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Someone please tell me the point of a Express Card slot?

W

wankey

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 24, 2005
601
296
I've had these on nearlly every laptop I've owned, and I find them to be probably the most pointless extras ever. Sure, back in 2001, you could buy a wireless express card adaptor since your current laptop doesn't have 802.11g or something but this is 2009 and I have never ever used the express card slot other than fiddle with it with my pinky.

Why doesn't Apple simply say this technology is obsolete and replace it with 2x USB slots or 1 usb and 1 firewire 400 slot? I'm sure more people will find it useful to have 1firewire 800, 3 usbs and 1 firewire 400 on their laptop rather than an express card slot.

Also, since the express card part is gone, that space can be better used for more cells in your battery or better overall cooling for the laptop.

So why is express card to important these days?
 
I know a few people who use eSATA from their MPBs for video editing - that would be tricky without the Express Card slot.
 
because those ports are pretty useful!!

you can add in lots of things
1. firewire 400 ports
2. firewire 800 ports
3. USB 2.0 ports
4. eSata
5. sound cards
6. Flash memory cards
7. other stuff i cant remember.

was seriously considering getting a flash memory card to put my OS on, until i found out how slow they were..lol
 
PCMCIA cards are obsolete, and about the only thing most people I knew used them for were WiFi adapters, like you said.

But, now that ExpressCard has replaced PCMCIA there are more options; eSATA, FW800, TV tuner cards, external memory. It's a pretty useful option to have, if you ask me.

My M1330's ExpressCard slot doubled as the remote's storage, which was pretty cool.
 
mcpryon2 said:
PCMCIA cards are obsolete, and about the only thing most people I knew used them for were WiFi adapters, like you said.

But, now that ExpressCard has replaced PCMCIA there are more options; eSATA, FW800, TV tuner cards, external memory. It's a pretty useful option to have, if you ask me.

My M1330's ExpressCard slot doubled as the remote's storage, which was pretty cool.
Click to expand...

aahhh tv tuners good one :)
 
I have a belkin SD card reader permanently fitted into mine. SDHC cards are about as common as USB thumb drives nowdays, so having a "built-in" reader helps.
 
I have read about problems with the eSATA card readers on some MBP's. I have a early 09 15" Unibody running 10.5.6. Which card will work with this unit?
 
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