USB3 in a Z? With a mod?

I was wondering, IF we were to swap out the optical for one of the third-party 2HDD chassis (Can't remember the manufacturer), Could a USB3 port be squeezed in there too?

MY TZ has the third USB port as it's got the factory option 2nd HDD drive. I guess they just had spare USB ports on the Motherboard, so it was fairly easy to wire in. (There's a little daughter card by the side of the 2HDD in there)

But is there a spare mini-PCIe connector or something in the Z to allow us to add a card and mod it to add the connector?

Just some thoughts...

 

why don't you just use an expresscard??

 

That is the obvious solution...

BUT it's not a secure or streamline solution physically.

I use an eSATA expresscard sometimes with my TZ, and it sticks out the side, just like the USB3 one do too, and it also very easily gets knocked, or pulled out of the slot.
Not so bad when it's sat safely on a desk, but as the name suggests(!), my TZ is often on my lap.

Just having a just another USB connector, but a blue one ;-), will always be the tidiest solution.

And we're gonna have to wait a while for a Z to get it natively.

 

the z's slot is recessed. there's some good threads on this but a couple of the cards out there (and esata) give a pretty nice solution asthetically.

 

Only option is,as beaups already mentioned, to add an usb3.0 expresscard. There are two cards I know about that do fit flush:

1. AKE USB 3.0 card (eBay 10 bucks)
2. PhotoFast GM3000EX (seems to be very rare and hard to find, Rachel got one).

Accept that or forget it.

 

Didn't know that there were flush express cards available! Good news!
Cheers Pyr0

 

can't find the AKE USB 3.0 card on ebay; do you have a link?

 

I just entered it into Ebay search and got this...

AKE USB 3.0 items - Get great deals on Computers Networking items on eBay.com!

 

hah, sorry; i just did the same before posting and got 0 results; anyone have pictures with this expresscard in?

 

It will look like the eSATA cards I have tested in this review: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/513653-esata-vpc-z-s-y-series-esata-expresscard-review.html

Cheers

 

To return to your original question, I think it is doable, but not over the miniSATA port in the drive bay.

SATA2 offers 6gbps. That bandwith will not be able to take the USB3.0 port + the HDD in the caddy.

I have a newmodeus caddy installed with a 500gb WD HDD installed: what could be done, thought, is rerouting the expresscardslot to a USB3.0 expresscard mounted on the caddy. That would be prefectly in-design and functional however its definitly not an easy task, as expresscard is a 26-pin connector...

Just my two cents.

 

I do indeed own the Photofast GM3000EX USB 3.0 expresscard. I'm surprised to read that it is now virtually impossible to get hold of.
The way this expresscard works is by using a Y splitter cable and it takes its power from the USB 2.0 port and also the expresscard slot so it does indeed power my external 2.5 USB 3.0 HD. It is the same size as the Sony SD card adapter and will fit flush depending on the design of your laptop. On my SZ it fits flush but it doesn't so for my TT but it is not that obtrusive anyway.

The cheaper option AKE USB 3.0 card doesn't appear to come with any cables. The Photofast i own will not work with the generic cables that came with my USB 3.0 HD enclosure.

 

Hi Rachel, if you dont mind me asking, where and for how much did you get your PhotoFast GM3000X for?

 

I got it from here a few months back but they don't appear to stock it anymore.
PhotoFast
If my memory serves me right i paid about £50-£60 for it.
If you get a Y splitter cable on ebay then you'll need one that can of course carry USB 3.0 and i don't know how easy it would be to get one of those.
http://www.photofast.tw/products/ssd-GM3000EX.html

 

I just ordered PhotoFast GM3000EX from Japan. It seems to be nearly impossible to find them outside Japan, but you can find plenty of them on Japanese e-shops. They are a bit pricey though, about $60.

btw...they have the AKE card on DealExtreme for $18.20 shipped.

 

That must be a great deal since the AKE card uses the same controller (NEC) and you can crimp such a USB Y-Cable in literally 15 minutes or buy one. You will need it only if you want to use a bus-powered drive over usb3.0. If you have a 3.5" drive, you won't need it.

 

Does anybody have a link for the windows 7 64-bit AKE usb 3.0 expresscard adapter? Mine was shipped with drivers for other products (not surprised, ebay from hong kong). Looking forward to getting my usb 3.0 external going on my Z once i can get the card installed!

 

Strange since I saw the 3rd refresh (ie, Z13) being CTOed in Japan coming with a USB3.0 on board. Maybe you could source the parts for the thing instead of using an ExpressCard?

 

You should be able to use this one-

Lenovo Support & downloads - USB 3.0 Driver for Windows 7, Vista and XP - ThinkPad W510, W701, W701ds
It is the same one that came with my Photofast Expresscard.

 

I was thinking about a USB 3 mod. It looks like the only kind of interface that can handle the bandwidth is a PCI-E (right?). I looked around the board a bit and I came across a picture Zoinks took a while back:



In this picture the Gobi card is on the right, the daughterboard (red arrow) and its connector (blue) are on the left. If we flip the boards, we get:



which has the mini pci-e interface shown. I'm wondering if we can do something with that interface, assuming the Gobi is ditched...

 

Hi,

does anyone knows this Shentek USB 3.0 express card ? Unlike the Ake or Photofast, I think I have find it here :

eBay.be: 1 port USB3.0 ExpressCard NEC UPD720200 USB 3.0 Recesse (objet 270664425099 Fin: 15-déc.-10 11:24:12 CET)

And do you think the "usb to DC" cable is the usefull Y splitter cable Rachel was speaking about or must I buy it ?

:rolleyes2:

 

I don't know it but it seems to be based on the same hardware. Assuming that, I have to say your ebay deal seems quite expensive.

I think so, it should be all what you need. Keep in mind that you only need that cable if you want to POWER an external device. E.g. if you use a 3.5" HDD with a dedicated power supply, you won't need that DC cable. If you want to use a 2.5" HDD/SSD which only plugs in a USB3.0 port, you need to use the splitter cable since the ExpressCard bus itself only supplies 3.3V where USB needs 5V.

 

^not certain about your DC comment. The USB 3 card handles the 3.3>5V conversion, and states it provides 900ma of power. That is the spec of USB 3 (4.5W).

 

Thanks for your quick answer and for explanations on Y splitter cable.

I've bought it yesterday (22€ on ebay.fr) and I'll post some pics and comments as soon as I can. Remember that I wasn't able to find the 2 other models in Europe, so this model is maybe not so expensive !

 

I've noticed the new USB 3.0 expresscards that have been cropping up. I like the look of this one by Lindy.
USB 3.0 Card - 1 Port, ExpressCard/34 | USB | Add-On Cards | LINDY UK

 

Did you try it ?

 

Doesn't it look exactly the same as all others?

 

No, i haven't tried the Lindy one.

I do know that they all use the same controller.

All of them don't seem to include the splitter cables but it seems that this one does.

The one i linked to the Lindy one is a recognised brand also the specs of the expresscard are rev 2. It supports PCI rev 2 spec which is needed with Sandybridge laptops i believe to get full speeds. I could be wrong on that.

These are the specs of the Photofast.
Universal Serial Bus 3.0 Specification Revision 1.0
Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) Specification Revision 0.96
ExpressCard Specification Revision 1.0
PCI Express Specification Revision 1.1
It might support it but it's not stated.

 

What chipset is used in there?

In the AKE card, they use Fresco Logic chips. Beaups is right that the card has a 3.3v->5v dc/dc inside and powers external equipment. I tried it.

 

It's the same as the one that Dust000 bought (post 21).

 

Hope I'll receive it tomorrow !

 

Ouch, the delivery time is now from 15 to 20 days.... sickening
For sure, that's a business man to avoid.

 

I receive the Shentek USB 3.0 this week, and I'm very satisfied of it, except the delivery time...
1 port USB3.0 ExpressCard NEC UPD720200 USB 3.0 Recesse en vente sur eBay.fr (fin le 14-janv.-11 19:57:40 Paris)

I made some tests with 3Go (4X700 Mo avi file and 35 MP3) and a WD 1 To 3.5 ".
USB 3.0 : speed is about 65 Mo/sec during the avi and about 55 Mo/sec during the MP3
USB 2.0 : speed is about 25 Mo/sec during the avi and about 18 Mo/sec during the MP3

So the gain is almost 3 time the speedd of USB 2.0, which is really pleasant and usefull.
Sometimes, if U plug too strongly the USB cable, the expresscard may go out, but you can plug it again very easily.

There is a little soft which come with the driver (USB 3.0 host controller utility). It seems to switch off the power supply of the expresscard if you don't need it more and don't want to extract it. By the way, I didn't see a difference in battery life since the expresscard is in the Z13.

The expresscard doesn't come with Y splitter cable as Rachel one's. There is a small rond hole on the expresscard (you can see it on the picture of the expresscard) in witch you can plug a cable connected to an USB 2.0 port. The USB 2.0 must be nearby the expresscard as the cable is not very long.



The expresscard is small enough to fit the Z13, so it's very discreet. I'll post some pics maybe later.

 

Can you check in the device manager if your card features the NEC chip? 65mb/s is not too bad, but you should get speeds around 100mb/s at least. So do I with an AKE usb3.0 card featuring a Fresco Logic chip.

 

Here's a copy of my device manager. Does it enlight you, in spite of the french langiage ?

 

Thanks, yes this is the NEC controller. I thougt it is great but honestly, when I read your transfer rates this would disappoint me. I get over 100mb constant (when transferring large files) over eSATA and the Fresco Logic USB3.0 card in both directions to and from my Samsung EcoGreen 1.5TB drive (which is 5400rpm and should be even slower a bit than other 5400rpm drives due to "Eco"-Low Power Consumption stuff).

 

Someone else can publish his transfer rates in USB 3.0 to compare ?

 

I get a HD Tune bench of about 85-90 MB/s with a combination of the Shentek card and a Lacie Rikiki 1 TB USB 3.0 2,5" HDD. This is about what the HDD would deliver internally over SATA so I'm very happy with it. Delivery took about 2 weeks to Germany.

Here are some pictures of the card in my Z12:

 

What is that hole for next to the USB3 port? I think it was briefly discussed earlier, but I just want to be sure.

 

Its for power in from another USB2.0 port. You can see the cable in the last picture.

 

Oh, so the Express Card slot cannot supply enough power to the USB 3 so after you pop in the express card, you have to plug in a cable from a USB 2 slot to it as well?

 

only if your usb device needs a lot of power, my lacie hdd works fine without any additional powersupply.

 

My AKE USB3.0 ExpressCard card arrived today ... put it to the test, it's already looking quite a bit faster than the eSATA card I was playing with earlier! I'm getting a solid 91.5MB/sec to a 2TB Samsung Story USB3.0 drive (for a 400GB file) in contrast to something like 60MB/sec over the eSATA card.

Just wondering, what driver version are people using with this card? I couldn't download the ones from Fresco Logic and I didn't trust the ones I found elsewhere so I just used the ones on the (cracked) mini-CD that came with it, according to Device Manager it's driver 3.0.99.53, 4/08/2010 for a FL1000 series Fresco Logic xHCI controller.

 

is there one that is super flush with the vaio z? i would totally buy one that does not stick out at all!

 

Check out the updated driver I uploaded here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...s-esata-expresscard-review-5.html#post7035926

 

Got an interesting problem here which no one seems to have had. And it's really pissing me off... I've read a lot on these forums about USB 3 vs esata expresscards and took the plunge with USB3. Anyway, I've got a Sony Z127 and recently bought a Shentek USB 3 expresscard and a Samsung S2 USB3 1TB external drive off ebay.

Here:
1 port USB3.0 ExpressCard NEC UPD720200 USB 3.0 Recesse | eBay
Samsung S2 1TB 2.5 External Portable Hard Drive HDD | eBay

I bought the Samsung because it was well reviewed and pretty cheap for a 1TB USB3 drive. The Shentek is based on the NEC UPD720200 USB 3 chipset.

The problem is that I cannot get the Samsung to connect to the Shentek expresscard at USB3. It only connects at USB2 - evident by the green light for USB 2 as opposed to blue for USB 3. I've tested the expresscard on my wife's Sony laptop (a Y series) and it is exactly the same - USB 2. But - I've tested the drive on my Asrock Vision 3D PC (has built in USB 3) - and all works great at USB3 speeds.

Anyone had any similar experiences with these two paired up?

On another note - the Shentek installed first time on Windows 7 64-bit with supplied latest drivers and hotplugs no problem. but at USB 2 speeds.

 

I would guess that you are either doing something wrong with the expresscard, or you have a bad one.

 

I own to a Shentek USB 3.0, connected to a WD 1To "My book essential" or a WD 750 Go "My passeport essential", both in USB 3.0.
Both work great and quickly, just a problem with the cable of the second HD wich was deficient and have been changed immediatly by WD.

I connect the 2.5" WD to my Z13 with the extra power cable provided with the Shentek expresscard. I don't know if it work without, I've never try. Do you use it to connect your Samsung HD ?

 

No - I don't need to use the power cable. The Samsung powers up and works without it. I have tried using the power cable but it makes no difference. It still only connects at USB2. Can you test you WD without the power cable? If it all works I'll end up buying one - that was my 2nd choice.

I'm going to try and test it on other USB3 devices but I don't know anyone who has a USB3 drive yet. Might have to go into a shop to test it. The cable could be faulty but as I said it all works on my other PC no problem.

 

Incredible, it works without the extra power cable, I never succed with a USB 2.0 2.5"..... But ithe HD was ejected one time without reason. After that, I've use it half an hour without problem.
Be sure that the Shentek is well connected, It might be not when you plug the HD or when you plug the express card. The expresscard can be unplugged easily.