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Who's buying (or bought) the new 17" MBP for the ExpressCard/34?

T

tommyknockrs

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 15, 2010
25
0
I was wondering if there are people out there buying or bought the 17" Macbook Pro for the ExpressCard/34? If so, what ExpressCard are you using and have you used it in the new MBP yet? I would like to know its performance with eSATA, firewire, and SSD expresscards. Thanks:)
 
eSata

Am I right that the only way to connect eSata to one of the new MBP's is through a card on the 17"?

Is there a way to do it on the 15" models?
 
So far as I know, the expresscard is the only way to do eSATA. I've ordered a Sonnet card -- single connector only but fits flush in the slot. No clue whether it'll work.

One of the reasons is that my old 2007 MBP has started being quirky in its old age; specifically, if I use FW to connect my backup drive, after a while all disk activity to any and all partitions freezes until I physically disconnect the drive. This started after a power outage which destroyed my previous backup drive...
 
I was going to, but price and other factors made me go for the 15". I would have liked to get the option of having a fast external drive or a 3G card in there...but I think I'll manage with my external WD FW400 harddrive and possibly get a FW800 harddrive later. Also the SD option might come to good use. Not that this post is to talk anyone out of going for the 17" because of the expresscard...I'm just not sure it's something I'd come to use much at the end of the day.
 
I am interested in finding a reasonably priced Expresscard CF adapter, but as yet the only ones I find are in the USA and are very expensive.
 
I'd rather have the little end of an SD card popping out the side than having a big converter popping out, with an sd popping out of that.
 
SPNarwhal said:
I'd rather have the little end of an SD card popping out the side than having a big converter popping out, with an sd popping out of that.
Click to expand...

Many of the cards themselves are flush with the slot. The SD card is the only thing that would stick out, identical to the MBP 13/15.

Don't take the expresscard for granted. You now have additional firewire ports (within reason), multicard reader access, broadband cards, tv tuners, graphics cards/any pci card you want, ssd, esata and usb 3.0 all at your disposal. Power users who used that on the 15" had the rug pulled from under them.
 
I did consider buying a 17" for a few minutes... but I do take the laptop on the road and 17" is a bit big.

Still wish the 15" still had Expresscard/34. My old '08 Penryn had it and I used it for a mobile broadband card, worked great. Thankfully since then I'm able to use a tethered iPhone for internet access... so the loss of the Expresscard on the new 15" isn't so bad.

I was actually thinking of buying a expresscard tv tuner too but that is not going to happen anymore. Have to buy USB now if I still want that.
 
Yeah, it seems like they are making many Expresscards that will be flush with the side laptop. I am interested if anyone has used an SSD Expresscard in the new 17"
 
SSD Expresscard boot?

I'm thinking of getting the 17" MBP. Will it be possible to boot from an SSD Expresscard?
 
I use the ExpressCard mainly for an SSD which holds my iTunes library (this way, I don't have to keep copying it from the hard drive over to an external, then back every time I reformat my computer) as well as documents and app code.


prairiefire said:
Am I right that the only way to connect eSata to one of the new MBP's is through a card on the 17"?

Is there a way to do it on the 15" models?
Click to expand...

tommyknockrs said:
I believe there is no way to use eSATA on the new 15" models
Click to expand...

Actually, there are eSATA to USB/Firewire 400-800 adapters, but it kinda defeats the purpose considering how slow USB/Firewire is compared to eSATA.

SPNarwhal said:
i wish there was an SD Card slot on the 17"

I never use Express
Click to expand...

Just get an ExpressCard card reader. In fact, the ExpressCard card readers can read more than one type of card instead of just SD (even the flush ExpressCard card readers) so it's better kinda.
 
therealseebs said:
So far as I know, the expresscard is the only way to do eSATA. I've ordered a Sonnet card -- single connector only but fits flush in the slot. No clue whether it'll work.

One of the reasons is that my old 2007 MBP has started being quirky in its old age; specifically, if I use FW to connect my backup drive, after a while all disk activity to any and all partitions freezes until I physically disconnect the drive. This started after a power outage which destroyed my previous backup drive...
Click to expand...

Which card did you order and from where? Looking to get one myself.

thanks
JohnG
 
The Sonnett TSATAII-E1P-E34 looks like a nice card. sits flush in the PC also. macsales.com (OWC) has lots of expresscard options for mac.
 
I had to get the 17 incher b/c i need/want to use a matrox mini and it needs an express card slot so that why. If it had it my way, I would have preferred the 15" fully loaded :/
 
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