With the PCMCIA CardBus interface fading fast, three new ExpressCard contenders are vying for fastest CompactFlash reader bragging rights. One of these three is the fastest CF reader I’ve ever tested; do you know which one to buy?Updated 12/14/2008: Delkin has released a PCI-Express version of its ExpressCard 54 UDMA adapter. In my battery of tests with 15 different UDMA CompactFlash cards, the PCI-Express model reached an average throughput of 33 MB/sec under Windows Vista, significantly better than its predecessor and nearly as fast as our “champ.” It would appear that this adapter has replaced the USB-based ExpressCard 54 UDMA adapter, as the adapters are visually identical (as is their packaging). Unfortunately, this effectively makes it impossible to know which version you are buying, and as such, I can’t recommend this adapter at this time.
For the past few years, Delkin’s CardBus 32 adapters have ruled the roost when it came to downloading photos on to your laptop. The UDMA version of the adapter, which I tested back in April, rivaled FireWire 800 readers under Windows Vista SP1. As this adapter was phased out, Delkin introduced two replacements for it: a UDMA-enabled ExpressCard 54 adapter, and a “high speed” ExpressCard 34 adapter. Both priced at $50, I was interested to see which of these two successors would take the crown for fastest laptop card reader. Joining the mix is Verbatim’s $40 CameraMate ExpressCard 34. Who comes out on top?
Surprisingly, Delkin’s two entries lag far behind not only the Verbatim reader, but the earlier, discontinued CardBus 32 UDMA reader. While the new ExpressCard specification allows for cards to use either USB 2.0 or PCI-Express bus speeds, Delkin inexplicably opted for the slower USB 2.0 specification, limiting these card readers to–you guessed it–the ~25 MB/sec speed of UDMA CompactFlash readers. In my battery of tests with 15 different UDMA CompactFlash cards, both of the Delkin adapters averaged 25 MB/sec, compared to the 32 MB/sec average speed of the CardBus 32 UDMA adapter.
The new champ is Verbatim, whose unassuming little card averaged nearly 35 MB/sec–the fastest of any reader I’ve yet tested under Windows Vista. That’s because Verbatim’s designers wisely opted for the PCI-Express bus for transferring files.
Some additional notes: a few months ago, I bought an ExpressCard 34 adapter on eBay that was advertised as UDMA-capable and looked a lot like the Verbatim. But it didn’t work (my computer would recognize it but the supplied drivers would not, rendering the adapter useless). Caveat emptor. In addition, while Delkin advertises markedly different transfer rates for their two cards (“up to” 33 MB/sec for the ExpressCard 54 and 20 MB/sec for the ExpressCard 34), both achieved nearly identical results that were clearly in UDMA territory. I’m not sure if their engineers failed to tell their marketing department that the ExpressCard 34 was also UDMA-capable or if this was product evolution upgrade.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Ben Curtis // Dec 9, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Could it be that using the USB specification, rather than the PCI specification, enables less problematic hot-removal of the adapter from the computer?
I don’t know… I’m just wondering based on some problems I’ve had in the past with yanking pcmcia cards out of laptops. It does seem a strange choice otherwise, I agree.
2 The Sports Photo Guy // Dec 9, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Sounds like a possibility, although with the ubiquitousness of USB mass storage devices, controllers for USB are probably more numerous, cheaper, and more thoroughly de-bugged than PCI-E controllers for this kind of application. Just a hunch.
3 Ben Curtis // Dec 13, 2008 at 1:36 pm
The thing I hate about a lot of these expresscard readers including your new champ is the horrible plastic bit that sticks out from your laptop, making it impossible to leave the reader inserted when you put the laptop in your bag etc…
That was always one of the big attraction of the Delkin cardbus range (I have the Cardbus 32 UDMA CF adapter) – you can even leave the CF card in and it still fits flush.
It’s a shame the new Delkin Expresscard adapters are slow as their design is good (physically).
Do you know of any Expresscard 54 CF adapters that BOTH fit flush in the laptop, and are also fast?
4 The Sports Photo Guy // Dec 14, 2008 at 9:01 am
Only problem with the “leave it in the slot” idea is that the ExpressCard slot is spring-loaded…you might be able to remove a CF card, but when you insert the next one you’re likely to spring the ExpressCard reader out of the slot.
Delkin’s newly released PCI-E version of their ExpressCard 54 UDMA reader is nearly as fast as the Verbatim ExpressCard 34, and it does fit flush in the ExpressCard slot. However, on my Toshiba, as I’ve pointed out above, it’s pretty much impossible to put a CF card into it without dismounting it.
Leave a Comment