Why do (desktop) PC have so few USB ports ?

Answer: the vast majority of people don't use 7 USB devices at a time. You are an outlier and should have purchased accordingly

7 USB ports seems like a decent amount, to me.

Those modern high speed USB controllers are not free. They used up available PCIe lanes. The more you add the less PCIe lanes available in the motherboard.

If you have a lot of low speed USB peripherals, just buy some large USB 2.0 hubs so you can reserve the high speed ports for high speed applications such as external disks.

7 seems like a pretty good amount but if you need more, you can always add them if you have a free slot (if not, there's always hubs). Alternately, you could build your own next time you need to upgrade.

You can get an USB hub to expand that number as needed. With USB 3.2 ports you can connect all of the things you listed over a single port without any performance issues.

You could literally connect hundreds of devices to those ports, if needed.

You bought a prebuilt system, which in general tend to not be very expandable and cut corners in various ways because they target the average customer, and not the enthusiast.

On a similar note, my pet peeve is the limited number of pcie slots in modern motherboards (and to a lesser extent, pcie lanes), but this is also understandable given the trend away from using those ports (except for GPUs).

I don't know if this is a gaming PC or high end etc, but for me 7 USB slots is a lot. I usually need 2, in most extreme situations I would need 4 I think. So maybe the PC is just designed for an average person who is not too tech savvy? I have to think really hard about what I would do with 7 slots.

Because the USB standard allows the number of USB ports to be significantly expanded through the use of hubs.

Buy a USB hub buddy

I mean... That one's on you, you should have looked at the specs to make sure the PC fit your needs and could have built one yourself (especially if you're into flight sims, why waste money for sub par tech?)...

My motherboard has more ports than your whole PC plus I've got two ports at the front...

that depends on what you bought, my motherboard has 10 in the back, and my case has 5 most are usb 3

granted my case and mobo are both 250 usd individually

My x570 motherboard has like 10 usb ports lol. And then my case has 2 more on the front. I think Lenovo just sucks lol. They are the OEM for their desktop motherboards right? Like Dell?

Your mistake was buying a prefab.

My desktop has 12 USB ports with the option of installing quite a few more by using the internal headers.

It all depends on the case and mother board you buy.

Install a PCIe USB expansion card. Will give you an extra 4-8 slots.

You can buy pcie usb controllers to give you more ports.

Unless it's like the stupid HP Omens where the motherboard has only one slot and that's for the graphics card.

Permanently Deleted

That's why I built my own PC, get it the way I want it.

Though even I rarely used more than 8 at a time.

1. mouse and keyboard
2. wifi antenna
3. printer cable
4. webcam (only sometimes)

the CD reader takes two, one for power and one for data, but that's only used rarely

if I'm playing games with my kids that's four controllers at most, and I don't leave those plugged in

Nice counting. Now let's do SATA ports and fan power connections. only 3 or 4 for 20 years. What's up with that?!?

Usb PCIe cards are a thing.

Well things like motherboards can only be so large. It needs to be a certain form factor to fit in a standard case. And that motherboard needs to offer all the standard physical connections as well. So basically, there’s a finite space where everything needs to fit.

Adding ports to the case is quite nice. And technically there’s no reason why OEM’s couldn’t just add a ton more ports.

But I guess the average user doesn’t really complain about it. And us powerusers simply buy hubs.

Personally, I’d need about a dozen ports to connect everything.

Sorry @Ziggurat but you might be the one behind the times; keyboard/mouse/headset - Bluetooth, External Hard drive/ memory stick - cloud/ WiFi, camera - WiFi/Bluetooth, Webcam is still USB.

The true connector crime here is that single USB-C, any new PC should have more than that.

I had to buy an expansion slot to give my PC more USB ports lol

But it's my own fault

I have my keyboard, my mouse, my mouse pad wich is powered for a USB slot on it that I use to dock my wireless controlled, an external CD tray, aired headphones, a little USB powered desktop fan, USB flashdrive, and a USB cable I keep plugged in to easily plug in another device if I need like my phone

Build your own PC bro. Its dead simple. And you can choose a mobo with lots of usb ports. You fucked up buying a prebuilt

I got 5 type As and a type C. I'm kind of happy tbh. I need the type c for my yubikey so it comes it clutch.

if you connect a few USB hubs and like 20 devices at the same time, you will find out why

Get a dongle or docking station. A laptop is supposed to be movable, so it makes very little sense to unplug and plug 7 cables every time you move it.

Also, if you're running Windows it will also make for a cleaner setup if the things are in a dongle and you always use the same port for the dongle. This is an issue for people using several midi controllers.

Bluetooth ftw