Best PCMCIA cardbus firewire/USB 2.0 combo card?

[killabee44]

Hi all,

From what I have heard, my T22's USB port is a USB 1.1 port. I have some hardware that requires a USB 2.0 port in order to run properly.

I am also in need of a firewire port, so a combo PCMCIA card that has usb/firewire looks to be ideal. I will be running music apps on it so the music cannot skip at all. The USB 2.0 will run a pro soundcard and the Firewire will run an external hardrive.

I have a few questions though.

Will this card make my T22 work EXTREMELY (too) hard, which could make the music skip?

Is the PCMCIA slot on the T22 32 bit? or do I have to enable something to make it 32 bit?

Will running both a Firewire hardrive AND a USB sound card be too much for the PCMCIA slot?

Thanks for your input.


Regards,
Robert

[JonathanW]

Robert,

I use a couple of Adaptec's 1411 DuoConnect cards which have two USB2.0 ports and 1 firewire. I use them with my X22 and T21 very successfully. The one drawback is that the card itself is double height so if you have two PCMCIA slots, one is going to be inaccessible.

I must admit, as a musician myself I am wondering if the T22 will be up to the challenges that modern music software thows at it - if you mainly use midi and a few tracks of audio I think you'll be fine but if you are heavily into VST instruments and effects I reckon the T22 will struggle.

If you are interested in the 1411:

http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/produc ... ombo+Cards

Jonathan

[johnson]

Cant answer your USB2.0 question but I got a IBM firewire card last week and use it for an external hard drive (also a external dvd writer later on). When transfering 20GB files from my internal drive to the external drive, my processor never reached full speed. It stayed around 500mhz and I could still use the computer but tried not to do anything intensive. Im not sure if thats just the way it is but one of the main reasons why I got firewire instead of USB2.0 was the low cpu utilization and the other was the faster transfer speeds (maybe because of the cpu utilization).

The reason I got this particular card was that it stayed flush with the laptop. It doesnt stick out like the ones with the 6 pin connector. A downside is that it doesnt provide any power so I need to buy a 5v DC adapter or plug in both my USB cables for my external 2.5" hard drive.
http://justanotherdot.com/ibm1394.jpg

My system specs is in my sig.

[killabee44]

Thanks for your replies guys..

Ok, I am still not sure about the USB port that is integrated in the T22 (whether it is USB1.1 or 2.0?). If anyone could answer that question, that would be great...

I appreciate all the good info. Jonathan, I am a mobile DJ and just picked up a club gig. Using this laptop will enable me to not have to carry so much heavy stuff (since I use a rackmount for my main rig).

Hopefully the T22 can handle the stress that I will be putting on it. The music program I will be using will be runing under ASIO drivers, so it will be less CPU intensive.

The only thing I am worried about is the fact that since I will be using both the firewire and USB ports at the same time from that PCMCIA card, the 32bit cardbus might have trouble.

Johnathan, also, did you have to enable anything on your T22 to make the cardbus 32 bit or was it that way by default?

Thanks for your help.


Robert

[JonathanW]

I'm afraid the USB port is 1.1 Robert so you definately need that PCMCIA card. The good news though is that the cardbus is 32 bit!

What software will you be using?

Jonathan

[killabee44]

Virtual DJ. (www.virtualdj.com). I have used PCDJ and others but like this one best. Thanks for the USB info.


Robert