Expresscard Slot - What Can You Do With It?

My SZ is my first notebook with an expresscard slot in it and I'm not sure what peripherals are available using the expresscard form factor.

Can anyone point me to a good site with expresscard-compatibles or let me know what they've done with them? Not sure if Verizon offers a wireless card in that size or if I can get an extra USB port in there (without something sticking out).

TIA

BJ

 

There are quite an variety of options, sound cards, USB ports, remotes, mice, etc.

Perhaps do a search on ExpressCard peripherals and see if anything interesting pops up

 

with express card you can have:

http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/cons_wtb.jsp

 

Please keep in mind the SZ's come with a ExpressCard/34 slot which is actually very limited. I don't believe soundcards and tv tuners and such will work in a 34 slot. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

As far as i can tell, the only MAJOR things that it does, that PCMCIA could not(because of bandwidth) is eSata and the upcoming Asus XG station. Otherwise, for the time being, its just a glorified PCMCIA slot that is not compatible with PCMCIA cards(and the expresscard version of PCMCIA accessories tend to cost more.)

Oh, and the form-factor is horrible! The 54 slot isnt even a square shape... So now all those included media remotes that HP uses have a squished design that is anything but ergonomic.

 

Well one of the key factor is that the pc express is attached on a pci-e bus. Simular to AGP the bus is controlled by the northbridge which has the CPU and system ram attached to it. From my perspective, the pc express cards only benifits for high bandwidth devices like video cards and maybe gigabit ethernet cards. While other things it really isn't necessary to place them in high prioirity devices, and I don't see why not PCMCIA cannot be used for eSATA.

 

If you still have you SZ for months or years to come, maybe purchase a draft-n wireless expresscard.

 

Hi, I know it's been a while since this was posted but I just recently encountered a problem similar to this.

I just bought a Dell laptop and need to fit an Aironet PC-card (PCMCIA) radio into the laptop's ExpressCard slot. I need the laptop to associate with a LAN-side wireless Aironet Access Point (radio modem) that will relay to a Distribution System, then to the Net. So I don't need a WAN-side telco-type service provider. But I think there are two solutions for adapting any PC card peripherals, and I"ll list the less optimal first.

1. There are USB-to-PCMCIA adapters.

2. I've seen PCMCIA-card-to-ExpressCard-port adapters, that supposedly have a higher data rate than #1 above. Here's one:

http://sewelldirect.com/Express-Car...earch=search&gclid=CO_6gpLjxJECFSosagodH3pNDA

You may be able to use adapter #2 above with any PCMCIA peripheral. I think the Express card was meant to mate with the faster PCI-X busses, which could be used with GigE, wireless, and other peripherals demanding higher data througput.

I started taking a Cisco Aironet Wireless class and besides the above adapter to accommodate the Aironet radio cards for laptops, I'm also looking for a 9-pin-RS234-Serial-male-connector-to-USB-port adapter, found one for $9.00.

http://www.emtcompany.com/products/...er-cable.htm?gclid=CKjEkOznxJECFQU6awodV0E3DA

Please be advised that there are two sizes of Express Cards that the major notebook manufacturers use, 34 mm and 54mm.

Good luck. I won't like spending money on something that will soon be obsolete but I blame myself for not fully looking into all this first.