ExpressCard USB bus?

[donbenjy]

Right, the expresscard slot in the MBP connects via the USB bus yes? If so, what's the point in getting say, a firewire card, because it will have a max transfer speed of 480mbps? I was also think about getting a 16 or 32gb ssd with the possibility of booting leopard and launching apps from it, but surely that would suffer from the same problems instead of giving me 3gbps?

 

[Eidorian]

It depends on the card you're using. It has the option of using a PCI-Express x1 link or a USB 2.0 one.

The FireWire Expresscard is going to use the x1 link.

 

[donbenjy]

oh is see! That's cool. I think the current ssd drives that I've looked at used the USB one, and I assumed in the review that it was due to the MBP limitations, rather than the card.

thanks

 

[Eidorian]

It's going to take some research to find a SSD drive that works over the PCI-Express x1 link instead of over USB 2.0. 😉

250 MB/s (2,000 Mb/s) vs. 480 Mb/s