Octopuss Why do they still put USB 2 ports on motherboards? I don't get it.

Octopuss Also, why mixture of different USB 3 types? Why not just the newest one?

erocker This is a little funny. Intel's been sandbagging the USB ports!

Mice and keyboards don't need anything faster than USB 2.0, and early USB 3.0 ports (especially those provided by 3rd-party controllers) had various compatibility and latency issues. For example, my Z77 board doesn't recognize my keyboard at boot if it's plugged into any of the VIA USB 3.0 ports, and when plugged into the Intel ones it's a 50/50 chance - so the only way to be sure I have keyboard at boot (i.e. when I need to enter the BIOS) is by using the USB 2.0 ports.The picture today is much different - USB 3.0 is mature, the 3rd-party controller market is dominated by ASMedia who actually makes good stuff, and drivers aren't terrible CPU-eating crap. But like the even older myth that USB is slow and can't do key rollover (it can, just not more than 6 keys, and how do you even press more than 5 keys with one hand?) and so you need PS/2, the "USB 3.0 sucks for peripherals" myth persists.USB 3.1 gen2 supplies twice the bandwidth of gen1, hence the differentiation. I don't know if there are manufacturing differences involved in the physical ports, but I'm certain the signalling traces on the motherboard have to be more robust to supply the required bandwidth, and of course the chipset and CPU have to be able to account for the higher throughput. So it's cost, and when most people don't even have devices that take advantage of USB 3 gen2, it just doesn't make sense to go full gen2.Eh?