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What can I plug in the Express Card slot?

I

iñaki'sonMac'87

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 6, 2006
124
0
Barcelona
I just get my MBP 15" (don't you just love it?:p ) and I wonder what can I do with the express card slot.
I don't use much of graphic or pro photo sw, mainly I use it to process big chunk of data with Mathematica4.0 (best software ever to math & physis & statistics)
so I have a slot which seems useless, can somebody help me? what is the best option to use it?

thank a lot!
 
iñaki'sonMac'87 said:
I just get my MBP 15" (don't you just love it?:p ) and I wonder what can I do with the express card slot.
I don't use much of graphic or pro photo sw, mainly I use it to process big chunk of data with Mathematica4.0 (best software ever to math & physis & statistics)
so I have a slot which seems useless, can somebody help me? what is the best option to use it?

thank a lot!
Click to expand...

ExpressCard is replacing PCMCIA as the plug-in peripheral standard for laptops. Currently there are ExpressCard/34 cards that add Firewire 800, extra USB 2.0 ports or Firewire 400 ports. Upcoming devices include modems for wireless broadband internet, TV tuners, basically anything you could get in PCMCIA is moving over to ExpressCard/34 now that more PC laptop makers are getting behind the standard. Apple was the first with the technology and now it's all over the place - the peripherals are coming.
 
There are many options. I know there are several expansion options for digital connections such as FW800, FW400 and USB 2.0.

There are also some cards with Dual Gbit Ethernet for ExpressCard. I don't know about video/audio cards, but might be worth to do some research.;)
 
the single reason i am still using a powerboook and not a MBP is the expresscardslot.....RME have declined the chance to adopt the Expresscard for the soundcards they make, which are the best on the market. They will also NOT be making an adaptor to fit it..:mad:

they say they may adopt it in the future, but they said it will cost them a lot of money and they are not convinced that it is going to be as big as apple hope it will be...it certainly seems a lot slower than say firewire....

we shall see....
 
Chundles, there are many options for FireWire and USB expansions with Expresscard/34. Here is a dual FW800 card which supports the MacBook Pro.

BTW, will Expresscard/54 cards fit in 34 mm slots?

EDIT: Here's an entire site with expansion cards for the 34 mm slot. (FW400, FW800 and USB 2.0).
 
Thanks for the quick answer!!!

well, I guess that a fast FW 800 for a scanner or better net conections worth it

But, what wierd gadget you know that I can put in that slot? I'm just curious :p a mind controller or something really wierd :D
 
Josias said:
Chundles, there are many options for FireWire and USB expansions with Expresscard/34. Here is a dual FW800 card which supports the MacBook Pro.

BTW, will Expresscard/54 cards fit in 34 mm slots?

EDIT: Here's an entire site with expansion cards for the 34 mm slot. (FW400, FW800 and USB 2.0).
Click to expand...

Thank a lot, this list will prove to be useful... thank again!:)
 
I dont believe apple were the first to use the slot, infact, there are many manufacturers using it now.

pcmcia is dead, and will be completely replaced with express card
 
ExpressCard Products

Let me say all the posts here are great reading, a great source of information.
I have just bought a Laptop HDD & Small enclosure, its SATA so the USB cable has 2 connectors one for data one to power the drive.
I have a MacBook Pro 15" it has one USB on each side, so getting the 2 plugged in is impossible without a powered usb hub.
Is there an Express Card with more than 1 USB slot on it???

Thanks

Crashman
 
ExpressCard transfer speeds are better than any other port on the MBP, correct?

Any chance a company has made/will make essentially a docking station via the expresscard slot?
 
crashman said:
Let me say all the posts here are great reading, a great source of information.
I have just bought a Laptop HDD & Small enclosure, its SATA so the USB cable has 2 connectors one for data one to power the drive.
I have a MacBook Pro 15" it has one USB on each side, so getting the 2 plugged in is impossible without a powered usb hub.
Is there an Express Card with more than 1 USB slot on it???

Thanks

Crashman
Click to expand...

Have you tried the drive with just one USB plug in use? I have such a drive, and it works for me.

Also, note that (AFAIK), ExpressCard cannot provide powered USB ports, meaning that it would be of little use to you. Someone correct me if I'm wrong there, though.
 
Chundles said:
Apple was the first with the technology and now it's all over the place - the peripherals are coming.
Click to expand...

I know we think Apple is the first and best at everything, but please acknowledge that this is not always the case! I know this thread is kind of old... but the misinformation was never corrected :)

"Hewlett-Packard began shipping systems with ExpressCard in November of 2004, [1] and Lenovo integrated the slot into their flagship ThinkPad T43 in May 2005. [2] Dell Computer also incorporates this in their Precision (the 17" models have them exclusively, the 15" Precisions have both express card and PCMCIA Card slots), Inspiron, Latitude (Latitude D-series have PCMCIA card slots. The D820/D830 have both express card and PCMCIA card slots), Vostro and XPS Laptop product lines. Fujitsu-Siemens began shipping systems [3] with ExpressCard in mid 2005. Apple Inc. included a single ExpressCard/34 slot in their MacBook Pro notebook computer in January 2006." Wikipedia

Cheers!
 
screensaver400 said:
Have you tried the drive with just one USB plug in use? I have such a drive, and it works for me.

Also, note that (AFAIK), ExpressCard cannot provide powered USB ports, meaning that it would be of little use to you. Someone correct me if I'm wrong there, though.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply's, yeh, the thread is an oldie, but as there are many more Laptops with the slot, it is newer than we all think.
I have tried just one & it will not fire up. I have just swapped it with an IDE version & that worked with just one connection. If its right and the card needs power too, then Ill go back to the usb hub. Esata is another option too.
Thanks
 
Hi guys,

I've got the first gen MBP, the one without FW800, Is it worth getting a a express card so that I can use eSATA or FW800? I use to have a card reader for my old PB. Downloading from a PCMCIA compact flash reader was way slower than my FW card reader. I am just wondering if the new express cards are fast?
 
Alte22a said:
Hi guys,

I've got the first gen MBP, the one without FW800, Is it worth getting a a express card so that I can use eSATA or FW800? I use to have a card reader for my old PB. Downloading from a PCMCIA compact flash reader was way slower than my FW card reader. I am just wondering if the new express cards are fast?
Click to expand...
Express Cards are way faster than PCMCIA cards.
 
Cybix said:
I dont believe apple were the first to use the slot, infact, there are many manufacturers using it now.

pcmcia is dead, and will be completely replaced with express card
Click to expand...

Well, I sure thought it was dead too. Why does it persist even 18 months after this post? It makes life difficult to have PCMCIA on my work Dell and Express34 on my MBP. Someone needs to shoot PCMCIA and put it out of our misery.
 
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