SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps vs. SuperSpeed USB

[andrewaffolter]

I have an Alienware X51 R3 that I bought as part of an Oculus Rift bundle from Amazon.com. The Rift needs two USB 3.0 ports, 1 for the headset and 1 for the sensor. The upcoming Touch controllers require an additional sensor. I am trying to determine if my PC has enough USB 3.0 ports to support the additional sensor.

If I look at the back of my PC and at the specs from DELL I see that on the back I have two SuperSpeed USB ports near the top (and two more on the front) and two SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps in the middle in the back. Can someone explain what is the difference between SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps and SuperSpeed USB? Are both USB 3.0?

Dell Specs: http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/alienware-x51-r3
X51 R3 Bundle: https://www.amazon.com/Oculus-Alien...d=1479094475&sr=8-2&keywords=alienware+oculus

 

[aldkiwi]

Great question, I'd love to know more about these ports too. I was bemused when the instructions that came with mine suggested that the mouse and keyboard go into one of the superspeed ports - I thought that was nuts so they went into the slowest ports I could find ...

 

[andrewaffolter]

What I have been able to learn so far seems to suggest that these SS10 ports are actually a new type of USB connector called USB 3.1 and the 10 tells you that its Gen2 which means they are faster than the traditional "SuperSpeed" ports.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/usb-31-usb-type-c-refresher,29933.html
http://www.usb.org/developers/ssusb/

 

[aldkiwi]

Same but faster. Definitely not worth plugging a mouse into then!