How to pick the right USB-A adapter
USB-A may feel old-school but on desktops, servers and older laptops it remains standard. Ask: what do you want to connect? For USB-C sticks/SSDs a passive USB-A to USB-C adapter is enough. If the host only has USB-A 2.0, however, you only get USB-2.0 speed (480 Mbps). External NVMe SSDs at 1000 MB/s+ need USB-A 3.0 (5 Gbps) or USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps). For USB-A to HDMI the adapter uses DisplayLink, requires a small driver, but works without DisplayPort Alt Mode.