Resolved /YES/ Now do macs support USB3 expresscard?

[Astroboy907]

Well, with the onset of OSX mountain lion, as well as new MBPs with USB 3.0, I suppose USB 3 is officially supported

I have a late 2008 MBP with an expresscard slot on it. I have seen a few USB 3.0 expresscards, but they never have had Macintosh compatibility. If I get ML, will the system support using USB 3??

 

[MacBookPr0]

Well, with the onset of OSX mountain lion, as well as new MBPs with USB 3.0, I suppose USB 3 is officially supported

I have a late 2008 MBP with an expresscard slot on it. I have seen a few USB 3.0 expresscards, but they never have had Macintosh compatibility. If I get ML, will the system support using USB 3??

I was wondering the same exact thing! Looking for an answer!

 

[oddsratio]

Nope, the expansion slot has been phased out. The last model to have it was the 17", which is only available in the refurbished section or the secondhand market (and sandy bridge probably wouldn't have supported them). Were you looking to add extra ports?

 

[Astroboy907]

Nope, the expansion slot has been phased out. The last model to have it was the 17", which is only available in the refurbished section or the secondhand market (and sandy bridge probably wouldn't have supported them). Were you looking to add extra ports?

I OWN a Late 2008 (15", last of the kind w/ EC) with an expresscard slot. Yes, I was planning on getting a 2 port card and have 4 USB total (2 2.0, 2 3.0)

So I was wondering, because the new models had 3.0, if apple had sufficiently developed software to support a USB 3 device, and if so would it work with expresscards, even though at a slightly slower speed.

 

[oddsratio]

Ah, sorry I misunderstood; for some reason thought you wanted to upgrade to a new one and expand the slots on that. If they hadn't released a compatible card yet, I don't think they'll work on developing support for it now that there are no more expansion slot models, is what I meant to say.

 

[Andrmgic]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say "No"

The only reason the new macbook pros even have usb 3.0 is because Intel has implemented it in their ivy bridge chipsets.

Unless the add-on card has an Intel controller inside it, I don't think it is going to be supported.

Before ivy bridge, most devices that offered usb 3.0 support were using a different chipset/controller, which naturally means that they would need different drivers than the intel ones that the included usb 3.0 ports would use.

 

[Astroboy907]

Bought a cheap card off of amazon ($10), gonna try it with my 1 USB3 accessory
Will let you know how it goes...
Anyways, hoping if it doesnt work I still get 2 usb 2.0 ports.

 

[mofunk]

Let us know how it goes. I have an express slot on mine too. Haven't used it yet.

 

[Astroboy907]

I was wondering the same exact thing! Looking for an answer!

Sorry for the delay, shipping took a bit and I have been gone and laptopless.

Basically, I got this card (Brand GMYLE) on Amazon for $10 total (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846)

Obviously it probably wouldn't work on mac... but i tried. Once I got the card I tried installing some drivers (caldigit, LaCie, etc), and none worked. On a whim tried Oyendigital drivers (their card is similar, and I based off of a comment on amazon that it worked with some issues)

Tried my 1 USB3 drive on USB2 using blackmagic disk speed test (MAS), got around ~30mB/s Read/Write

Tried it in expresscard and got ~40mB/s read and write in the beginning, but it was jumping around to ~100+ mB/s read and WRITE. True indeed, my drive is faster- I am very happy that it works ATM

Pros:
Supports USB3 AND USB2 devices
FAST- ~100 mb/s WRITE
Hot Swappable (Works perfectly, BTW)
Flush with laptop

Cons:
Gets a bit warm in slot, but ok by me
Ports are a bit close, and card is a bit easily pulled out by pulling device plug.
Does NOT support USB3 power specs (gets ~600ma total, rather than ~900ma per port)
Cannot support 2 powered (eg external portable hard drive) devices at once, but it can do 1 at a time (< havn't tested this yet.., but highly probable)
Due to bus speed might not hit full USB3 speeds, but pretty close. Need to find a USB3 SSD drive to truly test speed.


So YES, even without 10.8 ML, you can get USB3 on your mac (I am even happy just to get 2 more USB2 ports

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Let us know how it goes. I have an express slot on mine too. Haven't used it yet.

See above comment.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

([url]http://www.amazon.com/ExpressCard-34...b3+expresscard[/url])

Your link is incomplete.

 

[Astroboy907]

Your link is incomplete.

Fixed, thanks