PCMCIA vs Expresscard, including CompactFlash speed

[tpribors]

I use a PCMCIA Compact Flash adapter to get pictures from my Nikon D100 and as a backup target for some small but valuable files as a HDD safety net.

It feels like the PCMCIA slot on my T60 is noticibly slower than my T23. Backups seem to take noticibly longer. Has anyone else noticed this? Has PCMCIA been throttled? Are these natively attached or are they bridged internally through USB?

I leave the card adapter in all the time and the other thing I noticed is that the CF slot is in the bottom position, and the spring-loaded cover is always fully down, leaving the ExpressCard slot exposed all the time.

Does anyone know of a CompactFlash to ExpressCard adapter? Searches of the major places have come up to the null set.

Thanks!
Tony

[southy]

I would also be interested to know if there's an Express <-> Compact Flash Adapter.

As I switch from an X20 (with CF built-in) to a T60 I will need this adaptor from now on, so I have to buy one. And as I've got a 1 GB Card and take _lots_ of pictures, I do want the fastest possible solution.

Any idea what that would be?
PCMCIA? Express Card? USB?

Any help apreciated,

southy

[RonS]

The T60's PCMCIA interface is CardBus compliant and very fast. I just benchmarked it with a LaCie Extreme 912 over a PCMCIA FireWire800 card and got 65.5MB/sec sustained over all block sizes. My T42p got around 64 MB/sec and my Dell Inspiron 8600 gets around 14 MB/sec.

For compairson, the T60p's internal 7K100 drive benchmarks at an avg speed of 42 MB/sec.

The Express slot may be faster yet (probably so), but the PCMCIA is pretty darn fast.

[southy]

WowWow, so, as I will have the 5.400-drive and not the 7.100, the cardbus will max out the HDD. Gee, I certainly didn't expect _that_!

Any recommendations on a specific CompactFlash Adaptor that can really bring that speed, anyone? Or are they all as fast as the CF-card / the CardBus will allow?

southy, looking forward to get the T60 from the dealer tomorrow.

P.S. if I remember correctly, it takes about ~under 5 min to copy the ~1 GB of my fastest card onto a X20.

[Scratch]

Take a look here:

http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/cons_wtb.jsp

[dxben]

Are there any storage options that use ExpressCard and are they bootable?

I really would prefer to have a portable storage card that is inside the laptop, vs. a usb card that sticks out and is prone to be snapped off. Problem is i need to boot off the drive which is not possible with PCMCIA..

[Stefan Bruckel]

Just for what it's worth, I used a Delkin 32 Card Bus Adapter to get the fastest download speed from CF cards (like the D100 uses) in the past.

I recently switched to a San Disk USB 2 card reader (the one that reads various formats) and I find the speed comparable, if not faster.

I dowloaded 1 gig several times this weekend using that USB 2 reader and it certainly took far less than 5 min for 1 gig... maybe something like 1 min per gig.