Actual useful XpressCard expansion gadget?

I hate the fact that my laptop(and most laptops), come with this Xpresscard expansion slot, but so much of the time it is never used. I feel like its being completely wasted. Anyone know of any gadgets/widgets that are actually useful that could utilize that slot?

 

It depends what you do and what you need.

You can get these things for an expresscard slot (and propably more):

Travel mouse that fits into the slot (horrendously unergonomical, but still).

E-sata adaptor (to connect an esata hdd)
FW-adaptors (FW400/FW800)
FW/Esata adaptors
USB-adaptors
SSDs
SDHC-card reader
CF card reader
TV-tuner (if I recall correctly)
3G modem, and
a variety of audio cards.

It rather depends on what you do, your needs, your computer, and the width of the slot. Oh, and some use the slower usb interface in the slot instead of the PCI-E interface.

 

You actually can put a graphics card in there. But they are seriously unpractical.

 

There are a lot of uses for it, and while most are just adapters for older gadgets to work in the new slot, there are a lot of specific ExpressCard components available, with more coming out all the time. Unfortunately there's only one Wireless N EC adapter right now, but they'll get around to it eventually. As the others have mentioned, it really depends on what you want. All you really need to do is Google ExpressCard Adapters to see what comes up.

I use Creative's X-Fi Express in my EC54 slot. It has an adapter that allows you to use it in either an EC 34 or 54 slot. Broadband Wireless EC cards are now more and more prevalent, being offered with some of the newer HP systems that have EC54 slots.So while it might seem like there's nothing available for it, there is actually a lot - you just need to find it, and that usually starts with "What do you need?"

 

If i recall, Ive seen a gps for expresscard 34

 

And you'd be right:

With broadband: http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/pccards/overview/ec400g?cc=gb

GPS-only:

http://mightygps.com/expresscardgps.htm

(actually, the latter one is (was, it's discontinued) a CompactFlash GPS with an adaptor).

 

IF media remote is often stored inside the slot

 

I use mine for my MoGo X54 Media BT Mouse

It both stores and charges in the XpressCard bay

Here:


and,




Cin

 

LOL, that was the exact one I was thinking about, Cin

 

Ha! Yeah! It's a pretty cool mouse, actually! It's not something you would want to use 24/7..but it works well


Cin

 

I bet it does, I bet it does

 

You can get some 'higher-performance' flash memory cards for EC34. There are two kinds.

a) cards that run on the usb connector (slow)
b) cards that run on the 'real' PCI bus. (fast & costly)

Even the slowest of these cards are faster than a SDHC card.

These cards are NOT a substitute or replacement for main memory/ram. But you can use them for swap space or as a way to stash files and/or free up space on your main hard drive.

 

Yup, those are SSD's – Solid State Disks in the form an expresscard.

 

can you use the sony ericsson without wifi?

 

Hmm, I'm not exactly sure what the question is, but when I talk "broadband" I'm talking high bandwidth cellular data as opposed to GPRS. I'm not talking, say, ADSL broadband.

3G is cellular data, so it uses the cell phone masts.

GPS is short for Global Positioning System –it uses satellites to pinpoint your position. Wi-Fi or no Wi-Fi it will place you where you are.

 

Yes, it does! I don't even use the remote that came with my lappy!

Now, the XpressCard Bay, finally serves a purpose!


Cin