PC Card Slot for the ZV5220 or any HP notebook

I was wondering what is available for the empty pc card slot in my zv5220 as far as upgrades or peripherals. Can this be used for upgrading my GPU or used for anything else? I'm just dying to tinker with it. Thanks in advance.

 

PCMCIA Type II (aka CardBus 32) slots can be used to install a variety of ports, networking card, etc. Just a quick jaunt down to your local Circuit City and you can find all sorts of USB 2.0, FireWire400, 10/100 Ethernet, serial, parralel, and modem port cards. There are also sound cards, wireless networking cards, and bluetooth modules available. However, Cardbus doesn't run fast enough for the demands of a GPU.

However, your computer may have what is called an ExpressCard54 slot (I know for a fact the zv6000 series does). Though little if anything exists for this new interface yet, it will (in theory, at least) be fast enough for graphics cards, gigabit ethernet ports, etc. to be installed in.

 

Thanks, lowlymarine. I hadn't realized just how many options there are for the PC Card slot . Too bad most of them are just upgrades my zv5220 already has. It doesn't have firewire though. What advantages does it have over usb 2.0 if any? :hp:

 

Long Rifle,

Firewire is mainly designed for digital video transfers from your camera to your computer. You can also use it to transfer other data like your USB port, but there's not a lot of devices that are Firewire vs USB in the PC market. I believe USB 2.0 is a more widely used technology because of it's faster speed vs Firewire (480Mbps vs 400Mbps).

-Vb-

 

USB 2.0 has a higher transfer rate at 480 mbps, but this rate can't be sustained over a long period of time. Firewire (400 & 800), can sustain their transfer rates (400 & 800 mbps), making it the faster option.

 

Thanks a bunch, guys. So I'm assuming that transferring smaller files like mp3s and jpegs is faster with usb 2.0, but firewire takes the cake with larger ones like vob files from DVDs. I do a lot of video encoding with an external Maxtor 300gb hd and an external DVD burner...both are capable of either usb 2.0 or firewire links. Would the firewire advantage be significant enough to warrant spending $50 or so with the firewire pc card?

 

If you're going to store large files that take time to write onto the external drive, I recommend going the firewire route, but if you're going to be storing small files like Word, Excel files then just use USB 2.0 .

 

One more use is an external hard drive. Toshiba makes these external PC card 1.8" HD.

http://sdd.toshiba.com/localcache/82000000017B0000004B0000000100000000.pdf