Flush USB 3.0 Expresscard Adapter

[Musuta]

Assuming that the USB 3.0 Expresscard is using the PCI-E hookup and not the USB 2.0 hookup (which would naturally limit it to USB 2.0 speeds, which is what seems to have happened to Musuta above), then the limit of a USB 3.0 Expresscard would be about 2 Gbps (in theory). This is something like half the limit of "real" USB 3.0. Depending on which level of SATA is built into your notebook, SATA limits will be either 1.5 Gbps, or 3 Gbps. Even so, unless you're using a SSD, you won't be exceeding either limit without some specialized hardware.

The actual hookup is not PCI-E but PCI .. PCI-E is for graphics cards ..
It depends of drivers provided for module inserted in ExpressCard is attached to PCI bus 3 in my occasion is USB 3.0 controller and USB 2.0 is in bus 0 .. (see pics below)
But i have problem to connect my HD Drive there is something with power
is really weird if i want at least that speed between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 i need to plug aux power but its not working chinese cheap thing? .. probably that's why is not working properly my drive is keeping plugging and unplugging in windows ..
There is something with power management to trigger USB 3.0 power up ..

here is all info how ExpressCard works ...

The 1 port SuprSpeed USB3.0 ExpressCard ver 2.0 is for USB 3.0 host card, let you to connect with your Laptop 34mm or 54mm ExpressCard slot.

For USB 3.0 supports for 5Gbps transfer rate, it is 10 times fast then USB2.0(480Mbps). When you connect with USB3.0 device(such as USB3.0 Enclosure, Pen Disk, …), it is fast and easy to use same as USB 2.0. It supports Plug and Play for ExpressCard Slot. Also supports Hot Swap for Devices, too.

The USB3.0 host port also supports with USB2.0/1.1 Devices.

What different between USB3.0 and USB2.0, for most of functions are same as USB2.0?

1) 10 times fast transfer rate then USB2.0

2) USB3.0 supports 900ma power support to USB3.0 Devices

3) Supports with PCI-e ver 2.0 and 1.1 Slot

4) Supports with PCI-e 1/4/8/16 channel Slot

5) Supports with Green Power, save more power

6) Supports USB2.0 and 1.1 Devices

What is ExpressCard(PCI-e) ver 2.0 and 1.1 different?

ExpressCard Ver 2.0 supports with 5Gbps transfer rate from ExpressCard slot to System, it is newest interface for Laptop

ExpressCard Ver 1.1 supports with 2.5Gbps transfer rate from ExpressCard to System.

For USB3.0 it designs for ExpressCard Ver 2.0, it is why USB3.0 can support with 5Gbps transfer rate, but you can also insert USB3.0 ExpressCard into Ver 1.1 ExpressCard Slot, it also works great, just transfer rate only have 2.5Gbps, but it is still 5 times fast then USB2.0.

Can we connect USB2.0 or 1.1 products to USB3.0?

Yes, we can connect USB2.0 or 1.1 to USB3.0 port.

Can we connect USB3.0 Devices to USB2.0 Host Port?

Yes, we can connect USB3.0 devices to USB2.0 Host Port, but need to make sure the power is 900ma for USB3.0 devices.

[Musuta]

So what usb3 expresscard adapter do you guys recommrnd i get (54)

its not about what we recommend ist about which type of express card you have if you have 54mm you can still connect 34mm and 54mm modules ..
54mm slot is older ... 34mm is newer but obviously if you have 34mm slot in your machine u cant shuffle in 54mm module in slot

[glenng]

thanks for the pics. just a few more questions.

1. is the firmware on the card upgradable using the generic NEC firmware found at station-driver website? i know you can use the generic NEC driver, but not sure about the firmware or if the card already come with the latest firmware.
.

I tried the upgrade for controller firmware last night and it worked on my AKE Expresscard 54. I had old NEC drivers installed so I first tried the firmware upgrade and it worked so after re-booting I uninstalled old drivers and then re-installed most current from station-drivers site. Firmware upgrade was quick and easy, give it a go.

[alexnvidia]

I tried the upgrade for controller firmware last night and it worked on my AKE Expresscard 54. I had old NEC drivers installed so I first tried the firmware upgrade and it worked so after re-booting I uninstalled old drivers and then re-installed most current from station-drivers site. Firmware upgrade was quick and easy, give it a go.

brilliant! do u have the link to the card that you bought? thanks for the feedback!

[Judicator]

The actual hookup is not PCI-E but PCI .. PCI-E is for graphics cards ..
It depends of drivers provided for module inserted in ExpressCard is attached to PCI bus 3 in my occasion is USB 3.0 controller and USB 2.0 is in bus 0 .. (see pics below)
But i have problem to connect my HD Drive there is something with power
is really weird if i want at least that speed between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 i need to plug aux power but its not working chinese cheap thing? .. probably that's why is not working properly my drive is keeping plugging and unplugging in windows ..
There is something with power management to trigger USB 3.0 power up ..

Nope, it's PCI-E (or PCIe) because it's PCI Express, or Peripheral Component Interconnect Express. PCI is an older standard. And graphics cards are just the most common thing that uses it (because they're the ones that have been pushing bandwidth most recently).

Hm, so it seems to be a power issue? Huh. Oh, wait, is this that lashup where you were hooking up a 3.5" drive? If so, that's probably the issue; 3.5" drives take a lot of power.

[Musuta]

Nope, it's PCI-E (or PCIe) because it's PCI Express, or Peripheral Component Interconnect Express. PCI is an older standard. And graphics cards are just the most common thing that uses it (because they're the ones that have been pushing bandwidth most recently).

Hm, so it seems to be a power issue? Huh. Oh, wait, is this that lashup where you were hooking up a 3.5" drive? If so, that's probably the issue; 3.5" drives take a lot of power.

Hi no am using 2.5'' Drive (pic below)
and its connected to PCB converter SATAII to USB 3.0 cable is USB 3.0 version and once is connected to that Expresscard module it behaving weirdly keep turning on and off Hard Drive .. sometimes it do connect so i rather connected but i dont want to brick HDD with files so am using original usb 2.0 for now ..
I dont know what is that USB 3.0 Power management for ? do you know ? should I enable it or disable?

[Coruja]

my dilemma is this- my computer has an esata port but i hate the stiff cables of esata. i was looking at getting an expresscard usb 3.0 but will it perform the same as my esata or will it be slower?
another reason im thinkin of goin usb 3 instead of esata is because i will be getting a new laptop soon that will have both esatat and usb 3. so you guys think that the usb3 expresscard would be a good stopgap till i get my usb3 laptop? or will it just be so much slower than the esata?

I have both esata and USB3.0 via expresscard. I have a 1.5TB WD Book connected to a built-in esata port. Also have Iomega Ego USB3.0 drive connected to expresscard/34 (AKE) USB3.0 adapter.

On my system, USB3.0 is consistently faster than esata.

I get around 60~65MB/s via esata and 75~85 MB/s via USB3.0. CrystalDiskmark score for esata drive is around 80MB/s (read+write) and around 100MB/s (read+write) for USB3.0 drive.

So, yes, USB3 expresscard is a good stopgap till you get a new lappie

[triturbo]

How can I check if my ExpressCard slot is USB 2.0 or PCI-E wired?

[ronan_zj]

hmm, it seems like my E6400 wont get USB 3.0 speed

[83bj60]

odd.. even my old esata expresscard shows firmware revision cos i remembered seeing it before i sold it (not sure if it's under device manager-->storage controller) but it's defiantely present. from stationdriver, the most updated firmware does seem to fix quite a number of issues with the NEC controller. It'll be great if the firmware is upgradeable for that card too. thanks for trying anyway, might just get one myself since it's not that expensive.

OK, I have some news for you.

I ran my new Iomega EGO 1TB USB 3.0 on that AKE USB 3.0 card with the latest drivers: i got blazing fast speeds, 100 -> 50 on my 4 year old Toshiba P205 (in other words, if you don't get the speeds you expect, blame the motherboard, not the age of your notebook).

Same results on my 2009 vintage HP 8730w. (yes, same speeds!)

HOWEVER, the drive keeps disconnecting at random by itself, and on both laptops. Upon closer look, once it happens I cannot 'safely disconnect' the USB 3.0 card, because some 'program is using the device'. No info that I can see on the Task Manager to tell me what's wrong.

It is not a power issue that I can see with the Iomega, happens both if you connect only on the USB 3.0 on the card or both 3.0 and 2.0

It is not a card issue, I got two of them and tests give identical results with both cards with the same (latest) station-drivers.com drivers.

So, as you were suggesting, I loaded the latest firmware onto my 4 year old Toshiba. Result? USB 3.0 speeds have dropped dramatically, from 100 tops to a steady 55, but after running HDTune Error Scan for almost two hours, the drive is trucking on and it has not disconnected itself yet (it would disconnect at random after 10, 20 or 30 minutes before).

What does the firmware do? Curiously, it does NOT act upon the USB 3.0 card itself. Also, it does NOT write anything into the Registry (loaded and old one with no change). It writes to the computer directly! Indeed, I tried both cards, one that I ran the 'Firmware' on and the other, that I never touched, and both behave identically in regards to speed. I also tried both cards on the HP without running the firmware update on it, and got identical (fast but wit random disconnects) with both cards.

In other words, the firmware writes to the PC hardware, with no way of saving the existing firmware to revert back.

Needless to say, I am a bit skittish to run that update on my HP 8730w... Not having any information with the firmware update package on what it does and how to revert back to a previous, I'm going to have to investigate with NEC/Renesas as to what is happening before I proceed with this update on my HP 8730w.

Hope it was the info you were looking for. If I get any more info from NEC/Renesas, I will post them here.

OH: I cannot find anything relevant to your inquiry under "Storage Controllers". Devices listed are "MagicISO SCSI Host Controller" and "Microsoft iSCSI Initiator". None of the files listed under either of them are more recent than 2009. Digging deeper into the registry tells nothing about what the firmware did to my laptop.