C ports. This is extremely important for peripherals that do not need to be disconnected and reconnected often.
USB C is great for convenience for certain things, but it's a weaker port in terms of physical connection strength.
This is about cost. The standard USB ports are far cheaper and they probably already have a billion of them on hand. Plus all the board layouts already use standard USB for their layouts. Also you're not really getting any advantage from the USB c size wise or performance wise.
Further more now you'd have to make USB c to whatever form cables and make customers buy these new cables.
If u had to choose between 2 computers and 1 made u buy completely new cables for every peripheral which would u buy?
billion of them on hand
Been thinking that for a long time! For example, I can imagine Chinese warehouses jammed with micro USB connectors. Want to build a low-cost widget? Meh, save some pennies per unit and put a micro on there.
Weirder is that you can’t really find usb c mice and keyboards, though I really don’t know why.
Extra cost for no real benefit
Because motherboards are mostly USB A, because peripherals are mostly USB A, because motherboards are mostly USB A, bec...
There are a few, but certainly not many. And they mostly seemed to be aimed at plugging into Mac laptops. But at the moment, manufacturers can count on every computer made in the last 20 years or whatever having at least one USB-A port, and most computers still having zero USB-C ports. The options are to make it USB-C and pay extra to include an adapter, or just say the hell with it and make it USB-A. Or relegate yourself to basically selling to Mac users only.
Most manufacturers, naturally, will pick the second option.
USB-C is very hard to manufacture and expensive as fuck as a result.
thats why.
Especially when most devices don't need the bandwidth or power needs of USB-C.
Source? Why is it expensive?
Pretty sure this person is just talking out of their ass. I found one source from four years ago that showed a price difference of about a buck to manufacture. Yes, that is more expensive, but passing that dollar onto the consumer for some USB-C ports on a motherboard seems pretty reasonable, and by now I'm sure that gap has decreased significantly.
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I dont remember off the top of my head the exact number of conductors, but it has like 22 or 24 very very fine wires in it, that have to be lined up perfectly on both sides of the (comparatively small) connector to be soldered to equally small pads.
So its much more labor and time intensive to make a USB-C connector, compared to a USB Type A, which has big bulky cables and equally bulky (comparatively speaking) pads.
USB Micro/Mini used tiny wires too, but again.. only about 2-4. So far less time and labor to line them up, and even compared to USBC it can still have larger solder pads to connect to due to the number of conductors vs the 22-24 conductors inside the Type-C connector.
And thats just the connectors and the wires. the support circuitry to actually run it is more complex and expensive as well. Which further increases the cost.
And theres just no reason for it, the number of devices that need and benefit from higher speeds USB-C can support are few and far between, and typical motherboards coming with 1-2 type-C sockets is more than enough to support that for 99.99% of the people, and if you are in some very weird niche case scenario where you need a bunch of USB-C ports, you can get a USB-C PCI-Card (just make sure you get a reputable brand one, and not one of the suspiciously cheap no-brand chinese knockoff ones)
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This was written in 2021. Is it still true?
My kids laptop has 4 IIRC. Getting a PC motherboard with more than one on rear and one connector for front of case was impossible last I looked. I generally keep my pc’s for about 5 years and wish to future proof somewhat. It is beyond ridiculous at this point. Although, I haven’t tried to buy one for a few months so perhaps this has changed.
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my thinkpad has two usb-c ports, both can be used for charging. i still prefer usb-a cuz i still use peripherals and drives i have right now. im not ready throw them away for the sake of "newer ports."
I like USB A for thumb drives and other legacy equipment but I definitely prefer more USB C. Right now, I have a connected to my laptop through it, one for charging and then 2 USB A for peripherals. I'd personally trade the other two USB A and use a small hub instead so I can charge my phone, watch and vape without a separate charger.
bandwidth and room on the board mainly
Where does L4SBot pull data from? R*ddit?
I would like to see a new USB form factor for chonky hardware like desktop PCs that combines the sturdiness and reliability of USB-A with the symmetry and power delivery of USB-C
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