Fast card reader for Macbook Pro 17

Hi,

I have a Macbook Pro 17. What is the best way to add a card reader? The Expresscard slot looks handy, but is it fast? Would firewire or USB be better?

I'm looking for a reader for both SD and CF cards - or should I get 2 instead of a multi one?

I guess I can get an SD card reader that fits flush inside, but not so for CF.

Thanks.

--
Lost in the void between the concept and the execution.

Dazed and Confused said:

I have a Macbook Pro 17. What is the best way to add a card reader? The Expresscard slot looks handy, but is it fast?

Click to expand...

Depends on how the vendor uses it. I believe an ExpressCard slot has both a bus connection and a USB 2.0 one. A lot of ExpressCard card readers use the USB 2.0 one, which means they're limited to USB 2.0 speeds.

Dazed and Confused said:

Would firewire or USB be better?

Click to expand...

If you have very fast cards, and lots of data to move, FireWire or USB 3.0 may be better. (I've only ever seen FireWire readers for CF cards.)

Lexar Professional ExpressCard CompactFlash Reader
Reads UDMA CF & CF Cards
Connects to the PCIe Bus Interface
Extra-Deep Card Slot f/ Card Protection
Uses UDMA 6 f/ Transfers Up to 133MB/s
B&H # LECFXCR
Mfr# LRWEXPPRBNA

Price: $33.24

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/683415-REG/Lexar_LRWEXPPRBNA_Professional_ExpressCard_CompactFlash_Reader.html

Thanks - I'll see if I can find one in the UK. (Shouldn't be too hard.)

Do you know of any SD card readers that also use the PCIe bus, and ideally fit inside the slot (so no edges to catch)? I've used Google shopping, but they seem to be a bit short on detail, so I'm concerned they're USB 2.0.

Thanks!

--
Lost in the void between the concept and the execution.

Dazed and Confused said:

Do you know of any SD card readers that also use the PCIe bus

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No. Whenever I saw specs, they were things like "up to 480 Mbps" that suggested USB 2.0. But at the time, I wasn't doing an exhaustive search for the fastest possible SD card reader; just checking if any SD card reader made use of the ExpressCard slot.

Dazed and Confused said:

and ideally fit inside the slot (so no edges to catch)?

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That, you can supposedly get. For instance,

http://www.amazon.com/Multimedia-Reader-writer-Expresscard-34SLOT/dp/B000ZH7J9S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1302113146&sr=8-1

Note that even if an adapter fits inside the slot; an inserted SD card might still protrude.

Is USB 2.0 slow?

Would I be better off witha firewire one? (Losing the convenience of it being internal, abviously.)

Regarding an internal one - I don't mind if the SD card sticks out, I just want the reader not to, as I can then leave it in all the time. I think the Macbook Pro 17 should have the SD card reader like the 15 and 13, as well as the PCe slot. There's plenty of room.

--
Lost in the void between the concept and the execution.

USB 2.0 is marginally slower than FW800. It's only noticable if you are pulling some serious gigs off your card. The best USB SD/CF cardreader is probably the:

Lexar Professional UDMA Dual-Slot USB Reader.
Reads UDMA CF, CF, SDHC & SD Cards
USB 2.0 Interface
High-speed File Transfer
Folds Closed
$31.95

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/537132-REG/Lexar_RW035_001_Professional_UDMA_Dual_Slot_USB.html

FW external readers are much harder to find, as most have been discontinued.

scarycall said:

USB 2.0 is marginally slower than FW800. It's only noticable if you are pulling some serious gigs off your card. The best USB SD/CF cardreader is probably the:

Click to expand...

USB 2.0 is typically slower than FireWire 400 (depending on the particular hardware, since some Macs don't do USB 2.0 very well), but USB 2.0 should be significantly slower than FireWire 800, since the spec for FireWire 800 (800 megabits per second) has a theoretical throughput limit twice that of USB 2.0 (480 megabits per second).

Another vote for the Lexar ExpresCard reader. Quick search reveals that you can get in on UK Amazon for 17 pounds.

Btw. robgalbraith.com has section dedicated to card and reader performance including ExpressCard and FW800 readers.

Can't answer for the slot-in card option, only having a MacBook here.

However, you might be really lucky to find a FW card reader - can't say I ever found one.

To offer some info about USB. I did some benchmark tests a little while back, between FW400, FW800 and USB 2 at 480Mbps.

USB 2.0 is considerably slower than FW400 for large amounts of data transfer - even a few hundred MB is noticeable. Mine, and most other tests, do show that you may only get 20MB/s. FW400 got nearer to 40MB/s, and FW800 was over 70MB/s. I also tried a RAID-0 array on FW800 and got 130MB/s.

As mentioned the Mac USB 2.0 implementation is not very efficient. Also note that some hubs switch the entire system down to USB 1.1 speeds if a USB 1.1 device is active.

However, all said and done, how fast does it need to be?

I'm using a Sony Multi-Card reader I got from Amazon, and that works reliably and fast. A couple of GB of photos is imported within a minute or so.

--
Andy Hewitt

Andy Hewitt said:

However, all said and done, how fast does it need to be?

I'm using a Sony Multi-Card reader I got from Amazon, and that works reliably and fast. A couple of GB of photos is imported within a minute or so.

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It's a good question since the fastest card readers cost quite a bit more than the slowest. If someone does shoots of only a few GB each, a USB 2.0 reader is fine. But I've been buying 8GB and 16GB cards and it makes me love my FireWire reader more and more.

It's been a long time since I was happy with USB speeds, starting with USB hard drives no longer being acceptable. When you really sit down and look at it, USB 2.0 is the slowest wired interface on a modern computer (yes, even the Gigabit Ethernet port is faster), and photographers are rarely interested in the slowest anything.

graybalanced said:

Andy Hewitt said:

However, all said and done, how fast does it need to be?

I'm using a Sony Multi-Card reader I got from Amazon, and that works reliably and fast. A couple of GB of photos is imported within a minute or so.

Click to expand...

It's a good question since the fastest card readers cost quite a bit more than the slowest. If someone does shoots of only a few GB each, a USB 2.0 reader is fine. But I've been buying 8GB and 16GB cards and it makes me love my FireWire reader more and more.

Click to expand...

I'd think at 16GB, then FW really starts to show its advantage. For a Pro that needs to offload images in a hurry, it's quite understandable they'd need it to be fast. For an amateur, it's just a matter of convenience. You need to weigh up the cost vs gain equation.

graybalanced said:

It's been a long time since I was happy with USB speeds, starting with USB hard drives no longer being acceptable. When you really sit down and look at it, USB 2.0 is the slowest wired interface on a modern computer (yes, even the Gigabit Ethernet port is faster), and photographers are rarely interested in the slowest anything.

Click to expand...

Well, quite possibly. The differences, as I understand it, is that Ethernet and Firewire are both proper hardware driven interfaces, and allow full two way data flow. USB is software driven, two way data flow doesn't work as well - I think this also had some overheads which also degrades the transfer speed.

USB drives are OK in the right place. I use one as my Time Machine drive, as it only runs for a few seconds once an hour, and it doesn't affect my use of the system in any way. I also use a couple for Vaults, which again, get run occasionally, and don't really matter if they're a bit slow.

--
Andy Hewitt