Sonnet Allegro USB-C 2-Port PCIe Card

Special Order Item - Lead time of 3 weeks from order

When it comes to supporting the fastest USB drives available, your computer’s USB 3.0 ports are perfectly adequate for connecting peripherals that don’t depend on the ultimate USB 3.1 speeds. However, common USB 3.0 ports can be underachievers—at 5Gbps, they can’t support the maximum performance from many storage devices, and may not provide enough power to enable them to operate. You need SuperSpeed+ USB. You need Sonnet’s Allegro USB-C PCIe card.

The Allegro™ USB-C PCIe supports data transfers at up to twice as fast as USB 3.0, and can also deliver 15W of power per port to USB-C bus-powered devices (three times the 4.5W specified in the USB 3.0 spec). Don’t settle for mediocre performance or insufficient power for the fastest SSDs—install an Allegro USB-C card to instantly add two Gen 2 USB 3.1 ports to your system and take full advantage of today’s SSD performance.

Speed and Power

Sonnet's Allegro USB-C PCIe computer card supports data transfers up to 960 MB/s when connected to a USB-C Gen 2 SSD RAID device—transfers complete in half the time compared with using a USB 3.0 2.5-inch SSD! Sonnet specially engineered the Allegro USB-C card to provide 15W of power through each of its ports. The ports communicate with the host that 3A of VBUS current is available, enabling this Sonnet solution to support USB-C bus-powered SSDs and SSD RAID devices that need 15W during demanding write operations.

Regulates Power to Each Port

Ordinary USB-C adapter cards deal with power delivered through the ports as an afterthought, requiring an additional power source for the card and providing little regulation. The Allegro USB-C PCIe is no ordinary adapter card. The Allegro card regulates its own power without requiring a back-of-the card power cable connection, thus enabling full compatibility in any computer or Thunderbolt expansion chassis that doesn’t have these power connectors available.

Sonnet’s Allegro USB-C is unique in regulating power to each port independently, giving each one protection from power glitches on the adjacent port. Without this protection (such as found on an ordinary card), connects and disconnects of one device may cause auto-disconnects of the other.

Resettable Fuses

The Allegro USB-C card features a resettable fuse on each port to protect the card and computer should there be a cable or peripheral failure. Should a fuse trip on the Sonnet card, you can reset it simply by shutting down the computer.

PCIe Auto-Negotiation

Sonnet's Allegro USB-C PCIe features PCI Express auto-negotiation. The card automatically negotiates to a x1 data link in a PCIe 3.0 slot, and to a x2 link in a PCIe 2.0 slot, giving full bandwidth to both generations of PCIe slots, ensuring great performance in any configuration.

Optimised for Thunderbolt

Got a Thunderbolt connection, but no PCIe slot? The Allegro USB-C PCIe card is ideal for use in any Thunderbolt 2 or Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe card expansion chassis, including Sonnet’s Echo Express™ or xMac™ Thunderbolt to PCI Express card expansion systems, offering full performance wherever you install it—now you can add dual USB-C ports in any current Sonnet Thunderbolt chassis.

Easy Installation

This Allegro USB-C PCIe card installs easily into any PCIe x4 (mechanical) slot; both low-profile and full-height mounting brackets are included. The Sonnet card features hot-pluggable and hot-swappable device connection support with automatic device configuration, and works with all USB-IF compliant USB peripherals.

For more information head over to the Sonnet website.