Flush USB 3.0 Expresscard Adapter

How about some benchmarks now?

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9664188/Untitled.png

Samsung station usb 3.0

 

Samsung station usb 3.0

this is without the usb power cable

 

Excellent! But doesn't this drive come with its own external power supply, like this?

 

Lol yes.. yes it does!
such a pain

 

Such a pain? Nah! At least you will never get USB card power issues like some of us portable types have been experiencing

Just kidding... I have both a portable USB 3.0 for quick transfers and backups, which I carry around, and several older, USB 2.0 desk drives that I use exclusively for archiving, doing transfers usually at night. They all have their uses.

 

Regarding the problem of USB devices disconnecting, I'd like to share my experience and hope this'd be helpful to you who are suffering from the pain.

The problem of disconnecting started after upgrading to Win7 SP1 RTM.
Driver issue came to my first concern. I was looking forward to new driver update and finally on 25th Feb version 2.0.34.0 was released. I gave it a try right away, unfortunately it was a NO GO. It doesn't seem to be driver incompatible or there'd be numerous complaining going on . So I started to look into enclosure firmware through contacting the chip manufacturer Lucidport. They supplied me firmware 2416 which I updated from 21xx. However, it didn't work out. I then tried out downgrading the firmware from 3027 to 3025, 3021 and switching previous drivers including the 1.0.17, 18, 19 and 20. Disconnecting issue still exists randomly.

Today, I was still investigating the case and accidentally found that my USB 2.0 flash drive disconnected when I strike the table and caused vibration. It's very likely to be the either the USB device or expresscard not inserted securely. Quickly I figured out was the expresscard end. Since my expresscard is a 2 ports sticking out card, I had a eraser to support the card 'body' pushing it upwards. Miracle happened! No more disconnection!

Sometimes we just miss out the very basic stuff and I once tried to give up but I'm glad I didn't at last.

 

Which one is better/faster esata vs usb 3.0 express card

 

USB 3.0 is a newer standard that is expected to become faster, and if you read testimonies, USB 3.0 is faster.

But your question is loaded, there are just too many variables, such as drive, card type, expresscard setup, etc that can affect performance. Furthermore, if you are looking at upgrading, in real world use, you are not going to get nearly the announced performance and then only at the edge of the disk doing large file transfers.

 

Wow, this thread exploded. Just wondering if there is a consensus on which of the express cards are best in terms of performance and reliability and compatibility. I'm specifically wondering about the 34 variety. I know the Ake card has been discussed a lot. Has much been said about the Syba one? Are there any others that were brought up?
Thanks
Mike

 

If you read the whole thread, you will probably find that the AKE is the favourite here for 54mm, because it uses the NEC/Renesas chipset and includes the extra power supply port. However, in the 34 mm format they use the other chipset type which has proven not to be as good (no extra power supply, some incompatibilities with older computers).

The Syba you are referring to does not have an extra power take off port so it probably doesn't use the RENESAS chipset. This could cause problems with some external drives (some folks have had speed issues with non NEC based cards) or power supply problems (such as with the Iomega Blackbelt if it cannot be connected to a nearby USB 2.0 port - The power take off port version comes with a cable that is long enough to reach on the other side of the laptop).

In other words, stick with cards using the NEC/Renesas chipset and try to find a card with a power take off port, that would be best, like the Shentek

 

I thought this forum loved hwtools EC4U (USB3.0 1-port ExpressCard/34 host adapter) here is such a card.

 

Wow, great link, love the tech!!! I'd definitely get this one if I needed one... I especially like the USB spring tab connection, this card seems to be better made than most...

 

Thanks for the quick and informative reply. So just to clarify, with that power take off port, you run the power cable from the express card to another usb port on your laptop?
Thanks
Mike

 

Yes, it's great for drives that have no extra power cable.

 

There is a new versin of AKE 54mm Express Card. This one: BC398 is 'Superspeed' certified versus 'Hi-Speed' as we have seen on BC618T.
Have anyone tested BC398? This one is fitted with NEC μPD720200 chip.

BC398



BC618T

 

No, never heard of it, and I can't find a link that says anything much about it. As a matter of fact, the only link I found in Google that contains both BC398 and BT618T terms on the same page shows the BT618T, and that card is also powered by the very same chip you are saying the BC398 is powered by, the NEC μPD720200 chip, so I'm a bit puzzled.

If anything, I would expect the new card to be powered by the low power version of the µPD720200, the µPD720200A. Under heavy use, I have found that the existing card does get fairly warm, and there have shortages of the NEC μPD720200 chip with the increased popularity of USB 3.0, as manufacturers are more and more incorporating it in their systems.

In other words, the expectation is that thew card will incorporate the new version of the chip, not the existing one.

 

Has anyone of you guys installed one of the AKE 54mm ones in their Thinkpads?
Specifically a Thinkpad X200.

Even though the eBay auctions tend to show that it is a Thinkpad, I am unsure which model it is (eyeballing a W or T series).. this is because I have a pretty tight slip on case and I wouldn't want to snag on it or anything.

I've read through all the previous threads and I have come to a conclusion. I will only need to buy the AKE 54mm (since mine have a v1.0 Expresscard slot)
but I am slightly concerned about the build quality.

Is there any other NEC-based card with slightly better construction quality?

Thanks.

 

I am also noticing poor connections with my AKE BC398 ExpressCard 54. The problem seems to be with the internal connection, not the USB cable connection.

This is on a Toshiba Qosmio x505

Is anyone else making ExpressCard 54 USB 3.0 cards with a higher build quality?

 

DER- I have not read previous posts-This may be wasted already covered information- not sure yet.



I just got in one of the AKE BC398 54mm usb3 superspeed card adapters. So far I am not exactly impressed. My 8440P loaded up properly after installing their driver, and seems to work just fine. Testing revealed that since I'm using a 7200rpm 500gb scorpio is does require a boost to start it up, either through their little power cord or using the extra usb y cable. I am currently testing with an siig ver2 usb enclosure and another one- can't remember the name. I'll post my findings when I'm satisfied of the results. So far- I have had no problems with the 8440p, but my 6930p will not recognise either hard drive attached even though the ake is loaded, and it is showing up in the system correctly, and works just fine with usb1 devices. I need further testing... it might be the win7 ult 64 bit, or a crummy load of the 6930p os, or perhaps a not quite fully functional audio/daughter card interface board... I thought the 6930p and the 8440p loads were identical, but I'll reload the 6930p with a few different os's to check out the problem. I'll report my findings and pics when time permits.

 

ok I read the whole thing- seems latest drivers and firmware did not help. Leaning towards a full reload. BTW- the version I have has modified ports- denting the metal is no longer needed, but the ports are still too loose for my liking.
Updates to follow.

 

I just ordered one of these. I will post my impressions after testing.

Thanks!

 

I just got my AKE 54 mm with presumably the Renesas chip. I downloaded the driver and actually got it to work briefly. The card pulled out when I disconnected a USB cable. Now I get a code 10 error. I've uninstalled and re installed the driver several times as well as rebooting..........
Any ideas?

Many thanks for any assistance

 

Help! I'm dying here, spending 3 hours trying to get a $20 card to run is agony. Have tried every possible driver installation I can.......... Code 10... your device cannot start

 

I just now installed to my Express Card slot the AKE BC398 in a Dell Vostro 1720, Win7 64bit

The install disk has these folders and one ini file in root of the disk;
\Express to esata
\express to usb3.0 F1000
\Pcmcai to usb2.0 via
\pcmcia to bluetooth
\Pcmcia to usb2.0 NEC
\SIL3132
\usb3.0 NEX
desktop.ini

Far as I can see the only 64 bit driver on the disk is in the express to usb3.0 F1000 folder called "3010058_64bit.msi" which happily installed when I double clicked it.

Then I pushed the 54 card into the express card slot, windows immediately tried installing the driver and ended up telling me it failed.

Next step was I then found the RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-20340-setup.exe file in the \usb3.0 NEC\20340 folder which windows happily installed when I double clicked on it but only as 32 bit application. But the good news is it found my usb 3.0 external hard drive when I plugged it in.

I plugged the power usb cable in, plugged my USB 3.0 external hard drive to it and copied 17gig of data to the hard drive with no problems, EXCEPT - the max transfer speed I could get out of it was 20mbps, obviously NO WHERE close to 5gig advertised.

Needless to say this is very disappointing. After reading the above, should I have done something else during the install? Let me know if you need more info. How do I get this thing to transfer at 5gig? I have had the laptop only 6 months now, is a Duo Core2 with 4gig memory.

The only other thing I have not tried is running the NECEL-USB3-Host-Driver-10170-setup.exe file in the \usb3.0 NEC\110170 folder. Is the 64bit software?

Any insight and guidance is much appreciated.

Marc

 

My AKE BC 398 now officially doesn't work in 3 different computers, My Win 7 Ult, my old laptop with Vista 32 and my wifes Vostro with Win 7 premium. I have tried all the fresco and renesas drivers I could find and have searched for corrupt files etc. In all 3 computors I get "windows could not install driver".

I got this card off an ebay seller and have emailed them....... any ideas ???????????

 

Heddok,

I got mine to work per the steps I described in my post just prior to yours. Might work for you as well if you give it a shot. My only dislike at this point is the transfer rate, while still much faster then USB 2.0 still no where close to the advertised Super Speed.

Marc

 

There is no one single hard disk, which, though closely approached the speed reading and writing to a 5gigs of USB 3.0 standart.

 

Marc - I've tried all that. the card worked intially for a few minutes but the card pulled out of the expresscard slot when I was pulling a cable off. Ever since then no go ... "driver did not install" message.

If it's not too much troulbe could you email me the file you used?

My email is [email protected]

 

So i have the ake one and its working but ever since i installed.. sometimes what happens is my built in 2.0 usb ports just stop working.. all of them.. and so only the expresscard ports work until i restart my laptop

anyone else find this?>
Acer 6935g..

 

I did get this AKE to work- as a usb2. This will not work at all to recognise my usb3 hard drives- I tried the sarbent and the siig. With their extra power cable, with the included power cable, with both- every single option starts the drive, then it errors out. This is an expensive flush mount usb2 adpter for my 6930p.
Trying to decide if it is worth it sending it all the way back to China at my expense... as usual.

 

Hi guys.....frustrated newbie here

I got AKE 54mm 2 port USB 3.0 Expresscard. I've installed drivers on W7 64bit from Station Drivers and I'm getting errors from BSOD to system freezed.......does anyone know fix?

 

Today I received my AKE USB 3.0 expresscard adapter (I got the BC398 one) and so far I feel I made a good purchase. I used the drivers which came with the adapter in that tiny disk and the installation went through flawlessly. The adapter fitted nicely in my expresscard slot without any part of it hanging out of the computer case (dell inspiron 1525).



The external drive I own is a WD Passport 500Gb USB 3.0 compatible. These are the results I got with HD tune and Crystal Disk Mark

a) Using my systems USB 2.0 port





b)Using an AKE's USB 3.0 port





c)Using an AKE's USB 3.0 port with the power USB cable which came with the adapter






As you can see it is possible to use the wd passport without using the USB power cable. Even though it seems like adding the power cable doesn't really benefit you at any way, I must mention that during transfering real files, I noticed a slight boost when the power cable was on. The difference was small (2-3 MB/s) but I feel I must report it.

Sorry for my English

 

R4e-- I feel your pain. I meant to get back to you yesterday but got busy.

I finally got my AKE BC 398 to work properly. You can try this.

Uninstall the drivers.

Find and delete all the driver files you can find on your computer

Go to this site and try the drivers you find here

EC4U (USB3.0 1-port ExpressCard/34 host adapter)

the driver version 2.0.32.0 seems to work OK with my card.

I don't know where I went wrong but the stationdrivers site versions don't see to be compatable with my system. I'll post speeds when I get a chance.
Let me know if this works for you.

 

Heddok - I'm getting same results

I've installed (seperately and one top one another) all driver version.........Device manager will show renesas USB and Host 3.0 controller after install, then flash, and drivers are no longer in device manager. It will continually repeat process once AKE 54mm card is install until BSOD or system shut down

I noticed Renesas drivers will disable cache on hard drive (Seagate Momentus XT) and Intel ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2934........Any further suggestions?

I might have to wait for another driver version

 

I am a newbie on this forum. Find it very interesting with infos hard to get elsewhere.

Hi Mindfield21,
Thank you for your infos. You seem to be quite knowledgeable in these matters.By the way your English is fine.
I also got the ake bc398 54mm. It installed ok but I only get twice the speed of the usb2.0 I transferred 1.86gb from my hp pavillion DV9720 to a western digital passport usb2.0 in 4minutes 30s (abouit 6-7 mb/s)and to a wd passport usb3.0 in 2minutes 15s (about 14-15mb/s).
That's only twice the speed of a usb2.0. I just used a chronometer watch.
Does anyone know how to increase the speed to a decent rate of at least
5 times or more? Is there a special software ? or does it have to do with the mother board?
Thank you all.
Best regards,
ginrad
smile:

 

I'd like a flush one with USB 3.0 and eSATA together. Any suggestions?

 

Don't think that exists, too much hardware, the space is limited. USB 3.0 uses a different controller than esata.

 

Hello ginrad,
well I think that 6-7 MB/sec is really slow, even for a usb 2.0 port.
I always thought that the speed you should be able to achieve while transfering one single file through your usb 2.0 port is 20-30 MB/sec.
Is it possible that your usb drivers are outdated?

 

How many files in 1.86gb? Size of files? If you have many small files HDD can't work on full linear write speed.

 

Hi,

I thought I throw in confirmation that Dell Studio 1555 paired with AKE ExpressCard 34 (BC618, 1-port) can handle WD MyPassport USB3.0 500GB drive with no external power - not that it could be fed to the card anyway
My Dell 1555 can only accommodate 34mm add-in cards, so no 2-port with aux power (BC618T) for me, but that's OK...

Drivers installed from CD included with the card - Windows 7 Ultimate x64. The card is practically flush (1mm outward) - perfect!

Cheers!

 

What are the best ones available now for Both of those individually?

I've seen 20/30 MBps transfers over USB 2.0 with an external.

 

I finally got a 54mm AKE card for my m17x R2 and it stays around 32MB/s with and without the power usb cable.

I am transfering data to one of those new WD usb 3.0 my passport se drives

I am using the latest drivers also. What could be wrong?

 

Wow, I have an Iomega eGo 1TB USB 3.0 Superspeed portable hard drive, and i still nee more power!? I plugged the USB to small plug into the card, and they Y-cable from the HDD. Main transfer cable into the USB 3.0 slot, and the other into a USB 2.0 slot. The drive just keeps disconnecting from my laptop very fast, and never stays connected. Anyone have ideas on a good 5v power adapter that's cheap? I'm using Win XP Pro SP3, and the 54mm AKE BC618T USB 3.0 Express Card with the latest drivers from Station Drivers.

EDIT: Not 100% sold on the face that its a power issue. There should be plenty of power with a two 2.0 ports supplying power. I think it's just the Iomega eGo Blackbelt 1TB, and firmware issues on that end. When it did connect (for about 30 seconds), I managed 100MB/s using HDTune, which I was happy, but then it started disconnecting and reconnecting

 

Hey guys, I'm looking at ordering the Dual USB3 54mm Expresscard for my older Asus Notebook.

Can anyone tell me if the USB ports support port replication? I have a DUAL USB3 3.5" Enclosure, And i want to make sure that the AKE can run two drives off of the one USB3 port.

Has anyone used a Dual enclosure with it.

 

Has anyone tried this one? Or is this the one that is being talked about so frequently?

USB 3.0 ExpressCard - Flush Mount | StarTech.com

 

Your benchmark and EVERYBODY else's benchmark is (practically) usesless, although I stopped reading this thread at page 6 or so. Why? Because your using a mechanical drive, and one that isn't that fast. The fastest consumer drives can only do 160MB/s on the outer edge, like the Barracuda 3TB XT.

So, I think someone should put a Sandforce 2xxx SSD in a USB3 enclosure and plug it into an expresscard usb3 adapter, plugged into an expresscard 1.0 slot!

Then, we will actually have some numbers worth looking at..
Just saying!

I bet we can get a solid 200MB/s out of Expresscard 1.0.

 

How much current does the expresscard 54 one give?

 

I am glad I read through (most of) this thread! Otherwise I wouldn't have known that 2-port expresscards existed that didn't have a box protruding. Which 2-port expresscard 54mm card should I get?
The ake BC398 54mm or the ake bc618T 54mm?
The 'Area' cards suck?

Which one(s) use the 'a' chip that uses 1/5th the power?

Thank you

 

I just found an ake 54mm dual port card for $12.37 + $6.76 shipping

Amazon.com: Express card 54mm To 2 Port USB 3.0 expresscard: Electronics

Might just buy that and call it a day. If I get a chance, I'll stick my Intel G2 in an enclosure and test the card on an expresscard 1.0 slot on my G50VT, in a few wks time.