Question USB-C power output from desktop PC? (max amps for charging phone)

[jrichrds]

Most desktop computers now come with a USB-C port, but I'm finding it hard to find any info on how many amps they can output for charging smartphones. If it's not advertised to be higher, is it just assumed it can still only output 500mA?

And are there aftermarket motherboards that have USB-C ports that can output high wattage (like 18W, 22W, or even higher)?

 

[Viper GTS]

Treat onboard USB-C ports as data ports, not power. Dedicated chargers are the appropriate place to charge your devices.

Viper GTS

 

[ArisVer]

USB C ports can output up to 3A. Depending on the connection it can output 500mA, 900mA, 1.5A and 3A (maybe also other within the range?). Some people reported problems charging their smartphones with it. Personally I throw my smartphone charger in a bin and use computer ports for charging and I am doing that for around 4 years now.

 

[mindless1]

It would have to be advertised as higher and support some rapid charge protocol to be 18W or higher, which is above the 3A @5V max you could have hoped for but is not guaranteed. You're guaranteed 500mA, maybe 900 or 1500.

When I'm at a computer, I use a smartphone charger bundled with phone or purchased separately, see no point in use of motherboard port, nor wearing it out as these tiny ports are pretty fragile compared to USB -A. If something is going to be damaged, would much rather it be a less expensive, more easily replaced item than a motherboard.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm 110% with Viper GTS on this. Some of you like Mindless1 may have seen my recent epic crisis saga about the vaping pen, the static charge and the dead USB controller of my Sabertooth motherboard. Those boards and some in the similar feature and price range are built to a MIL-spec, and they promote the Sabertooth on that basis.

I killed it. And my friend the retired Navy electronics tech warned me many times about connecting cell-phones and tablets to my PC USB ports for anything other than data transfer. Of course, with that, you can simply use a wireless network connection, so . . .

There are dozens of makes and models for the same thing, but I bought this one -- a Sabrent 10-port USB QC charging bus that plugs into a wall socket. I wouldn't have been using my PC in the first place but for being lazy and using all the nearby wall-sockets for the different charging bricks of my various devices --- including the vaping-pen. With the Sabrent, it will take any device that needs a USB charge, and offer up whatever the particular device can take.

I should've picked up something like the Sabrent charger five or ten years ago -- if they were available. . . .