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Express Card Slot versus Media Card Slot

post #1 of 5
5/7/08 at 1:43pm
Thread Starter 
What is the difference between:

PC Card & Express Card Slots
PC Card & Media Card Slots

Media probably means SD card, CF card etc... What is an express card slot?
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post #2 of 5
5/7/08 at 2:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bowmah View Post
What is the difference between:

PC Card & Express Card Slots
PC Card & Media Card Slots

Media probably means SD card, CF card etc... What is an express card slot?
The ExpressCard specification is the new faster and more capable replacement for the aged PC Card specification.

Both aforementioned card slot options include a PC Card slot (that accepts both 16- and 32-bit variants). The difference lies in the ExpressCard slot or Media Card slot.

The Media Card slot option itself *is* an media reader ExpressCard that's permanently installed in the ExpressCard slot. All it can do is read flash memory cards and nothing else.

The ExpressCard slot option OTOH is a fully featured slot that accepts both ExpressCard/34 and ExpressCard/54 variants meaning that you can pop in a media reader Expresscard, a Firewire ExpressCard, an eSATA ExpressCard, USB2.0 ExpressCard, etc. It can do so much more than just read flash memory cards.

So between the two choices, the 'PC Card & ExpressCard slots' option makes infinitely more sense.
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post #3 of 5
5/7/08 at 3:04pm
Thread Starter 
I see. So you can purchase other express card adapters depending on what you want to add to the notebook. Got it.

I have never used the PC Card slot on my current notebook. What would one put in here?
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post #4 of 5
5/7/08 at 3:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bowmah View Post
I see. So you can purchase other express card adapters depending on what you want to add to the notebook. Got it.

I have never used the PC Card slot on my current notebook. What would one put in here?
Any one of the many PC Cards available which include a similar assortment of multi-funcion cards that the ExpressCard slot supports. ExpressCard wins out in terms of maximum speed (using the PCI-Express bus) and the newest interface standards. For instance, many PC Card media readers that accept SD flash memory can't read the newer SDHC 4GB+ flash memory cards while the majority of ExpressCard readers can.

The PC Card slot is there for legacy use only. Figure that on upcoming laptops, PC Card slots will no longer be featured at all--just like serial and parallel ports as well as floppy drives which are no longer featured on new laptops these days.
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post #5 of 5
5/7/08 at 7:46pm
Thread Starter 
I see. And if there are no plans to purchase an Express Card (since the unit already has USB, firewire etc...), then one might as well get the Media Card reader then.
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