Express card suggestions? [ Edited ]

[kvirtanen]

Hi,

Since the PCMCIA slot of my X201t is not being used at all, I was wondering: what do other people use it for? What, nowadays, is the most useful application for that slot in your opinion? I'm most interested in permanent solutions, i.e., cards that do not stick out of the slot. SSDs, mice?

I'd be very interested in hearing your opinions.

-- Kimmo

[NeuroKnight]

I like the Mogo presenter/mouse with laser pointer.

amazon.com/HP-Bluetooth-Presenter

[kvirtanen]

Looks really handy, and strange too - thanks for the tip! I assume it's still comfortable to use? I remember seeing PCMCIA mice before but they were made to accommodate the bigger (double the size of X201t's) PCMCIA slot. Does that one fit in without a hitch?

[NeuroKnight]

For around $10 I’d have to say it works great but then I don’t use it too much.

The mouse sticks out of the PCMCIA slot about 3mm (just enough to see the light if it's charging).

The mouse is very thin but workable; I like the unit more for its presenter mode and laser pointer than the mouse.

Is anyone else using there slot... anyone... anyone?

[bananaman]

Hi All!

You all know this anyway, but for clarity I note that the X201 Tablet has an ExpressCard/54 slot, not one of the older PCMCIA slots.

That cute little mouse takes advantage of the "L" shape of the ExpressCard/54 slot to squeeze itself in.

What I do with unused ExpressCard or PCMCIA slots is put a blank in to stop the keyboard bezel from bending and cracking due to the empty space. 

[kvirtanen]

Hey bananaman,

thanks for the clarification! I always keep mixing the different types. I updated the topic title accordingly. On a sidenote, here's a picture of all the different add-on cards:

I actually found a really nice 2xUSB 3.0 54mm express card on *bay. There are also eSata adapters, but the way I understand it, eSata devices need an external power source to run properly. USB 3.0 is also backwards compatible with 2.0, and 2 extra USB ports is a nice thing to have.

[kvirtanen]

Also, if you don't have better use for the card slot, I'd recommend buying for example a CF card reader adapter, a sufficiently spacious card (I have 16GB) and a nice Time-Machine-like backup software and use the card as a permanent backup drive.

I've been using the SD card slot for that purpose so far, but if somebody has better use for it and an unused express card slot, well...

[nibs Guru]

The express card by itself does not supply enough power to run a single USB 3.0 port, let alone two of them. If you want to connect up at least one USB device, then you will need an express card that gives you a USB to power cable that plugs into the expresscard so the card can supply enough power to the device.

You also probably will see maximum speeds of 185 MB/sec on any USB 3.0 card with the NEC controller. I don't know if the Fresco Logic controller runs any faster. 

[kvirtanen]

Good point about the USB cards' power requirements, nibs. That sure makes them a bit less desirable for me I have to say..

Does anybody know if there are card readers that stay flush to the computer (don't stick out) even if there is a card inside? The CF card readers don't seem to be able to accommodate the large size of the card. But what about SD cards, or are there dedicated MICRO SD card readers? EDIT: Some 5-in-1 card readers seem to be able to read Micro SD cards, but they have to be inserted inside an adapter which, in turn, sticks out of the reader.

Also, I researched the ExpressCard SSDs as a backup solution (they're a bit slow compared to HDDs), but I read a few bad reviews of them in Amazon. People reported their SSDs failing after a few months, even rendering a 64GB to display as a 4GB RAW filesystem drive. Some had been forced to format the drives every once in a while due to sudden read/write errors that prevented them from using the drive.

Are they really that bad?

EDIT: Apparently not, Lexar seems to have positive reviews of their ExpressCard SSDs for example.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

I use an eGPU in my X201t when i had it. Very handy if you want to run multiple external monitors and play some new games on the laptop.