Recommended USB PCIe card with at least 2 dedicated USB controller & USB-C (at least 1)

Any recommendation for USB PCIe cards with at least 2 dedicated controllers so that I won’t have to use the whole card when I want to assign a USB to a VM?

Preferably with USB-C.

Found couple that might work, but want your thoughts:

I’d doubt you’d find one, the two cards you listed are both using a USB-hub not 2 dedicated controllers.

That Startech card and this PEXUSB312A2C2V both come with two different controller chips on, the latter being ASMedia - ASM3142 and a ASMedia - ASM2806. Would that not work?

Note on Startech cards, compatibility with different motherboards can be a bit hit and miss.

The ASM2806 controller appears to be a PCI-E bridge, the ASM3142 is the USB controller.

Which card had that?

PEXUSB312A2C2V, its one I used before so thought I would mention, not in the same use case though.

The SoNNeT Allegro USB-C 4-port PCIe Card should be what you are looking for … it costs an arm and a leg though.
I had a very bad experience with an older model ( Sonnet Allegro Pro USB 3.1 ) that wouldn’t even work on the Linux Host, and hence wouldn’t work when passed to the VMs as well … Amazon with a 30 day return would be the way to go …

What’s your budget?

They aren’t cheap at all for unknown reason. The more independent controllers in a card the exponentially growing amount of money you’re required to pay.

Last time I checked, a two-controller card costed more than $100. Lesser known Chinese brands (but with well-known controller chips) are perhaps a bit cheaper.

Pretty much around $100

Keep in mind that the controller(s) need to support PCIe device reset, so that may limit your options. I’ve had the best luck with Renesas controllers and have accumulated quite a few cards based on them over the years.

The absolute king is the Renesas-based PEXUSB3S44V, which has four channels, each with one Type-A port. That may fit the bill, especially if you can find a used one at a discount (like I did… $20). You’ll need a Type-C adapter for your use-case. It has a close cousin, the PEXUSB3S42V, which has two channels, each with two Type-A ports.

There’s also the PEXUS313AC2V, which has two channels, each with two ports. One of the channels has one Type-A port and one Type-C port, so it’s a closer fit to your stated requirements. However, it uses ASM1142 controller(s), so you’ll have to research if it supports device reset.

Lastly, a quick shout-out to the Renesas-based PEXUSB3S24. It only has one channel with two Type-A ports, but you can populate all those pesky x1 slots and go HAM. I always keep a few of these handy and ready to deploy!

Check this one:

RedComets U21 USB 3.2 Gen 2 PCIe Card with 3 USB-A & 2 USB-C Ports (KU5211)

It might fill your bill for two copies. Each card has two controllers (pls double check). But the assignment isn’t equal. One controller dedicated to the bottom port, the other controller assigned to two type-A and two type-C. Each port up to 10Gbps only.

You can also check Highpoint & Sonnet cards. Would cost much more. Usually 4 ports of single type (A or C) with 2 assigned to each controller. Two controllers each card on the low-end. Way more controllers on each card if you move up the cost ladder.

@bambinone raised a good point about FUNCTION-LEVEL RESET support. Though that’s always solvable by a kernel patch yourself as far as I’m aware i.e. you’ll have to compile your own Linux kernel. So you might want to consider his tried option if you don’t want to compile kernel.

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What happens if it doesn’t?

The VM will boot fine, once. After you shut it down, it won’t boot up a second time. You have to reboot the whole system to get it working again.

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Oh! That’s something I never considered before.

I guess I got lucky because I have a cheap USB hub that device reset

:crossed_fingers: I get this for Christmas.

We have a $100 limit

I have a unused highpoint RU1344A from a thunderbolt enclosure. Here is the official spec https://www.highpoint-tech.com/ru1344a-overview

It has PLX pcie switch and two asm3142.

If you are interested I can sell you cheap, we can open a post in sell section in this forum or whatever you prefer.

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how much are you thinking? and would I have to worry about import (Canadian here)

I found Highpoint 1144B may also work:
4 usb controllers with PLX switch on ebay for $25.

RU1344A on ebay for $75 (this is not me, but probably I will sell for similar price, and I am too lazy to figure out how to ship to canada

You pay about $15 to canada + import tax calculated when checkout.

The thing is that I don’t have the budget for that at the moment since September alone, I bought a used EVGA 3060 Ti, 512GB Steam Deck, and 4 variants of Taylor Swift’s album.

I’m just hoping someone would get that for Christmas.

Well, my family gave me U22, and that didn’t work

Bummer. :frowning:

At least I didn’t end up being the one spending money it. Thank God for having a birthday so close to Christmas.

03:00.0 USB controller [0c03]: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM2142 USB 3.1 Host Controller [1b21:2142] (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
        Subsystem: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM2142 USB 3.1 Host Controller [1b21:2142]
        Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 25, IOMMU group 23
        Memory at fbb00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]
        Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/8 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [68] MSI-X: Enable- Count=8 Masked-
        Capabilities: [78] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [80] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [200] Secondary PCI Express
        Capabilities: [300] Latency Tolerance Reporting
        Capabilities: [400] L1 PM Substates
        Kernel driver in use: vfio-pci
        Kernel modules: xhci_pci