Flush USB 3.0 Expresscard Adapter

Adata N005 (top model)
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 (top model)
Super Talent - Several Model with various speeds.
And other.

Most speed and capacity devices will not work from conventional usb 2.0 in 100% cases.

Model with various capacity have various speed. Most of 8-16 gb have low small block speed. 64gb model near SSD in usb 3.0 enclosure. Buying with out studing review is risky in computers world.

 

Regular hard drives. Note that these high transfer rates really only matter for large numbers of or large size files. This is why USB flash and SD cards can get away with relatively low transfer speeds; most people don't use them for large or many files.

 

Thank you for sharing your further testing. My own tests confirm your results. I am using the 54mm dual port model version of the AKE card, on my HP 8730w laptop.

CrystalDiskMark results hover at your exact speeds

My test results confirm the significant speed increases with the AKE USB 3.0 card adapter:
1) transferring a 2GB movie from a RAM disk (to eliminate any lags associated with my internal hard drive, also give the highest possible speed of my USB 3.0 combo), confirms the CrystalDiskMark results (20s for a 2GB file = 100MB/s). Same tests done through USB 2.0 give me speeds that are about 3.5 slower (about 29MB/s)
2) Under real-world conditions in my system, transferring about 90GB of typical files files one would have on his hard drives, on an empty Iomega eGO from my internal Seagate Momentus 320GB drive, I get average speeds of 45MB/s on USB 3.0 and the same drive on USB 2.0 gives an average speed of 21MB/s. Basically, I timed the transfers in seconds and did the division.


Your results confirm:
1) that internal hard drives are the bottleneck in any system. Real world USB 3.0 speed are going to be significantly affected my how fast your internal hard drive is.
2) that CrystalDiskMark tests are accurate as far as giving pure results for a drive.
3) that the AKE cards offers excellent performance and are only limited by the system [see my note about the Iomega eGO at the end of my post]. In other words, they are as fast as your system's lowest common denominator. I do not think from these results that the PCI interface speed limit of 2.5Gb/s (300MB/s) has any influence over the results you may obtain on your system.


In summary, I confirm your results and your findings: that the speed increase is in the range of approximately 2-3 times that which can be attained using the on-board 2.0 ports, and that this speed increase is only limited by your system's lowest common denominator.

In other wortds... The AKE branded USB 3.0 adapter seems to be a "two thumbs up" upgrade well worth the $20 street price.


Note: One thing that also comes out of my testing with the iOmega eGo BlackBelt, mostly in HDTune (I was never able to conclude one single ErrorScan), CrystalDiskMark and also on one of my transfer tests, your tests with the AKE card and the similarity of results I get with either of the two AKE cards I have, tell this:
1) that my Iomega eGO BlackBelt drive is flaky
2) the randomness of the stoppage indicates it is unlikely to be an actual surface defect of the drive itself (internally a Samsung HM100UI), but more likely a problem with the enclosure electronics or the cable itself (After discussion of the problem with an Iomega CSR, Iomega is sending me a replacement cable).

 

Please look up my previous posts. All were done using that exact card, albeit using a hard drive instead of a flash drive. It is well known that hard drives pull more power than flash drives.

You should have no problems. Besides, the AKE adapter card includes its own extra power supply port and cable should you require it. Please look up the previous posts, there are pictures of the card and its extra power port.

In my opinion, this port is there only because the card has two USB 3.0 ports and is mainly designed as a backup, should one use TWO devices on the card at the same time.

If you are willing to wait until cards with the updated u720PD chip come out (sorry can't remember the exact number - it's the 'A' version), which are claimed to use 85% less power than the current ones, you will definitely have much more power available from the ExpressCard port. Maybe these new cards won't need an extra power port under certain conditions, like the current ones do.

 

An a fast external USB 3.0 hard drive, on a recent system with a very fast internal hard drive, transferring large files.

In other words, what Judicator said...

 

PD720200A | USB3.0 Host Controller | Product Lineup | USB | ASSP | Products | RENESAS Electronics
Realize low power consumption during idle state
µPD720200A realizes 1/5 power consumption comparing with µPD720200 during the system like as PC is working and not connected any USB devices.

 

I have a problem installing the AKE USB 3.0 express card purchased from here using the most recent driver found here. I'm running Windows 7 x64, and it won't recognize the card. I've tried installing the driver and then plugging in the card, installing the driver with the card plugged in, and plugging in the card and then installing the driver via the .exe and through Device Manager manually, but nothing works. The computer detects the card's presence, but doesn't know what to do with it.

Am I missing a step or doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Wait, am I supposed to flash the most recent firmware first before the drivers can work?

 

got my USB 3.0 Expresscard Adaptor coming from America
£12 delivered should be here tomorrow

 

The AKE 54mm USB 3.0 adapter card uses the µPD720200 chip, NOT the newer µPD720200A (it was just anounced last july and is expected to come out in devices as of Q1 2011)

 

Got the flush ebay card today. Fits really well in my m1330

 

Okay, I figured out the problem detailed in my earlier post: the chipset in my AKE card is apparently made by Fresco Logic, explaining why all my attempts to get the card and the NEC drivers on speaking terms were futile. The (outdated) FL drivers from the included driver CD worked, so I dug around a bit online for more updated drivers and found some here:

FRESCO LOGIC

I assume v3.0.110.12 is the latest driver, but I could be wrong. As for the card itself...



Well, at least it sticks out only as much as my mouse's nano receiver. Good enough for me.

 

That is strange ... I would not expect one company (AKE) to carry two different chipsets...

But come to think of it, I'm not too surprised, considering they have NO instructions with their adapters and just give you ALL the drivers you may or may not require and let you guess what to install... So chosing the cheapest solution is probably what they did with this single port adapter...

As a matter of fact, the Fresco Logic chipset allows for only ONE port, whereas the Renesas chipset can control 2, and it's also cheaper. So it all adds up, and it also tells us that the 54mm version, with its dual ports, cannot be using the Fresco Logic chipset, which means it must be using the Renesas chipset (like we figured out by trial and error!)...

Hope it helps future buyers!

And BTW, the 54mm adapter fits perfectly flush on both my laptops. Nice and clean.

 

Well, my man, it was the cable after all! After I discussed my random disconnect issue last week with Iomega tech support, they concluded it was probably the cable and sent me a replacement from California at no cost. It arrived this evening at my house (I was shocked at the speed of delivery, as I live in a remote village in the Mountains north of Montreal) and now, after 3 hours and 42 minutes with the new cable connected on both the AKE card and the nearby USB 2.0 port, I've gone through the complete HDTune Error Scan without a hitch...

So it's obvious the USB 3.0 card only has limited power available for devices and those that require that power, such as the Iomega eGO portable, come with a Y cable precisely because they need that extra power. So if you get lockups even with the Y cable connected as you should, don't blame the card, it's likely you've got a bad cable.

So do yourself a favor, Coruja, call Iomega and ask for a replacement!

 

Wow, I did not expect this post to get this large. Well I just ordered the AKE USB 3.0 34mm expresscard. Hopefully it works well and from what I read here, it looks like most people are getting at least double the speed of USB 2.0 which is good enough for me especially for the price I paid for it.

Just edited the first post with the info I got from skimming through the posts.

 

Just take note that from previous posts, the AKE 34mm card appears to use the Fresco Logic chipset, whereas the 54mm adapter uses the NEC chipset, as no instructions come with the AKE card, just a mini CD with a bunch of drivers. Hope this helps.

 

Hi guys, I've been in the market for a USB 3.0 express card with a flush design ever since I got a new 1TB USB 3.0 Seagate Ultra Portable GoFlex drive.

I initially bought this one at Amazon.com:
Amazon.com: Syba SY-EXP20057 USB 3.0 Invisible Design Inserts into Laptop Completely Slim ExpressCard/34mm: Electronics

It used the Fresco FL1000 chipset and worked fairly well for a usb flash drive, but it did not have enough juice to power my goflex drive. My goflex drive is usb bus powered so it has no aux power input and neither does this card I bought.

After reading all 17 pages of this thread, I'm wondering if I should buy the AKE 3.0 Expresscard (34mm) that sits flush since a lot of you have had success using it with your portable drives w/o external power. However, aside from the AKE label on the front and back, it looks exactly like the Syba one I bought on Amazon.

Then I saw that someone mentioned the shentek one which sits flush, is 34mm and has an aux power. Unfortunately it is $32 on ebay compared with the $18 for the AKE.
Here is the link to some auctions of it on ebay:
UPD720200 items - Get great deals on Computers Networking items on eBay.com!

I'm looking only at the ones that sit flush.

What do you guys recommend? Going with the AKE and risk it also not being able to power my drive, or try the shentek and if it doesn't power my drive, use the supplied aux cable that attaches to a USB2 port?

 

How did you find out it did not have enough power? Working with random lockups/dismounts, or nothing at all?

If your drive needs that extra power, you will have to either connect it to another USB 2.0 port for it through a proprietary cable, or you will have to supply that power to the card itself by way of power port and cable that connects it to a nearby USB 2.0 port.

Therefore, because the AKE 34mm card does not have such a port, and from the problems I experienced with the 54mm version when just connected to the USB 3.0 port, I do not recommend the AKE 34mm card to resolve your issue. Essentially, you'll be getting the same bloody card (the AKE 34mm is powered by the same chipset as your first card).

Get a card that has the aux power port and cable you connect to an adjacent USB 2.0 port, like the Shentek. Going with anything else is certainly going to be a waste of money. Your drive needs more power than what the ports on these cards can supply. Get one with an aux power jack and USB 2.0 power cable.

 

83bj60, thanks for the reply. I know it did not have enough power because my drive's led came on, but the drive did not get detected by Windows and after a minute the led started blinking rapidly in a way that indicated an error. It runs fine if I plug it into a usb 2.0 port. ALso, connecting a USB 3.0 flash drive to my expresscard worked. So I can only assume the card did not provide the full 900ma of USB 3.0 power or that my laptop did not have enough juice on the mobo to give that to the expresscard.

The Shentek card makes the most sense since it has a aux power input from a usb2 port, but I thought someone else on here got it and said they couldn't get it to work?

 

Right- that is exactly my assessment in every way with the AKE 54mm card and Iomega eGo portable. Onboard USB 2.0 ports have the power, but not the speed. Card/expresscard combo has the speed, but not the power.

So if you are going to use drives that do not supply their own power, using an expresscard adapter you will need to either supply the extra power through a dual headed cable (such as comes with the Iomega eGo), or supply the extra power to the card (as supplied with the AKE 54mm card, or the Shentek 34MM card)

If you can't get it to work your problem is most likely due to using wrong drivers. The Shentek uses the NEC/Renesas chipset. Of course, you could simply have an incompatibility with your drive enclosure's electronics.

 

Thanks "83bj60"! I'll definitely do that. I put it down to the AKE card being a bit flaky at first, unfairly it now seems. My friend's Seagate portable HDD didn't disconnect once in several hours of copying , yet this weekend I tried to copy a sizeable chunk (about 350 GB's worth) to my Iomega Ego and couldn't get it to do it once - the drive kept disappearing at random points even though it was still listed in Windows 'Devices & Printers'. Not good. This was with the USB2.0 end of the Y-cable plugged into a port on the laptop in addition to the USB3.0 via the AKE card, so the drive should have been getting plenty of juice.

Hopefully a new cable will fix this issue.

 

Corjua, can you tell me what Seagate drive your friend has? Did it work w/o connecting any external power to the AKE 34mm USB 3 card? I have the Seagate 1TB USB 3.0 ultra portable goflex drive.

 

I certainly hope so, my friend, the way you describe it it probably is.

I went directly to Iomega's site and started a live chat session to get this excellent service.

It did help that I had two identical cards to test it with, and two different laptops laptop to test it with, to eliminate those variables and get to a fast resolution. The fact the other portable drive you tried worked well confirms it's not the card.

Good luck!

BTW, Iomega has an update on the encryption utility. The new version is supposed to allow you to remove the irritating CD partition

 

Hi mate. It was this one: Seagate GoFlex 1TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive :

Seagate GoFlex 1TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive (STAA1000101) : External Portable Hard Drives - Future Shop

Yes, it worked w/o connecting any external power - the Seagate only had a single-end connector and I used only this, not the Y-cable from my Iomega. So, the whole time it was only connected to the AKE Expresscard/34 USB3.0 port and in 3hrs+ of copying (at speeds of 55-80MB/s) it never once so much as hiccuped.

My Iomega Ego is a different story....

 

Thanks v much! gonna give this a try now...

 

I suppose this is getting a bit off-thread...but a replacement cable is on the way.

Re the encryption utility; I downloaded the update and followed the instructions (from the Iomega website) to remove the partition. The utility informed me it was 'updating the drive...' and the windows circular rotating "something's still happening" icon persisted..and persisted... I waited about 45 mins. Still the same. Seems like whatever process was supposed to be going on had hung ang the Iomega drive had disppeared.

Eventually I end-tasked the utility unplugged and replugged the drive. Was it now dead? I rebooted the laptop I was using and plugged into my desktop. Phew! Windows (XP on this machine) said it was installing drivers then the drive appeared but with no prompt to view it. But no odd virtual CD appears so it seems to be gone.

Now I've reformatted the drive and plugged back into the original Win7-64 machine and it seems to be playing ball with no annoying CD prompt. Not exactly a smooth process though!

 

Thanks for the update, Man! Glad you could get your cable sent with no issues, hope it resolves your issue like it did mine. At least we know the AKE USB 3.0 ExpressCard adpter is a good choice.

PS when you say you reformated, was it full or quick? Because if it's full and you had no interruption, that could be new twist...

 

I did a quick reformat. The drive randomly 'unplugged' itself again shortly after this so this didn't cure anything. But no more annoying virtual CD drive popping up anyhow.

Re the cable - the tech said it was a 'single plug' device so not a y-cable. He said this was the 'right cable for the drive' so presumably they think the drive shouldn't need additional power - certainly if it's plugged into a built-in USB3.0 port I guess it shouldn't. But maybe (?) if it's to a regular USB2.0 port, or an expresscard it still might. We'll see when it arrives.

The Seagate GoFlex drive that performed flawlessly only had a single USB3.0 connection.

 

OK, a full format suceeding after random disconnects would have been bizarre.

Maybe there was a misunderstanding. There is indeed a single end at the drive, and it is proprietary, but the drive DEFINITELY needs to be connected to both the USB 3.0 and the spare USB 2.0 port. I tried with the new cable connected to USB 3.0 only and got exactly the same results as with the defective cable connected to only the USB 3.0 or both ports. That USB 2.0 cable is there for a purpose, to give the drove suficent power.

In any case you should be able to compensate using the card's power connector. I'll try it and come back with some results...

Quite possible: it means it's using less than 900MA.
Have you tried your Iomega with the card's power connector plugged in a nearby USB 2.0 port?

 

I cant see it sticking out at all. (the ake one)

just a couple of things.

I cant push the card out by pressing on it but it removes easily when i try to unplug a device.. the whole thing comes out.

also are you guys attaching it with the usb..power thing all the time? or only when needed.
thanks
going to DL drivers now

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/mywii_2007/16022011089.jpg
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/mywii_2007/16022011090.jpg


eek it isnt working.
Downloaded the latest NEC drivers
downloaded fresco logic drivers for lulz.

Anyone have any idea.

i plugged in my ipod to it and it doesnt even charge
thing is i dont even know if it is sitting properly. i can hear a click in but then i can just drag it out by pulling the ipod wire out (and the card follows it)

nah something is happening since when i pull the ipod wire out or in it lights up

edit: nevermind i installed firmware... not drivers

 

I'm guessing people know about this?
Area EP54U32-W1 USB 3.0 ExpressCard delivers dual ports

 

rebranded AKE card? 99%

 

I doesn't stick out on either of my laptops.

It tends to do that on the HP, which has a spring-loaded Expresscard port, on the Toshiba, it has an ejection lever, stays in there, more solid.

Use it if you experience lockups and disconnects from your portable drive, if the drive didn't come with an extra power cable.

The Iomega eGo comes with a cable that has both a USB 3.0 plug and a small small auxiliary USB 2.0 power take off cable and it works well like that.

I just finished testing the Iomega with its secondary cable disconnected, to see whether the AKE power cable did actually supply extra power, and I experienced no lockups, so I know it does.

In my opinion, it is supplied as an extra source of power should you need it, if you drive is marginal and didn't come with an extra power cable, if you don't have a USB 2.0 port nearby (the AKE power cable can reach all the way to the other side of the laptop) or if you connect two drives on the card at the same time.

In conclusion: If you laptop has a 54mm expresscard slot, get this card. 2 USB 3.0 ports and a power cable, it's a bargain compared to the other cards out there. And if you must get a 34mm ExpressCard adapter, preferably get one with a power port and power take off cable like the AKE has.

Nice setup, you got the push on/push off type of slot just like my HP.

It's push on/push off, so it should work. To sit it correctly, do it the easy way, connect the USB cable into the card and push it in using the plug. It needs to be pushed in past flush to click in.

Well, that was entertaining anyway, hope all is well now

 

I don't know what 'serious coin' means to the reviewer, 'cause it looks EXACTLY like the AKE, and that card is about $20 shipped.

 

lol 83bj60
youre a legend

Also i cant DL the new driver for some reason.. its like a loop

i click on the download button and it takes me to station drivers .com
sad face

also im yet to get a flash drive/ usb 3.0 enclosure.

still dont know what to get

any suggestions?

 

answer version 1: "Hey, I'm not that old"
Answer version 2: "There's an app for that"

Awww... nevermind... I just research and test the heck of most everything I buy, and like to share what I find. That's what the internet is all about

probably need to clear out your cache, or maybe try disabling /enabling javascript... It's fine on my end, here the direct link for the latest NEC/Renesas driver, and here's the link for the latest card firmware. Not sure station-drivers allows direct linking, though.

I can only speak for the only one I have, the Iomega, and I'm happy with it after my cable issue was resolved with a new cable. In any case it works well with the AKE card (earlier reviews have said you had to buy Iomega's USB 3.0 adapter - our testing here proves it's nonsense)

Yes, it needs more power than the Seagate GoFlex, we've seen the results of not connecting it to ample power, and the cable is short and proprietary, so your choice of placement is a bit limited, but no biggie. In any case, it is rated to survive a 7 foot fall, it's fast enough, the company seems to have good customer service, it has a three year warranty, and the price was right... So there you have it in a nutshell...

Read the reviews, I wrote one on the dell.ca site (would not buy again from them, though, as their service level is sub-par, they don't give service for the non Dell branded items they sell). Iomega has since fixed its number 1 complaint (non removable partition - you can now remove it if you like - get the updated encryption utility from their site), so, in my books, it's a winner. And as far as hardware is concerned, they seem to have good external drives, I have 3 other ones, internally all Samsungs, and apart from one that failed in the first week during testing (you could say it was DOA, it quickly developed bad sectors, but it was replaced immediately by futureshop), they have been working fine. I've had them from three to 9 months, I use them for archival purposes, so they're not on all the time.

HTH...

 

Oh yes indeed - I tried this the whole time last weekend when I was trying to copy lots of data to the drive. I didn't succeed once - the drive unplugged itself sometimes after only a few minutes, sometimes after about 1hr....

The tech at Iomega said the new connector would not be a 'Y' one, i.e. my understanding that it would only have one end to plug into the laptop (and the other into the drive itself). But we'll see when it arrives...

The AKE/34 card I have has no additional power plug so I'll be out of luck if it is a single-end USB3.0 only connector and it does not work. Here's the transcript of my support session with the Iomega tech. I must say I'm very impressed with the Iomega support facilities so far.

[05:15:20 PM] Todd: I am sorry that you are having this issue, Do you have both ends of the USB cable plugged into the comptuer
[05:15:40 PM] ME: Yes, I have one via USB3 and the other to a free USB port
[05:15:46 PM] ME: usb2.0 port
[05:16:17 PM] Todd: Your computer has both 2.0 and 3.0 USB ports
[05:16:31 PM] ME: Yes
[05:16:49 PM] ME: 1xUSB3.0 and 3xUSB2.0
[05:16:52 PM] Todd: Have you tired to just plug it into 2 2.0 ports
[05:17:28 PM] ME: Yes but I haven't tried copying much data this way as it's much slower than USB 3.0 which is the whole point of getting this drive
[05:17:57 PM] Todd: ok one min I am going to check on something
[05:18:04 PM] ME: I also tested another USB3.0 portable drive (a seagate) and this had no problems
[05:18:18 PM] ME: sure thing...
[05:20:55 PM] Todd: Ok, I just need your shipping address so a I can send you the USB 3.0 single cable that should have came with the drive
[05:23:13 PM] ME: Great! Shipping address as follows
[05:23:57 PM] ME.....
[05:24:22 PM] ME: So this cable only has one end? It's not a Y-cable?
[05:24:35 PM] Todd: Thank you I will get that setup after the chat is closed and send you a email with the information. Yes that is correct
[05:25:16 PM] ME: Is the existing cable faulty then, or just the wrong one? Curious
[05:25:54 PM] Todd: It should work, but with one end in the 3.0 and one in a 2.0 I think the drive is just having a issue
[05:26:13 PM] ME: I also tried it with just the USB3.0 end connected - same problem
[05:26:44 PM]ME: It seems the drive gets enough power from just the USB3.0 port, but I connected the other end just in case this was the issue...
[05:27:09 PM] Todd: I believe this cable will correct your issue, it is the cable for the drive
[05:27:14 PM] ME: so both with and without additional USB2.0 connection - same problem. Random disconnects
[05:27:36 PM] ME: OK, sounds great! I'll give it a try when it arrives. Thanks v much for your help Todd.
[05:28:26 PM] Todd: you are welcome

 

Well then it's definitely not a power issue. Has the drive made any noises? Does it work OK on USB 2.0?

Definitely weird... But you'll see soon enough, it took less than a week to arrive, and I'm in the bush.

Oh! quite a different beast than the 54mm one, and it runs the Fresco Logic chipset... That being said, that chipset uses less power than the Renesas, so all is not lost and you may have enough power for the drive.

Yes, almost as nice and efficient as HP Business Solutions Online Chat support in India.

Let me interrupt here by saying that if it works OK in USB 2.0, the drive itself is fine and your problem lies between the drive and you computer (Iomega enclosure electronics, incompatibility with the Fresco Logic chipset or cable)

That is bizarre... I have not read anywhere that this drive comes with a single ended USB 3.0 cable. Maybe an updated model? I received the standard dual headed cable and the replacement works perfectly. It was a power issue, that is confirmed from my tests yesterday using the AKE 54mm card power supply cable on the old defective Iomega cabel, with USB 2.0 cable off.
A question... Have you noticed that the drive vibrates slightly when you touch it? Its otherwise very silent...

Yeah, it's possible. For example, I still can't run the File Benchmark test in HDTune pro, get an I/O error. Otherwise it works without problems, no more SMART 'calibration retry count errors' since I changed the cable or use the old one with the extra power into the USB card adapter.
If the drive indeed is bad, be sure to report back on the return process. Hope they send you a shipping box, shipping to California can be expensive from Canada.

Thread specific content: although from the same brand, we can confirm the 34mm version of the AKE USB 3.0 card uses a totally different chipset, Fresco Logic versus the 54mm's NEC/Renesas. The other difference being the smaller card has no power in port, but the Fresco Logic chipset also uses less power, so presumably has more available for the drive and may not need one.

 

Where did you buy it? I got mine from Dell during their boxing week sale and got ZERO service from them, no info, no returns... "Sorry, this is not a Dell product... Call the manufacturer".

You got a point; they do sell a card for the eGo, IIRC. Otherwise go for the Shentek, 34mm card, NEC/Renesas chipset and extra power port.

 

Finally flush. I'll wait a while until one comes out without any kinks.

 

I got my Iomega from Amazon.ca - I expect they'd refer me to Iomega for problems.... It definately seems it doesn't like the AKE adapter or how it interacts with my DELL. The Iomega drive works fine to a single USB2.0 port - no disconnects at all and it only needs one port connection and runs fine at 25-30MB/s.

The replacement cable from Iomega (allegedly 'the right cable' for the drive) is just the same as the one it came with - a Y-cable with a USB3.0 AND a USB2.0 end.

Behaviour is the same as with the original cable, although it's gotten worse. Now invariably almost immediately I try to copy to/from the drive it disconnects saying the drive location does not exist. It's odd that it's worse - at first I quite happily copied a lot of data to/from the drive with only the odd disconnect - no it's totally unuseable via USB3.0

No such problems with the Seagate GoFlex, so I'd recommend this at the mo if anything.

So, Iomega Ego + USB3.0 AKE expresscard/34 + DELL = no go at the mo.

 

Ahh... Compatibility issues! These things can be notoriously difficult to diagnose and resolve, that's for sure! It's not too surprising when you realize your AKE is in fact a Fresco Logic, whereas mine is a NEC/Renesas

Indeed, I had the same experience

With both cables connected?

Bummer... I guess it's time to return the drive... or the adapter!

I have 4 Iomegas, one failed (DOA), but the three others work fine, although one of them, a 1TB, is quite noisy and tends to click at times (no errors otherwise). They are all Samsungs internally...

I have an older 1TB drive I got really cheap (at the time) from Walmart, turns out it is a WD inside. This drive has been a real workhorse. Not one single SMART warning, and it's been schlepped atround quite a bit... I've always have had good experiences with WD drives... Seagate is also good, there is an 80GB Seagate in my old Win98 machine, super quiet (even now!) fluid drive. Just don't try to start it when it's very cold, though, it simply won't (ie don't start it right away if it's been in cold storage, let it get to room temp)

I'd say Iomega eGo + Dell PC + Fresco Logic based USB 3.0 card = no go .. Why don't you try getting a NEC based card instead and see if that helps?

 

So I just recieved my 34mm AKE USB 3.0 expresscard. Here are some benchmarks. This is with a 2TB Hitachi 5k3000 in a Sunbeamtech USB 3.0 enclosure.

 

Actually your graph indicates that it flatlines at around 75MB/s, whereas it should look more like this, if it is actually letting the drive run full speed:




Same drive on USB 2.0 shows like this, notice how it is limited by the USB 2.0 interface:



BTW, the downward spikes are caused by a regular process running in the background, that I haven't identified yet

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me. Do you think that the expresscard is the most likely reason for this?

 

Thanks for your thoughts '83bj60' - much appreciated and your clarification is correct; not a problem with AKE expresscards per se, but the Fresco Logic (FL) one, and only specifically in my machine with the Iomega. And yes, that's with both cables connected and not, so it doesn't seem to be power related.

The FL card and the Seagate drive and my machine seemed to like each other fine.

I've got another machine with an expresscard port 54 - an older HP Dv6 - so I'll give it a try in this.

I can't really mark the Iomega down on this evidence and I'll probably keep it and try another card like you say at some point - it's works fine via USB2.0 but it would be nice having it run at it's potential. It's early days for my foray into USB3.0 territory yet

 

No, because it's happened on my Toshiba laptop as well, last time no later that last night.

Because it had first happened shortly after I had updated the firmware on one card, and after it started doing the same on the non updated card afterwards, I thought maybe my drive was flaky, but I have since replaced the cable so this time, I looked more into it, and a clean reboot with the card out cleared it up.

Have a look at this:



and this, after a clean reboot without the expresscard:

 

Ok, I already had the latest drivers for my expresscard and the latest firmware for my enclosure so I tried restarting without the expresscard in, but I got the same results. Are you using the 54mm with the NEC chipset or the 34mm with the Fresco Logic chipset? I wish I had another computer with USB 3.0 so that I could test if it was my expresscard or my enclosure.

 

I am using the AKE 54mm dual port ExpressCard USB 3.0 Adapter, NEC/Renesas chipset, comes with power inlet and USB 2.0 power supply cable.

It is pictured here with the Iomega eGo Blackbelt 1TB USB 3.0 cable attached, the AKE card USB 2.0 port Power Take Off cable (whcih I don't really need since the Iomega already has its own USB 2.0 power take off cable) and part of the Iomega eGo Blackbelt showing on the right. On the top left, my other AKE card, with the indentations I made for more secure attachment to USB cables. Connections are solid enough that I can actually pull the card out of the slot without assist if I want, simply by pulling the attached cable



Tests showing the odd transfer speed flatlining were done with the drive connected to both the AKE ExpressCard adapter and the Toshiba Satellite p205 port; I have not seen this behaviour with the HP EliteBook 8730w laptop.

 

my 54mm AKE USB 3.0 expresscard finally came today
only took 30 days delivery lol
oh well its here and installed now