Flush USB 3.0 Expresscard Adapter

Am I missing something? I can't figure out WHICH one to use... The most recent one, I suppose?

 

I answered you in the other thread.

 

Thanks, Man!

 

thanks man~

 

For what it's worth, here's my experience so far with this 'flush-fitting' Expresscard/34 single-port USB3.0 adapter

DealExtreme: $18.20 34/54MM Express to USB 3.0 Card for Notebook

I received the AKE Expresscard34 USB 3.0 ordered from the DealExtreme. It took about 2 weeks to arrive (to Canada from US) but that was over the Xmas period. It arrived in a generic expresscard adapter box which had check boxes for; USB 2.0, ESata...but no USB3.0. Still it looked like the picture...

Also in the box was a mini CD - you know the ones about 3" diameter. That was no good for the slot-load optical drive on my Dell, but no worries I have another lappie I could copy the CD contents to a flash drive on.

No documentation whatsoever with the card - just the card and the CD. On the CD we have 6 directories (working from memory here) two of which have 'USB3' in their title. What do I install? Do I need the other folders? Dunno. Do I install the drivers 1st? Do I need to reboot? Do I need to plug in the card while the machine is powered down? Lots of questions and no answers. I looked in vain for any main 'readme' instructions on the CD.

So I forged ahead and installed the installations from the 2 folders with 'USB3' in the title. Then I plugged in the card while the machine was still running. The card is not quite flush - sticks out about 4~5mm when fully in. To eject you push it in again and let go, then it pops out about 1cm and can be pulled out. More on this 'feature' later.

After sticking in the card for the 1st time, I got a pop up saying something like "installing drivers"...then "...driver installation failed-X!" or some such. Windows (7 64-bit) kept making the "dadum!" sound it makes when you plug in say a flash drive and it's ready..."dadum".."dadum"...and so on. I unplugged the card and plugged in again . When I plugged in again no "dadum" at all and no message from windows.

So, I left it in and rebooted. No message from windows on startup about new hardware being installed and ready to use, as I was hoping. So, I plugged in my new Iomega USB3.0 2.5" portable drive and...the light came on and it started humming. A good sign I thought. I had a look in Windows Hardware Manager and SystemInfo (SIW.exe) but couldn't find anything refering to USB3.0.

I copied a file (blu-ray ISO about 40GB) to the drive and windows transfer speed settled down to around 76MB/s. Definitely better than USB2.0! Success! Copying another file of similar size about halfway through the drive just disappeared as if it had been unplugged...but it hadn't. I tried again, but about halfway through I pushed the card in to make sure it was in properly, which of course ejected it when I let go! Doh! This hung my laptop completely. So force a power down and keep fingers crossed when starting again...

Plugged card in again while the computer was off (hot-pluggin is OK with these cards? Dunno) and re-started. This time copied a whole file successfully with similar speed. Not the 100MB/s I was hoping for, but ~75MB/s isn't too shabby.

The Iomega drive comes with a Y-cable with a 2nd USB2.0 connector for more juice. So I plugged this into another USB2.0 port on my laptop. Was this feeding more power to the drive? Who knows? It didn't increase the transfer speed.

This might be a 'feature' of my Dell laptop as much as the card. Think about how the card mounts/dismounts - push it in until it clicks then let go to mount, push in again to dismount. So, what happens when you try and plug in your drive to the port in the card? Unless you're very careful you end up unplugging the expresscard! Doh! Not good. So far I've found it's most reliable to have the machine off - eject the card, plug in the drive to the card, plug the card back into the lappy, then power up.

So, my experience so far has been good and bad. I've still no idea if I've installed the correct drivers for the card, but it seems to be working. Presumably as a USB3.0 port, given 75GB/s. Anyone know which are the correct drivers for the AKE and/or if later ones are available online? Are there generic drivers available?

Using the port is a bit tricky, but if I manage to plug the drive in without ejecting the expresscard, it seems to work pretty well.

 

For the third time in two threads: Use the drivers available here. Download the most recent set, which is at the top of the page. Now for the installation, which I did not cover:

Uninstall the drivers you have now. Remove the Expresscard adapter. Install the drivers you downloaded from the link above. Plug in the adapter. All should be right with the world.

 

Thank You, it is VERY helpful!

Had the exact same issue, but a google search turned up the great posts here by saturnotaku

Is this the Iomega EGO portable 1TB USB 3.0 drive? That would be good news indeed as I am waiting for one as we speak.

It is laptop specific. It does the same on my HP 8730w, but it should be no problem, it's hot pluggable, I do it all the time with my CF card adapter. I have the AKE 54mm type adapter like saturnotaku (That one does fit flush in both my HP and Toshiba laptops - it is exactly 73mm long and 54mm wide, if that helps - if it's the same length and doesn't fit flush it would be your laptop).

How tight does the USB connector itself feel on your card? The ones on the 54mm card feel loose to me...

 

Hi 83bj60 I'm glad this info was useful for you. I should do a follow up to be fair to the AKE card. I found that on the DealExtreme page:

DealExtreme: $18.20 34/54MM Express to USB 3.0 Card for Notebook

...there's a discussion board and a poster has given a link to the latest drivers for the card as follows:

The drivers this comes with are a bit out of date, and the most recent ones are tricky to find, so I've posted the WHQL 3.0.110.12 drivers here:
Hotfile.com: One click file hosting: FL1000_32bit.msi (32-bit)
Hotfile.com: One click file hosting: FL1000_64bit.msi (64-bit)
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Nice! So I uninstalled the old drivers and installed the new ones last night. I also brought the card and my Iomega Ego 1TB (yes it's this one) drive with me to work to run a test on it. I'm using my work ASUS G50V as the test bed in this case.

The ASUS has an Expresscard/54 port which the card plugs right into and low and behold it is entirely flush. So full points to the AKE card there and nil-points to my DELL, which is a frikin' 17" monster (the ASUS is a big 15 incher) and still they can't get a full port depth in it?!

I used CrystalDiskMark to test the Iomega via USB2.0 port (built into laptop) and via the AKE card's USB3.0 port. Results are hopefully attached. The screenshot on the left with Seq Read = 29.9 MB/s is via USB2.0 and on the right is the results for expersscard USB3.0 Seq Read = 100.0 MB/s. Bang on what I was hoping for. I'll try copying some big files back/forth and see what I get.

[added] Copying some big files (blu-ray iso's) back/forth on the ASUS I got a settled transfer speed (according to windows 7 64-bit) of around 65~75 MB/s. I got some significantly better speeds on my DELL back home last night (didn't have CrystalDiskMark at home) ;consistent speeds of around 80~90MB/s which is excellent!

The port on the expresscard is snug but not too tight so I find that if I slide the drive's plug in gently I can get it in without ejecting the card pretty reliably. Just pulling the drive plug out also pulls out the expresscard! I expected that the expresscard would be held in its port but it is not, so I have to hold the card in while pulling out the drive plug. This happens on both the ASUS and the DELL.

 

Sorry saturnotaku I missed that link - thanks for this, all is now right with the world

 

Do you need to use the power adapter for the usb3 express card?? I have a portable hdd which usually works off the USB power... BTW I have one of them coming in next week with two usb 3 ports

 

Excellent testing that is truly impressive and bodes well for the Iomega Ego. To be honest, I wasn't sure I should even go ahead with this drive because of the forced firmware encryption (I prefer truecrypt, who knows what backdoor Iomega has installed in the firmware! But that's another story).

I hadn't used CrystaldiskMark before (I use HDTune) and I am truly impressed by your results, because even my internal 320GB HD doesn't get any faster than 65 or so MB/s...

I guess the 54mm model is a bit flimsier, it definitely flexes a bit in the hand. But pressing the USB connector a bit does help with getting a tighter fit, so it's probably not going to be a big issue. I just don't like it too much, because laptops tend to be moved around and if the connection gets lose during a file transfer, well, you're in trouble

 

Thanks, I didn't even bother to install the ones that came with the card

So, my card has arrived today. Fits well, about 1mm in the laptop, but as far as it's not out, it's OK. The ports are a bit flimsy. Here are benches with my Rocketfish USB 2 enclosure and Hitachi 250GB 5400rpm in there (built-in USB 2 port / AKE USB 3 card):



When my USB 3 enclosure arrives I'll post more results.

 

What I find interesting about those results is that the USB 3.0->2.0 connection has much higher sequential read/write than the USB 2.0->2.0 connection. That seems odd to me.

 

It's odd to me as well, but I can't give explanation. I tried to transfer a movie (1.36GB) using either built-in USB 2 and AKE USB 3. With the built-in it was down for 48.81 sec and with AKE - 43.61 sec.

 

Here are some tests I ran

I ran some CDM benches on my drive to test out my . The first drive is a 640GB Western Digital 5400RPM Drive in a USB 3.0 Enclosure. I connected it on the first bench to a USB 2.0 port and ran the test. I choose 2000MB for the test because that is what I mainly use the drive for, moving recovery images and such, and one of the reasons I got the USB 3.0 card. The second CDM bench is the USB 3.0 Enclosure pluged into the USB 3.0 card. Again 2000MB. My third and bench, was to bench the 3.0 Enclosure/HDD off the USB 3.0 card, but also have the enclosure power through a second USB 2.0 cable for extra juice. I just wanted to see if the extra power affected the transfer speed. Obviously it had ZERO affect on speed. I then swapped out the drive for a 320GB 7200RPM Western Digital Scorpio Black, and the results were odd at first, than I reformatted and wiped the 7200RPM drive. The 7200RPM Drive performed a little better than the 5400RPM drive once it was wiped. I also had to use the power plug on the 7200RPM drive when connected to the USB 3.0 Expresscard.


USB 3.0 Enclosure 5400RPM Drive -->USB 2.0 port


USB 3.0 Enclosure 5400RPM Drive --> USB 3.0 Expresscard


USB 3.0 Enclosure 5400RPM Drive --> USB 3.0 Expresscard With USB 2.0 Power cord



USB 3.0 Enclosure 7200RPM Drive --> USB 3.0 Expresscard With USB 2.0 Power cord

 

"oneabove" - no, the AKE Expresscard/34 does not have a power input - it just has a single USB3.0 port. The tests I ran were all with the Iomega Ego 1TB portable HDD connected only to the USB3.0 port.

The Iomega drive comes with a Y-cable with USB3.0 connector on one end and USB2.0 on the other. Plugging the USB2.0 end into the laptop (as well as the USB3.0 end into the Expresscard) didn't improve transfer speed that I could notice (I didn't test this with CryistalDiskMark though), so I concluded the Iomega drive is getting all the juice it needs from the Expresscard port.

 

Glad that further info was helpful "83bj60"

I tried HDTune (the free one) first but it refused to test the portable drive via the expresscard - just gave a 'Read error!' right away and aborted the test. I don't know much about HDTune so I gave up with this and moved on to CrystalDiskMark as I've seen it shown in the Notebookreview reviews. I can't vouch for the real-world veracity of it benchmark values so perhaps they should be taken with a pinch of salt....

I did some more 'real-world' tests last night on my DELL at home and the drive I'm copying to-from onto the portable drive comes into play too. I have 2x500GB drives in my DELL; one a Seagate and the other an Hitachi. The Seagate outscores the Hitachi on CrystalDiskMark.

But copying exactly the same file (blu-ray ISO of size 43.2GB) from the Iomega to the hard drive gave the following result:

Seagate: Total time = 11 mins 10s: average speed = 64.5GB/s
Hitachi: Total time = 8 mins: average speed = 90 GB/s

Quite a difference! I'm certainly very pleased with the Iomega+Expresscard+Hitachi combo!

I ran CrystalDiskMark (default settings) on my DELL and result is attached.

I'll cheerfully admit I don't have a clue about the encryption on the Iomega drive or what it does so I guess it's not an issue for me

 

thread hi-jack newby question here...is there a difference in speed between a usb 3.0 expresscard and a usb 3.0 built in to the laptop?

 

Yes there is:

From: USB Cards - PCI Express & ExpressCard - Reviews, News @ Everything USB

 

More specifically, Expresscard is limited to about 2.5 Gbps, while USB 3.0 is theoretically capable of 4 Gbps (or so, overhead will reduce this, but it will probably eat into the Expresscard limit too). Still faster than any current platter hard drive. You won't be saturating the Expresscard bandwidth with almost anything other than a SSD at present.

 

What Seagate is it? My laptop's drive is also a Seagate (Momentus ST9320421AS, 320GB)

That's strange, this test shows that the Hitachi is faster. Hmmm!

Which drive does it represent, the Seagate or the Hitachi?

That's good news... I am anxiously waiting for mine to arrive. These are excellent results indeed!

 

My DELL was fitted as bought with the Seagate ST9500420AS 500GB 7200rpm HDD. I also fitted myself a 2nd Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 500GB 7200RPM

Yeah, it is strange though another benchmark (part of a system info program I forget the name) showed the Hitatchi as the faster. HDTune might be better (i.e. more truly representative) - I'll give that a run on my DELL some point. Certainly it was significantly faster copying a file to the Hitachi from the Iomega (via USB3.0 expresscard port) - could just as well be some internal factor in the laptop I guess...

Neither - I didn't post the actual results for my laptop's internal HDD's. The CrystalDiskMark result (attached again) is for the Iomega Ego USB3.0 drive on my DELL.

Indeed they are - generally speaking the Iomega Ego+AKE Expresscard/34 USB3.0 adapter combo delivered the performance increase I was hoping for in spades.

On the downside; a couple of time's the Expresscard has just ejected itself spontaneously (not physically but just disappeared from Windows devices) taking the Iomega with it in the middle of a copy operation. Hopefully this will prove an isolated glitch. Also it's a little tricky to plug in/unplug the drive, but I can live with that.

 

I received it today.. the ports are VERY loose... usb doesnt go completely inside and sticks out a bit... well here is a picture..

 

Same as mine, but at least it does it's job, mines not extremely loose, but looser than my usb 2. ports.

 

Okey its NO more loose...

 

nice mod. do u mind getting a few more pics of the card sitting in the laptop from different angles, some just the card, some with usb device plugged in. im thinking of getting one too, just want to know how well it works before buying. cheers

 

Good call, just did the same, but had to loosen it up a lil. apparently have a heavy hand. It was tight to the point that when i pulled the USB cable out, it pulled the card too. +1

 

Okey here are some more closeups... card itself is like any other expresscard, nothing special...

 

It happened to me too... so I used some tape to wrap around the narrow part of the card...i dont exactly know how the lock works.. did a quick google search, but no luck.... any ways now the card wont come out (unless i press and release it ofcourse) and the usb is tight too (like you have the click-into-place firmness )

 

If I'm not mistaken that's an Expresscard 54 USB 3.0 flush adapter. Just one question: can you safely remove the USB drive without unplugging the whole Expresscard adapter from its slot?

 

Yes you can... and yea its the EC54 with 2 usb 3 ports..

 

Interesting because I have a EC34 with two USB 2.0 ports adapter (not flush with the laptop). The EC card adapter clicks in and out, does not pull out when you pull out the USB plug but I don't have the option to safely remove the drive connected to it unless I remove the whole card. I'm considering upgrading to USB 3.0 also just didn't find the right brand yet.

 

thanks for the pics. just a few more questions.

1. is the firmware on the card upgradable using the generic NEC firmware found at station-driver website? i know you can use the generic NEC driver, but not sure about the firmware or if the card already come with the latest firmware.

2. are the ports providing enough power to usb devices without having to plug in the additional usb power cable in the middle of the card?

3. this is the one u got right?
Express Card Expresscard 54 slot to USB 3.0 x 2 Port: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

+ rep to the info. cheers.

 

That is my experience as well. Mechanically, this adapter is of poor quality. I pressed the USB connectors on the cable ends and this helped a lot, but we shouldn't have to do that.

 

Great Idea... Pretty sure you forfeited your warranty, but with a reference to this thread I'm sure they will relent should you have to return it

 

The card I just received comes with the 2.0.20 driver on a mini disk, and NO INSTRUCTIONS. the NEC folder is the right one to chose, apparently. So yes, the website has the more recent driver. Both work, I tried the old one on my Toshiba laptop and the new one on my HP laptop. I am still waiting for my USB 3.0 drive to test it, but in 2.0 mode it works perfectly well.

Apparently yes, from saturnotaku's previous posts. I should be able to confirm when I get my own drive sometime next week, perhaps DR650Se can confirm, he's got it too.

Yes, from the pictures. I got mine on ebay, but it can be found elsewhere as you found out.

 

Done, thanks +rep

If you have a 3.5" external I guess you'll need the extra juice, but it's just guessing, I don't have one to try it. 2.5" works flawlessly

 

Well if you connect 2 external HDDs (ie. 2 USB powered devices at once) you WILL need the powercable plugged in (drawing power from an adjacent usb2 port))....

 

I am not planning to return it any way..... It was pretty cheap. But to use it properly I had to do it .....now it's a part of my lappy atlesst semi-internally ...

 

thanks for the feedback. for the first question, i was actually asking about firmware, not the software driver. if you look at stationdriver, there are firmwares posted there as well. im wondering if u can flash the latest firmware to the card, or what firmware does the card come with. thanks. +rep

 

No Idea! perhaps you can tell em how to check that?

 

download the firmware from stationdriver and try?

 

I meant... How do you CHECK what firmware is loaded on the card?

 

go to device manager properties then storage controllers. should be listed there or somewhere else.

 

I checked. The driver is listed, but the firmware revision is not.

 

odd.. even my old esata expresscard shows firmware revision cos i remembered seeing it before i sold it (not sure if it's under device manager-->storage controller) but it's defiantely present. from stationdriver, the most updated firmware does seem to fix quite a number of issues with the NEC controller. it'll be great if the firmware is upgradable for that card too. thanks for trying anyway, might just get one myself since it's not that expensive.

 

Hello Guys
I just received the USB 3.0 ExpressCard With aux power installed drivers and look what bull- notice commes up from windows !! look pictures what a poor thing it is !!! can perform faster when connected to usb 3.0 i have it in usb 3.0 via express card fokin hell anybody can help?
thnx

 

Simple ExpressCard has usb connection on the bus too ... so best guess these cheap cards just route on usb2 as not too much hardware needed for it.
ExpressCard2 will have usb3 on the bus.

 

@sama98b
so whathe heck? now ? my laptop doesn't have ExpressCard2 ??
It's laptop from 2008

 

I am done here !! I will never have USB 3.0 !!
Just red this article ! I copied it below..
my god .. my laptop has ExpressCard 1.0

So guys , if you dont have laptop made at least late 2010 you NOT gonna have ExpressCard 2.0 and you NOT gonna have USB 3.0 support !

ExpressCard 2.0

This section requires expansion.
The ExpressCard 2.0 standard was delivered March 4, 2009 at CeBIT in Hannover. It is expected to have a raw bandwidth of 5 Gbit/s (transfer speed 500 MB/s or 0.5 GB/s),[13] which is ten times USB 2.0 (0.48 Gbit/s or 60 MB/s),[14] and includes USB 3.0 (5.0 Gbit/s or 625 MB/s or 0.625 GB/s).[15] It complies with PCI-Express 2.0 and SuperSpeed USB, which is part of the USB 3.0 specification. It is backwards compatible with current ExpressCard modules and 2.0 ExpressCard modules will work in current slots. ExpressCard 2.0 products are expected to be in the market in late 2010.[