Thinkpads Forum

Hello:

I have a Buffalo USB3 ExpressCard that I bought a year ago just to get 2 more USB ports on my T60p with USB2 external devices.
Will I get USB3 speed with USB3 external devices?

Thanks

Why don't you try it out, since you got the card already?

I guess the question is what is the speed of the express card bus? It is is less than usb3 speed, you dont even need to ask.
If it is more, well, this doesnt mean you will get usb 3 speeds, but at least there is a chance.

I seem to think that the ExpressCard in the T60 is PCI-E 1x, which is 2.5Gb/s theoretical, but I don't remember whether I saw a confirmation of this. In theory it can be that the ExpressCard is USB2 (which would be really stupid), but I don't think it's the case - since it doesn't show up as a USB device in USBView. I do think it's connected directly to the PCI-E bus, so you should be OK.

Belated thanks for the information.

I have been traveling for a while and forgot about my post.

Actually, hold that thought... I am not 100% certain now.

The ExpressCard does not show up in USBView, but as soon as I connected the Sandisk ExpressCard adapter to it, the adapter itself does come up as a USB device under the ICH7 controller. So it means that the ExpressCard is connected to the USB controller.

However, the Ltwbook states:

"One ExpressCard/34 or ExpressCard/54 / PCI Express x1 or USB 2.0 / integrated door"

So does it mean that the slot is actually wired to both PCIe and USB, and each individual device can take advantage of either one? That's what I would deduce from it. But I cannot be sure.

Do you have that Buffalo UBS3 card connected to your machine? Does it appear in the Device Manager? If so, try to choose View -> Devices by Connection and see if it appears anywhere under the PCI bus.

dr_st wrote:Do you have that Buffalo UBS3 card connected to your machine? Does it appear in the Device Manager? If so, try to choose View -> Devices by Connection and see if it appears anywhere under the PCI bus.

Hi. Not the OP and I don't have a Buffalo USB3 card, rather a Fresco Logic FL1000, in a T60 and am just boning up on it.

I did as you suggested and the card is connected to the PCI Express Root Port - 27D4. That's a relief.

However it's not as fast as I expected and have been reading your other thread about power management of PCIe root ports. Alas, all that sort of thing's a a little over my head.

I might have to resort to leaving the card out of the T60 until I want to use it - something I didn't want to do as the whole Expresscard mechanism is a little too frail for repeated plugging / unplugging I feel.

Cheers,

I haven't encountered any power management issues with the Fresco Logic FL1000, and I found that leaving it in all the time or unplugging and replugging has no effect on performance.

However, it does seem to be not as fast as some of the other adapters.

dr_st wrote:I haven't encountered any power management issues with the Fresco Logic FL1000, and I found that leaving it in all the time or unplugging and replugging has no effect on performance.

However, it does seem to be not as fast as some of the other adapters.

Thank you kindly for the reply dr_st - I appreciate it.

From what I since read in your 'Flush-Mount Laptop Adapters Part 2' in fact the FL1000 might be the best controller to use in my case, as my T60 [32-bit XP] only has PCIe Gen 1? (Granted I got called away and didn't get to read to the end yet.)

(Aside, I'm having a *really* vexing memory issue with this T60 that I must get around to writing up in case someone here knows what's going on. A search of the forum turned up nothing similar.)

Best regards,

dr_st wrote:I haven't encountered any power management issues with the Fresco Logic FL1000, and I found that leaving it in all the time or unplugging and replugging has no effect on performance.

However, it does seem to be not as fast as some of the other adapters.

Oh **expletive removed by poster**! I forgot about the power management issues you mentioned with the uPD720202 controller in your 'Flush Mount' thread!

I just saw one of those AKE Expresscards for sale and am constantly annoyed by the FL1000 card sticking a few mm out of my T60 so ordered the AKE.

Will I have to try to sort out ASPM work-arounds now?

Cheers,

Possibly. You never know until you try. But my experience with T60 was that it will work even without any workarounds. May not get the best performance, but it will work.

dr_st wrote:Possibly. You never know until you try. But my experience with T60 was that it will work even without any workarounds. May not get the best performance, but it will work.

Ok, thanks for the reply. I guess that I will see when it gets here (on a slow boat from China...). The trouble is that I'm running XP and it doesn't tell you transfer speeds like W7 does.

(Also need to learn to shut my mouth when giving advice about the shallow T60 Expresscard slot - and which flush-fit USB 3 card will be best for it with XP - until I actually know.)

Cheers,