Been fretting over the
upcoming slew of
USB 3.0 devices and your relatively new laptop's inability to exploit their full speed? Well this isn't going to help you much, but it's a great example of why you should shop with a careful eye and preferably from reputable stores. British e-tailer StarTech.com (no, we haven't heard of them before either) is now offering an ExpressCard-based USB 3.0 adapter for £39 (about $64), which seems a bargain considering the promised 5Gbps transfer speeds and general bragging rights associated with having
SuperSpeed. But here's the rub: while USB 3.0 certainly supports such speeds, the ExpressCard 1.0 device in question doesn't. In fact, you'll be limited to
a tenth half the speed the
3.0 controller onboard is capable of, leaving us to question what the exact point of this device really is. Any ideas?
Update: We've double-checked the specs and this card can in fact give you 2.5Gbps throughput, which isn't quite so terrible, but still isn't the full USB 3.0 spec which is lauded on their sales page.
posted December 7th 2009 8:27AM
Is ExpressCard 1.0 faster than USB 2.0? If it is at least its faster than plugging in USB 3.0 device into USB 2.0 plug.
@b00tleg I Believe that ExpressCard has a bandwidth of 2.5Gbit/s over USB 2.0's 480Mbit/s. So it'd still be a lot faster than USB 2.0 unless i'm missing something here?
@jkmoogle ExpressCards can connect directly to the USB bus internally, which is what this card appears to be doing. So it's just like plugging an adapter into your USB 2.0 port that claims to give you USB 3.0...
@nerdherd OK, fair point, didn't bother checking how it connects up!
@nerdherd Wrong, it most likely has its own controller that uses the PCI express interface of the expresscard spec.
So the total bandwith available should be 2.5 Gb/s combined for the two ports.
@maniack Exactly...I love it when people who don't know jack comment on these things.
@maniack I was only stating what information I saw. I would love to think that it really does go through the PCIExpress bus, I just wasn't seeing that specified anywhere.
I admit I would have been fooled into buying this if i was not informed about this performance bottleneck..... I transfer a lot of media into my external HDDs so i was really tempted...thanks Vladislav :)
@aashish bhagya
My macbook doesn't have an express port :) It's a feature to prevent misinformed purchases.
@aashish bhagya Go ahead and get it. It will give to 2.5 Gbps. Not quite the 5 Gbps that USB 3.0 offers but its 5X faster than USB 2.0 and you don't have to buy a new computer.
@Outsider
Actually it's a feature to put a choke collar on you and force you to buy Apple licensed products.
If this device runs over the PCIExpress bus then couldn't it get 2.5Gbps? I don't see anywhere saying that it isn't, but don't know for sure. Of course, if this just connects internally to the USB bus then it will only be 480Mbps, and that certainly would be pointless, wouldn't it?
Well I think I just answered my own question looking at the user's manual...this doesn't require any special driver and installs automatically as a USB device, so it's got to be USB-based. Lame!
@nerdherd I don't want to tread on any toes here, but you should really do some research before mouthing off and putting people off of what could be a really good product. This adapter is based on the NEC USB Controller which means it has to identify itself directly to the system and cannot do so through the existing USB 2.0 controller. So this will operate at around the theoretical 2.5 Gbps limit on the Express Card port depending on any other design limitations that Startech has added.
@NikAmi Once again, I took a quick look at the user's manual, and that's what it seemed to indicate. I would hardly use the terms "mouthing off" and "people who don't know jack" though...there's no need to be rude, even if the internet is practically anonymous. In any case, I'm glad to see that Engadget has confirmed that it does operate at 2.5Gbps.
Umm, sorry but thats incorrect. ExpressCard is 2.5Gbps (gigabits). USB 3.0 is 4.8Gbps but commonly advertised as 5GBps for whatever reason, probably simplicity. Therefore it is not ten times slower, it is just over half as slow. The writer is mistaking the USB interface of ExpressCard for the PCI-E x1 interface.
@Sneakz
Your numbers are correct, but you're missing one critical element of the ExpressCard spec: the ExpressCard slot allows cards to connect EITHER to the internal PCI Express bus OR the internal USB bus, so as others have already mentioned, it's quite possible that this card was designed to connect to the USB bus, despite how boneheaded that is/would be.
"The ExpressCard has a maximum throughput of 2.5 Gbit/s through PCI Express and 480 Mbit/s through USB 2.0 dedicated for each slot, while all CardBus devices connected to a computer share a total 1.06 Gbit/s bandwidth." - Wikipedia
Many StarTech products are at Micro Center.
@michaspi : I've still got a PCI serial card that I bought years ago so I could hook two serial-port Palm handheld cradles to one machine.
And I bought it at Microcenter. I miss Microcenter. Nearest one's now 3 hours away.
@dagwud
I wish I could share your joy. An ATX12V extension cable cost me over ten dollars.
Is there a need for a faster USN transfer? I never had an issue while transferring dirty movies from my PC to an external hard drive.
I've used startech before.. They make pretty good KVM switches.
@mkriedel
I find their stuff works, but a lot of times horribly overpriced.
@ToniCipriani I would tend to agree about the pricing, but as mkriedal said they do normally make good quality products. I've bought several KVM switches and some network cards in the past from them through work.
Oh snap, I just ordered 10 of these!
"Any ideas?" ~~~ Well I'm glad you asked. I'd say that maybe 20% (if that) of the computer tech. purchasing population knows and cares to research what they are about to buy. So, this device isn't really technology unless you consider butt-raping consumers by means of exploiting numbers in technology rather than real-world-results, a thing of technology. So nothing special here.
You may notice the 2 ends that are completely diff. in shape. This is for maximum potential in your pleasure zones if getting butt-mugged by businesses is your thing. Hope this helps.
To clear things up, I just contacted the tech-support of StarTech.com:
Ray: That's fine.
Fabian: Wow, this is great, thank you! Are you okay with me posting this chatlog on engadgets
comments?
Ray: It connects using a PCIe bridge, not USB.
Fabian: They refer to your product with ID: ECUSB3S2
Fabian: Hey Ray! I've recently seen this article on engadget.com (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/usb-3-0-expresscard-adapter-promises-ten-times-more-than-it-can), stating your expresscard usb3.0 will not support more than 480mbit/s. Can you tell me anything about this? (I.e. is your card connecting internally via usb or via pci-e?
Ray: How can I help you today?
Ray: Hi Fabian
Ray has entered the chatroom.
Please wait while a StarTech.com representative enters the chatroom.
That said, the card should support up to 2.5GBit/s, which is more than enough, I think!
@simpleFabian I like the fact that you asked for permission to post it. Very professional of you.
@simpleFabian
lol, I read the chat top to bottom and I'm like wtf?
@simpleFabian Congratulations. You just did more research than the mope who got paid for writing this blog post. At least he didn't manage to confuse 'input' and 'output' this time.
This article is totally inaccurate...
How have you not heard of StarTech? They're one of like, 4 companies that makes expresscard peripherals like this.
@Godnah
They use MacBooks.
@nicholaelaw
exactly what i wanted to say! ;)
"leaving us to question what the exact point of this device really is. Any ideas?"
Uh... to make money?
This is like male breast implants.
There's no point of this -- it's better to go with E-SATA unless you're using something other than a hard disk. 2.5gpbs is the spec speed, add overhead and you're down to about 180-200 MB/sec, if you're lucky.
eSATA is a failure. Who creates a port in 2004 with no provision for power delivery? Morons do.
My British soul has died a little bit.
Actually this is a Canadian Company, and their HQ is in London Ontario Canada
If you are stuck with a laptop without USB 3.0 ports, but have a device that supports USB 3.0. Isn't having 2.5Gbps better than only 480Mbps? (Especially if you can charge it on your corporate credit card.) And trust me, asking for £39 for an ExpressCard peripheral isn't really that bizarre on the British high street.
Hey 2.5Gbps is better than 480mbps for only $64. At least you won't have to buy a brand new laptop.
"Any ideas?"
Yes. When USB 3.0 external hard drives will be available in the near future, owners of not-so-old-but-lacking-usb3.0 laptops will be able to use these cards to get better speeds than usb 2.0 (if the card is connected through the PCI bus which apparently it does).
Yes, of course it won't be able to reach the top speed of 3.0 but judging by the past, lets face it, neither will the onboard ports.
Yes, there is always eSata but external drives using this interface are rare and usually cost more.
It wasn't so hard, now was it, Engadget?
Ok, so im guessing we should be seeing more stuff like this in the future. my question is (as im not so savvy):
when/if these are available for Desktop PC's PCI slots, will they also be limited to 2.5gbps? (which hey still is worth it)
also if i have an older device, like an iPhone 3Gs, will i be able to just upgrade to the USB 3.0 slots via PCIe, then replace my iPhone cable (assuming apple sells one in the near future) and then get the USB transfer rates?
i got my computer about a month ago, i wanted to wait until 3.0 went mainstream, however i wasnt expecting to get a new computer for at least a few more years. my last one had a full on melt-down. (hard drive/motherboard fried)
Wow, this article is a perfect example of that occasional Engadget tech smugness biting them in the backside. Let's try being less cynical in the articles once in a while.
@THizzle7XU
one of the things i like most about Engadget/joystick/sometimes autoblog are the small little comedic lines the put into their articles. sure they are not always accurate, but they are amusing. they also make mistakes, and are normally pretty quick to update the post, while leaving their mistake for people to see (instead of pretending they never made the mistake)
@THizzle7XU
Don't worry, an Apple product will make headlines soon enough
So what we've learned kids, is that the kicker is that MOST computers won't be able to use USB3 until they are replaced.
PCI-E 1x only delivers half the bandwidth needed. (this also applies to old school PCI that's not PCI-X @66MHz or 64 bits used in servers) That's a function of the physical specification, not this manufacturer being cheap. Now we know that NO manufacturer can claim full USB3 on an Expresscard or PC card.
That's also a limit for DESKTOPS as well. To get proper USB3 one would need PCI-E 4x which is on some desktops, but not most cheaper ones. So again, there will be lots of cheap cards that don't have full throughput.
There are other reasons you might want USB3 though. It's still more than twice as fast as USB2 if you have a faster device that can use it. USB3 also supports higher powered devices without external power supplies. USB3 also has support for new ways of managing data flow that are more efficient than USB2 methods, and you'll get those commands to the device at USB3 specs, not slower, less efficient USB2 specs.
guess my HP Mini 2140 and my Santa Rosa MacBook Pro will have USB 3 before other apple laptops.
The SD card slot is a bag of hurt.