Forget about USB hubs, this Comet Lake motherboard has 20 USB ports

(Image credit: Portwell)

One of the best technologies to ever grace the PC is the advent of USB connectivity. Practically everything connects via USB these days, so why do some motherboards skimp on compatible ports? That's a good question, and one that is not applicable to Portwell's PEB-9783G2AR.

Behind the rather unassuming model name is a notable motherboard that packs 20 (yes, TWENTY) USB 3.2 ports on rear I/O panel. With that many ports, you could plug in a keyboard and mouse, your VR headset, a mixed reality headset, several external drives, a USB coffee warmer, and still have a bunch of USB ports to spare.

These are native USB ports, too, albeit of the Gen 1 variety (10Gbps, which is half the speed of Gen 2) . The product page (original source: FanlessTech on Twitter) states the motherboard is a proprietary design. Some of the finer grain details are not mentioned, but it appears Portwell split the USB connectivity across Intel's W480E/Q470E chipset and some of the SATA lanes to stretch connectivity to 20 ports, as there are just two SATA 6Gbps ports.

Board walk

(Image credit: MSI)

Best gaming motherboard: the best boards around
Best AMD motherboard: your new Ryzen's new home

Built for Intel's latest generation Comet Lake-S processors, you could build a modern gaming PC on this motherboard if you really wanted to, though it's really intended for workstation/server builds.

This board supports up to 128GB of DDR4-2666 RAM (by way of four DDR4 DIMM slots) with ECC support, and can accommodate a single M.2 form factor SSD.

In addition to a gang of USB ports, it serves up two DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, an HDMI output, dual ethernet ports (plus a header to add two more to the mix). It also features a system monitor for keeping tabs on voltage, fan speed, and temps.

You're not going to find this motherboard on Amazon or Newegg—anyone interested in buying it will need to request a price from Portwell.

TOPICS
Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).

Latest in Motherboards
The PCIe slot on an Asus ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi motherboard, showing the Q-release latch for GPUs.
Rejoice! PCI Express 7.0 hits 'final draft' status enabling bandwidth that you probably won't notice on devices that won't appear for years
A photo of an ASRock Z890 Taichi Lite motherboard
ASRock Z890 Taichi Lite review
A photo of the Asus TUF Gaming B860M-Plus WiFi motherboard
Asus TUF Gaming B860M-Plus WiFi review
A photo of an Asus ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi motherboard
Asus ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi review
Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro motherboard with the SSD heatsinks detached and on a light desk.
Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro review
Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi 7 Ice on a light desk with a white background and SSD covers removed.
Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice review
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened