Turn your laptop into USB 3.0 compatible by using express card!

Hey people just found this nifty gadget..if your laptop doesnt support USB 3.0 but you have a spare Express slot..this new USB 3.0 card should help..

Buffalo Technology - Products - IFC-EC2U3UC : 2 Port USB 3.0 Express Interface Card

 

i dont think this will give usb 3.0 performance. USB 3.0 = 5gbit PCI-e express card = 2.5gbit. Correct me if im wrong

 

AFAIK your right for the older laptops (1 year or more) but a newer express card spec was bought in last year, ver 2.0, which should hopefully sustain the full USB 3.0 bandwidth. I would still hope that a 5x increase would be had over USB 2.0 for the older express I/F with usb 3.0.

 

so is my new m17x expresscard 2.0 doesnt say in the specifications. but the graphics card are on pci-e 2.0 so does that mean my expresscard is too if so it would be 5.0gbps

 

ExpressCard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At bottom says version 2.0 supports 5gbit

edit: bah ExpressCard/54 is version 1.0 I think? = 2.5gbit :/ correct me if im wrong..please lol

 

You know, even if the bandwidth of ExpressCard is lower than that of USB 3.0, it's still a heck of a lot faster than USB 2.0...

 

No. Don't know what your laptop supports, try something like HWiNFO32 to check HWiNFO & HWiNFO32 - Hardware Information and Analysis Tools.
Might be that those laptops with express 2.0 already have a USB 3.0 port.

Umm, I thought I already said that but maybe it wasn't as clear as you have stated. Thanks.

Found this for an eSata 3 (6Gbps) express card. At least it comes with a note that doesn't seem to be with some of the other ads.

 

Unless you're using a SSD as an external drive, the bandwidth limitations of both ExpressCard 1.0 and USB 3.0 will be far from being saturated.

 

the m17x is expresscard 2.0 yay. There is a reason for needing the full usb 3.0 spec. I want to get a USB 3.0 supertalent raiddrive flash drive. They get like 340MB/sec transfer speeds. They would be limited to liek 220-240MB/sec on expresscard 1.0

 

USB is used for more than just external hard drives and so i think it is important to realize the lower bandwidth (1/2) for pre expresscard v2.0.

Take for instance a USB 3.0 webcam streaming uncompressed HD video.

A quick calculation of bandwidth for 1080x1920@24bits 60fps

1080 x 1920 x 24 x 60 =~3Gbps. This is just for the data, add a few more percent for the USB protocol.

 

so does your hd web cam connect with raw data or h.264 compressed data?

it makes a huge difference.

full-res/full motion hd streaming can be as low as 1.5 meg a sec when a good codec and compression is used. hardly enough to tickle usb2 much less require usb3

 

It's not my webcam, it's an example. Please read the link that was provided.

I tried to be clear by saying

sorry if it didn't come across that way.

 

That webcam would be awesome for some stuff, like recording a podcast but not live feeds at full res nobody could stream it uncompressed like that.

 

MCP79 chipset has pci-e 2.0 ports, but running at x1 speed. It's only the power saving features of spec 2.0 that are incorporated, not the faster bandwidth.

 

LOL, I'm beginning to think using that webcam as an example wasn't such a good idea.

Basically the cost of the device can be reduced by not requiring hardware compression. Once the raw data is received over USB 3.0 however, it can be compressed by software and then streamed or stored or whatever you would like to do, at the cost of some CPU power.

Don't know if you remember the old dial-up modems which originally were only hardware based. Much cheaper devices could be produced later on by using software processing. The devices themselves refereed to as software modems.

EDIT: Seems that webcam is not RGB 24bit but only 8bit or 10bit so the bandwidth would only be ~1Gbps. My bad.

 

I'm interested in the USB 2.0 version of this. It gives me two extra USB ports and that express34 slot is always available. My little laptop has only 2 USB ports. How much do they run for? There's no price listed anywhere. Is the card protruding out of the laptop when plugged in?

Too bad USB 3.0 is not backwards compatible with USB 2.0.

 

They are about £30-£40 in the UK with 2 ports

edit: where did you readi t not being backward compatible..it is compatible from the sources I have read.

 

I'm sorry I might be wrong but just by looking at the picture USB 3.0 has 5 terminals vs USB 2.0 which has only 4. I never used or seen any USB 3.0 device so I cannot confirm that is actually not compatible with 2.0

 

For most users it will be for external drives though.

2.5 Gbps is still an enormous boost compared to USB2.
And also (less of an issue nowadays) USB3 can give more power.

Using an expresscard usb-hub already as an ad-hoc docking station. Will upgrade sometime this year to usb3 i guess.

 

Already have my Buffalo USB 3.0 Expresscard can confirm that USB 2 Slot devices fit perfectly

It even says on the box it is backwards compatible yay lol

 

would the xps 16 I just ordered have the expresscard 2.0? I'm assuming it will and would be interested in adding usb 3.0 to it.

 

The expresscard slot will be 2.5Gbps (250MB/s), so can only provide half USB 3.0 speed (5GBps, 500MB/s). Not that it's really an issue. Only some SSDs attached via USB 3.0 will hit interface limits. No HDDs will yet.

 

Super Talent Raiddrive flash drive can hit over 2.5gbps read speeds. It's a USB 3.0 flash drive.

is there a way to test the bandwidth of the express card slot?

 

If you want to know if it is Expresscard 1.0 or 2.0, just look at your chipset ID and check the specifications.

 

Another soon to be released to public

techPowerUp! News :: Sharkoon Introduces USB 3.0 ExpressCard for Notebooks

 

Don't get too excited about retrofitting USB v3 to existing machines. Your external devices and express card interfaces will be limited to the speeds allowed by the SLOWEST part of your systems. In the case of an EC v2 slot, that max will be 250 mbps. In other machines, it will be the motherboard chipset.

Before spending money on USB v3, ask yourself if you really want to spend $$ on a new technology that your current machine will not be able to use effectively.

If might be a better play to save your $$ and wait until your next laptop purchase so that you will able to buy a machine that is purpose built/designed to support USB v3.

 

Well it says PCI Express* 2.0 interface Offers up to 2.5GT/s for fast access to peripheral devices and networking with up to 8 PCI Express* 2.0 x1 ports, configurable as x2 and x4 depending on motherboard designs. So it can be configures as 2.5, 5.0 or 10.0 gbps depending on motherboard designs. Well dell/alienware reps are retarded and dont understand when you ask them how its set up and its not in the manual.

 

PCIe, miniPCI (as found in laptops) and Express Card are not the same interface......