I've never checked if it has a USB 3.0 header, but in software there's no xHCI USB3 controller when listing the devices with "lspci"And to clarify, that's largely goes to be an OEM thing (HP in this case) since even the Q67 chipset used by your PC actually supports USB 3.0 and, from what I can tell, even the board itself has a USB 3.0 header for front-panel connections... which HP of course decided to not include.
Edit: the Q67 doesn't have USB 3.0 following the specs: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/52812/intel-q67-express-chipset.html
Code:
root@pc1:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev b4)
00:1c.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev b4)
00:1c.7 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 8 (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev a4)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Q67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Oland [Radeon HD 8570 / R7 240/340 OEM]
01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cape Verde/Pitcairn HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7700/7800 Series]
The "USB Enhanced Host Controller" are EHCI = USB 2.0.
That's a good point Old cards of 2GB and 4GB which I have are still working fine. Even the 256MB card form my first digital camera still works But the newer cards die faster, a 32GB card even died in my smartphone within 2 yearsConsidering the capacities, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that those use much newer flash which means much less reliable since nowadays anything that isn't low-end tends to be provisioned for pro stuff, SSDs, or non-budget phones and tablets. In other words, consumer SD cards and flash drives tend to get the lowest of low-binned flash memory which also means expect TLC or even QLC which itself also automatically also means small manufacturing nodes as well.
Therefore it's actually extremely possible that any SD card made in the last 10 years is automatically going to be less reliable than those made over 10 years ago, and the difference gets even more dramatic if you only look at standard entry-level consumer SD cards from the last 5 years or so.
Just remember, speed and performance =/= flash memory reliability as a lot of that has to do with the controller, not the flash memory cells themselves. Also I think flash memory made on smaller nodes may be able to perform faster since I think they take less voltage to change state, but don't quote me on this.