So My Wife Was Angered because I bought our son the inccorrect piece of euiqpment

Our son is 17 and he’s very shy but with us, his parents, he’s not so shy.  A few weeks ago he told his mother that he wanted a new “USB 3.0” External Hard Drive.  So, last night, unbenknownst to them, I went to a Best Buy and I bought him a Western Digital My Book Essential 2 TB USB 3.0 + USB 2.0.

As soon as I told my wife, but before we gave it to him, she began to wrrap it in wrapping paper but then she stopped short.  She said to me, “Are sure you this is the one he wants?”  and I said to “To be honest, I don’t know.  I just went in there and the salesman showed me this one and another brand.” 

“I think it needs a card,” she said.  “A card?  What kind of card?  An adapter card such that that the USB 3.0 ports work.” 

–This, of course, is a question I should have put to the salesman but I didn’t.

So my question for this community is the following: Does the Western Digital My Book Essential (with “SmartWare” software) USB 3.0 + 2.0 require the use of a PCIe adapter card for My Book 3.0.  to take full advantage of what USB 3.0 has to offer?

Thank you so much your responses.

If he asked for a 3.0, he likely has 3.0 capability on his pc already.  If not, it will likely still work, but only as 2.0.  So in other words it will work even if his pc doesn’t have 3.0 capability, but until he does get 3.0 via pci slot or however, it would not operate at 3.0 speeds.

If the PC doesn’t already have the card for USB 3.0 yes.

Joe

Thank you both for your responses.  Yes, I finally found this out shortly after I made the post.

Thanks again.