Advice on new build

[greshoff]

I am planning on building a new system. I am a little out of touch with current hardware. Could I get opinions on the following combination of M’board, CPU & RAM. Also can anyone tell me what USB 3.1 Type-A and USB 3.1 Type-C are? Are they backwards compatible with USB 3 & 2? Ideally I am looking for a motherboard with 8 external USB ports.

Gigabyte H170-D3HP Skylake ATX Motherboard

Intel Core i5 6500 Skylake Desktop Processor/CPU

Corsair 8GB DDR4 Vengeance LPX 2133MHz Memory Kit for Skylake

[EndlessWaves]

Type A is the standard desktop USB connector. Type C is a new connector that's an attempt to be more suited to current requirements than the 1995-era Type A. Specifically it's two main selling points are that it's much thinner and reversible so it fits on slimmer computers and is easier to plug in.

Except for being released at a similar time it's not tied to USB version 3.1, which is fully backwards compatible.

USB 3.1 implementations can only support USB3 speeds, these are referred to as USB 3.1 Gen1. Gen2 being the full speed.

The Type C connector also supports a couple of optional features like being able to carry a DisplayPort signal, these are implementation dependant. Then there's the USB optional features like sleep and charge, USB Battery Charging and USB power delivery.

Basically the usual story these days. The standard can do lots of things, but the devices using it are often frustrating vague about which features they support.

[greshoff]

Thanks for your reply and explanation. So If I plug in a USB 2 device into a USB 3.1 port will it work? Obviously the type C port will not work with anything other that type c plug

[scaryjim]

... So If I plug in a USB 2 device into a USB 3.1 port will it work? ...

Yup, USB3 is mostly backwards compatible with USB2, and the main Type-A connector is completely cross compatible (so USB 3 devices will work in USB 2 ports, and USB 2 devices will work in USB 3 ports).

[greshoff]

Yes, I am aware that USB 3 are backwards compatible but what about USB 3.1?

[EndlessWaves]

Thanks for your reply and explanation. So If I plug in a USB 2 device into a USB 3.1 port will it work? Obviously the type C port will not work with anything other that type c plug

Yes. And anything with a Type A or B plug will work fine with a Type C plug with a simple, cheap plug adapter.

[scaryjim]

Yes, I am aware that USB 3 are backwards compatible but what about USB 3.1?

Yeah, USB 3.1 is just an extension of USB 3 and as such is compatible. Physically it's identical; it increases the maximum transfer rates and changes the encoding for compatible devices, but will still fall back to earlier versions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#USB_3.1

[Boon72]

just bought something similar for mine update.

i5-6500
ASRock Z170A-X/3.1 (with 6 USB 3 ports, 1 x 3.1 port & 1 x USB-C)
8GB DDR4 LPX 2666Mhz

runs like dream with Windows 10 :-)