My Dell Precision M90 also has a SD slot. I don't really get the point. I just replaced a 17 MBP with the 15 uMBP. I'd rather have the ExpressCard slot. Now I have to buy a CF reader to replace the fast ExpressCard one I was using.
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Poll: 15" MBP - SD Card Slot or Third USB Port?
- Thread starter groove-agent
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Some of us use our MacBooks for music production...mouse, keyboard, external Firewire soundcard. Now we are stuck cause we cannot use any fast external HD for recording such as E-SATA or Firewire. Daisychaining Firewire devices while recording audio is asking for trouble.
TheBritishBloke
macrumors 68030
From what I've seen, they're generally in older models, and I've seen a few that actually have a slot compatible for both so 😛
My main reason for considering an upgrade is the card slot.
I perform music live and am destroying my hard drive ever so slowly.
I currently play on a MBP 2.4 but am thinking about moving to the new 13'' 2.17.
I think, and don't know for sure as I am still researching it, that if I ran my OS and audio host app. from the internal drive and then run all my content (.wav files into Ableton Live)from a "High speed " SD card I may have a lot less trouble....drop outs, etc...
Anyone know how these cards stack up? Is it similar to the read/Write of a Solid State Drive?.....I'm guessing Blazzing Fast No?
Thx
I perform music live and am destroying my hard drive ever so slowly.
I currently play on a MBP 2.4 but am thinking about moving to the new 13'' 2.17.
I think, and don't know for sure as I am still researching it, that if I ran my OS and audio host app. from the internal drive and then run all my content (.wav files into Ableton Live)from a "High speed " SD card I may have a lot less trouble....drop outs, etc...
Anyone know how these cards stack up? Is it similar to the read/Write of a Solid State Drive?.....I'm guessing Blazzing Fast No?
Thx
It's not just that: Apple is cramming a lot of ports into a smaller footprint. It seems to me like people are looking at thick brick-style laptops, and wondering why Apple can't shove all those ports in a case that just doesn't have the room.
Is this form over function? A little bit, sure. But which laptop would you rather carry around? If you're ready to say the Dell, because it has more ports, which laptop do you own?
You know what would stop a lot of these complaints? A darn dock for thge macbook pro line with extra ports. I have never understood why they stopped making docking stations.
Oh, and for the record, I don't need the slot or an extra USB port. I've never used the SD card slot, PCMCIA card slot, or whatever else Apple has installed in their laptops over the years.
In response to the previous post, SD cards are a whole lot slower than SSDs. you might get 20MB/sec out of an SD card, while you will get 250MB/sec out of a good SSD. The SD card reader runs off the USB bus, so it is limited to 25-30MB/s because of that.
I would rather have an expresscard slot back. I don't need more than 2 USB ports because if I'm at my desk, I plug in a hub for just about everything, and plug in my EyeTV tuner directly since it is speed-critical. If I'm on the go, I never have more than 2 things plugged in at once. I might have my ipod, a hard drive, a flash drive, or an SD card reader (I have a multibody MBP with no built in SD slot).
The expresscard slot has a USB interface inside it, so a USB card could be used to add more USB ports. It is also the fastest connection for an external hard drive, since USB2 is terribly outdated, and even Firewire 800 can't keep up with newer disks.
Alternatively, I would be happy with a combo eSATA/USB port. It wouldn't increase the number of ports (Steve wouldn't want that), and it won't take up as much space as the expresscard slot, and it will let me hook up an eSATA drive without random kernel panics. Maybe if they move away from Nvidia chipsets there will be an extra SATA bus to make a combo eSATA port.
Of course, USB3, Light Peak, or Firewire 3000 would also be acceptable, but they are all still in development for the most part (and I think FW300 won't make it this time).
A dock would be great. They could make it magnetic! Also, I never use the CD drive, so they could replace that with ports, another hard drive, or a bigger battery.
I would rather have an expresscard slot back. I don't need more than 2 USB ports because if I'm at my desk, I plug in a hub for just about everything, and plug in my EyeTV tuner directly since it is speed-critical. If I'm on the go, I never have more than 2 things plugged in at once. I might have my ipod, a hard drive, a flash drive, or an SD card reader (I have a multibody MBP with no built in SD slot).
The expresscard slot has a USB interface inside it, so a USB card could be used to add more USB ports. It is also the fastest connection for an external hard drive, since USB2 is terribly outdated, and even Firewire 800 can't keep up with newer disks.
Alternatively, I would be happy with a combo eSATA/USB port. It wouldn't increase the number of ports (Steve wouldn't want that), and it won't take up as much space as the expresscard slot, and it will let me hook up an eSATA drive without random kernel panics. Maybe if they move away from Nvidia chipsets there will be an extra SATA bus to make a combo eSATA port.
Of course, USB3, Light Peak, or Firewire 3000 would also be acceptable, but they are all still in development for the most part (and I think FW300 won't make it this time).
A dock would be great. They could make it magnetic! Also, I never use the CD drive, so they could replace that with ports, another hard drive, or a bigger battery.
Wrong, Dell SXPS doesn't have any ports in the back.
My XPS M1530 has Expresscard54, Firewire, 3 USB, Ethernet, HDMI, VGA, Svideo, wifi/bt/wwan switch on sides and 6-in-1 card reader, IR and 3 audio ports on the front.
I love not having to carry any dongles with me. With Apple, you always have to carry a dongle (especially with that mini DP crap) if you want to connect to an external monitor or projector.
an expresscard slot would be nice, it would offer flexibility in terms of device usage. i.e. CF card readers, USB, etc. It would also allow future upgrades to be installed i.e. usb 3.0.
I stuck using my firewire 800 CF card reader 😀
I stuck using my firewire 800 CF card reader 😀
i like the way the MBPs are right now why change anything, you paid for what you get. quit complaining or go buy a different laptop
thejadedmonkey
macrumors G3
No, I want e-Sata, express card, USB, Firewire 400, Blu-ray, and a matte screen on my 13" computer 🙂
I have a Magic Mouse and Apple BT Keyboard, so both my USB ports go to my syncing cable and printer. I use my printer as a card reader since it has a MS-Pro slot.
It was not in my plans to get a laptop, but I rushed to buy an early 2009 MBP on closeout to future-proof against the lack of ExpressCard and removable battery.
Express Card 34 > USB > SD
What I don't get is why they couldn't put an Express Card 54 on the 17" MBP
What I don't get is why they couldn't put an Express Card 54 on the 17" MBP
OldMike
macrumors 6502a
I actually don't mind the SD card slot. I like the fact that SD cards are pretty cheap, and that I can boot off of them. One aspect that I like, is that I can back up my most important install DVDs onto SD cards, and boot and install from it. When a new version comes out, I can just re-write over the old one. I have USB thumb drives that can do the same thing, but I prefer the smaller size of the SD cards. Installing software off of the SD card is a lot faster than installing off of the DVD drive.
Sure, other ports might be better, but I find the SD card slot pretty useful. I also have several cameras that use SD cards (plenty of extra 8 GB and 16 GB SD cards lying around), so that doesn't hurt either.
Sure, other ports might be better, but I find the SD card slot pretty useful. I also have several cameras that use SD cards (plenty of extra 8 GB and 16 GB SD cards lying around), so that doesn't hurt either.
Express Card is the way to go! Express 2.0 (5 Gbps top theorical speed) is even better! Apple, do you want to give consumers cheap SD capability out of the box? Just include an Express Card card reader adapter that doesn't stick out of the Mac and you're done! It's worth less than $10! We want the Express Card back!
Cliff3
macrumors 68000
Most professional level DSLRs use CF cards (Nikon D300 and up, Canon 40D/50D/7D and up). My D700 uses CF cards. Consumer level cameras, SLR and otherwise, generally use SD.
Back to the topic, I have little use for the SD slot and not much more use for an ExpressCard slot. I used to occasionally use the Expresscard slot to connect to eSATA drives, but it has probably been more than a year since I last did that. It was a hassle connecting my laptop up to too much stuff - it made it less than portable when I had to disconnect everything again.
I use a Sandisk FW800 CF card reader to transfer photos to my laptop if I need my laptop to support my photography in the field. That same reader can be plugged into one of the existing FW connectors on my Mac Pro. According to the benchmarks I have seen, it's somewhat faster than a Delkin ExpressCard 34 CF card reader. It's fast, it's reliable, I don't need to install drivers to make it work, and I only need to buy one.
CNet reviews have been complaining about the lack of a card reader in Apple laptops forever, and I imagine their readers have picked up on that complaint. I would guess the product feature was mostly driven by that.
Edit: To answer the poll, neither an SD card slot, nor a 3rd USB port excites me much (nor would the reappearance of an ExpressCard slot). A CF card slot working at PCIe bus speeds would be a really nice 'pro' feature, but I imagine the majority of Apple's customers are using SD size cards and there isn't room for a second card slot (and those of us who use CF cards have already found a satisfactory solution).