Office and gaming desks with USB-A

USB-A port

— convenient "frontal" access to a PC for flash drives, mouse/keyboard dongles, webcams, card readers, and headset bases. The speed is determined not by the form of the connector, but by the standard: for many desks, this is a simple extension of USB 2.0 (up to 480 Mbps) from the system unit, while more advanced ones feature USB 5Gbps. The hub's bandwidth and power are shared among the ports, so it's better to connect external SSDs to a single "superspeed" port with a short quality cable or directly to the PC's rear panel. In terms of power, USB-A is suitable for "topping up" a phone/headset but does not replace a USB-C dock with Power Delivery and video. Compared to USB-C, its advantage is universality with old accessories and stable operation of dongles near the mouse; a practical example is plugging in a flash drive or headset receiver, quickly charging a gamepad, and not needing to run cables to the system unit.