StarTech 2-Port Flush ExpressCard 54mm (5Gbps) USB 3.0 Card (ECUSB3S254F)

Edit, 1/8/17, this thing is really perfect for Dell 6510 and 6410, and is the ONLY 3.0 adaptor I can find which fits them. The 'Trick' below really works. Key also is to gently remove the stick you use. It works SO FAST with a 3.0 stick even on 11 GB I almost missed the finish by blinking. The 3.0 stick I use is Kingston Green 115GB. So if you don't mind the thing sticking out, and you do the 'Trick' below you'll be happy with this. I'm going to buy another. EDIT, 7/6/15: the 34mm DOES fit in the 54mm slot with the adaptor. Trick is to PUSH (not slide) the adaptor onto the pictured 2 port 34mm thingy (which sticks out). For the Dell 6510, the adaptor fits on the RIGHT hand side. It fits even better in the PC card slot (also 54mm) of the Dell Latitude D630, with a very satisfying click. But the RENASAS driver doesn't seem to be working. Will have to read the reviews to see if anyone knows what's the right driver. EDIT, 3/13/14: Note to Dell Latitude 6510 owners: the 54mm card doesn't fit too well in Dell 6510's slot; it won't register, either, even after installing the drivers, because I suspect it doesn't actually plug in. I tried it on both my 6510s' 54mm slots, and neither one 'took'. The 6510's slot for 54mm card is a tad deeper than the 6530's, that's why. I even experimented with switching the Dell OEM brackets between the two machine models; the 6530's bracket, won't mount flush, won't lock, in the 6510. So it's not a problem with the StarTech card, but with the 6510. Still: for the 6530, the StarTech card is perfect. So if you're trying to find a 54mm for your Dell 6510, try some other brand, not StarTech's. ============================== Original 34mm external Express Card Review ============================== This part of the post is a review of the 34mm version, which sticks out the side of the machine in the picture. I don't like it as well as the 54mm version, below. Above this line, in later edits, I'll update the review. Amazon won't let me post separate reviews for these two very different Express cards. As for the 34mm, it looks exactly as pictured, and the laptop there pictured, is a Dell Latitude 6510. I have two of them. So the picture is exactly accurate. What's not accurate, are the instructions. The 34mm actually has instructions, but they are wrong, regarding what file you'd pick from the CD. Else, the instructions on how to push in the unit until you hear a click, are great. Just as with SD cards, you want to be a bit gentle here. BE SURE YOU FOLLOW the insertion instructions given (insert slowly, gently, wait for that 'click'; reverse process, to remove). On the Latitude 6510, which is a business-class machine, it works well. Stable. Key is to follow those insertion instructions. Press too hard, or remove whatever you plug into the hub too forcefully, and you'll end up removing the entire unit. I would rather have it flush like the 54mm below, but hey: this works. It's supposed to work on anything with an external 34mm Express card, all the way back to Win98. I didn't test that claim. There's no claim it will work in Win7. It does, in 32-bit (Pro). I didn't test this or the one below yet, for Linux; I refuse to learn Win8, sorry. Your computer can be on when you insert the 34mm card. Windows 7 will claim no recognition, after you first insert the card, before you run the CD to install the drivers. Ignore Windows. Insert the tiny CD. Next, the file folder you want to use for 3.0 installation, is the 'PEX' folder, which will have '3' in it somewhere. (The folder name might change, but look for that '3'.) The only file in it, is the 'Ren..' setup file; its actual name is so long, you won't know that's what it is. Just double click to run it. Takes maybe 30 seconds, and you'll see Windows 7 recognize the driver and say everything's fine. Now you have two more USB ports. Will they run at true 3.0 speed? I don't know, and don't care. I just wanted more ports. They recognized my Kingston 115GB stick just like XP did, and in the same amount of time. That's enough for me. Yell at me if you want me to say more. ============================================ Original 54mm external Express Card review ============================================ I bought the 54mm for my Express Card slot on my Dell Latitude 6530s; they have Windows 7 Pro 32-bit. That slot is on the right, if you have that laptop. Slides right in, good connection. HOWEVER, the instructions are ZERO. There is a CD, but there's no way you can tell that there are any setup files on it. I had to guess what to do, looked at the CD and didn't find any 'setup.exe'. So, taking a chance AFTER plugging in the card (and then booting the machine, which of course didn't recognize the card), I selected the 3.0 folder. Then, just clicked on the first file I saw, the one beginning with 'Ren' .. turned out that WAS a setup.exe file. It worked automatically, and now the card works just fine. I didn't even have to reboot. Box says it's compatible all the way back to Win98, but doesn't claim Win7 compatibility. So now you know it can play in Win7 32-bit, and how. Win8? I've no idea. That OS is abominable, sorry. These cards are also stable inside the slot, so for my laptops, they will travel well. There's also an extra power-to-USB cord which can be plugged into the unit (sticking out of the side), with the USB end, plugged into some power adaptor with a USB interface. I didn't try that option yet, as I don't seem to need it. One caution: I've read a lot about 3.0 ports on computers, how usually you can't run more than one at a time at that speed. Doesn't bother me. Every laptop needs more USB ports, so for me this is perfect. For you, maybe not. I do not yet know if I'll be able to get more than one port at 3.0 speed. The Dell 6530s already have one native 3.0 speed port (on the right, and it doubles as a charger). If I have problems, I'll edit this review at top, so you won't have to read this again. Am a happy camper, either way. Instead of having only four USB ports on my lappie, I now have six. Yay. Oh, did I mention this thing is cute? Gonna buy more!

I just received and installed the ECUSB3S254F on my Dell M1330 laptop. I bought this USB 3.0 adapter to use specifically with my new Western Digital 'My Passport' 2 TB hard drive. I like how it inserts flush in my laptop and appears to be fairly robust in build (for such a small device). Be warned, however, that it is not a plug-n-play device. You must install the drivers manually (a somewhat tedious process) for it to work. (Please excuse upcoming caps). A BIG WARNING HERE!!! SO PLEASE PAY ATTENTION. The drivers come on a mini-CD that absolutely does not work in a "slot" type of CD player. Never having tried to insert one of these mini-CD's into my computer in the past, I assumed Startech would not send me something that could potentially harm my laptop (with no warning). That's not the truth, however... When I tried inserting the mini-CD into the player slot, it disappeared inside and would not come out! Luckily, I used the mini-tweezers on my Swiss army knife to grab just enough of it to get it back out. But be warned. If you have a slot-type player, go to the Startech.com website and manually download the driver. (I contacted Startech and suggested they put a warning on the CD with says, "Not for use in slot-type CD drives".) In fairness, in the process of trying to find the right driver, I used Startech's "instant support" (pop-up window messaging.) The guy seemed friendly and was helpful. He also agreed there should be a warning on the disk. Now on to the actual driver install... Once I downloaded the driver, the software installation was pretty straight forward. When I tried out the adapter with my new Western Digital "My Passport" 2 TB hard drive, the card would not recognize the drive, even after driver installation, however. The trick to getting it going was to reboot the machine after the driver installation. The driver install should probably pop-up a message saying, "Please reboot your machine to activate installed drivers." After the reboot, the adapter recognized my hard drive. Everything seems to be working well. So yes, getting the drivers installed took a bit of work... and the mini-CD getting stuck in my slot-type CD/DVD reader was scary... but the device seems hardy and works well. One small last thing. The adapter also came with a small power cable to send power to an external device being plugged into the 3.0 adapter slot. Since my external hard drive is powered directly from the 3.0 slot itself, the power cable isn't necessary in my case, but I'm glad it's there for future use. (I need to check the voltage... It might be just right for charging my mobile phone. So that's it. Except for the lack of plug-n-play, the device seems to work great.

This product works exactly as intended on my 2011 Dell Latitude E5420. It provides full USB 3.0 bandwidth on a laptop that was not originally configured with USB 3.0. I have read a number of the reviews here, both positive and negative. The negative reviewers note, among other things, that: 1) The card is a tight fit in some laptops; 2) The card ejects easily; 3) The card is temperamental and frequently shuts down or disengages without notice; 4) Drivers were difficult to install or did not work correctly; 5) The card provided only USB 2.0 bandwidth and not USB 3.0 bandwidth. With respect to each of these comments I will say this: The item I am reviewing is my second copy of this product. The first one I received had all of the issues listed above and more. After attempting to get it working correctly for about an hour, I requested an RMA from Amazon, received a return label, and sent it back that afternoon. This second one that I am reviewing, works flawlessly. I have none of the issues listed above with this copy and I have full USB 3.0 bandwidth. I have updated my laptop to Windows 10 64-bit. With this OS, and a properly working device, the install was seamless. I shut down the computer before installing the device, then booted it up. Within seconds, the OS recognized the device and installed the appropriate driver from the MS database. No disk or download from the StartTech website was required. If you do use the driver from the included disk or from the StarTech website, Windows 10 will still download and install the more current driver from the MS database, so there really is no point in taking the extra step of manually installing a driver if you are running Windows 10. I tested the device using a portable spinning hard drive, an external SSD, and a USB 3.0 thumb drive. Using a disk speed testing tool, I was able to achieve full USB 3.0 bandwidth for each device: 1) 106+ MB/s for the hard drive; 2) 500+ MB/s for the SSD; and 3) 75+ MB/s for the thumb drive. The spinning hard drive was the only storage device that required the use of the included USB power supply cable. Without it, an active spinning drive draws more current than the StarTech card is capable of delivering on its own, so the card will shut down in the middle of a data transfer if the supplemental power cord is not used. So my experience with this card, so far, has been absolutely excellent. Having built and maintained both desktop and laptop computers for more than 30 years, I know that sometimes when you purchase computer electronics, you end up with a dud. That appears to be what happened to me with the first card I received and perhaps to all of the reviewers who provided negative feedback. While getting a device that's DOA is always disappointing, and never particularly pleasant, Amazon goes out its way to make returning the dud as painless as possible. That's why, whenever possible, I order stuff like this from Amazon. StarTech is also a well-known company and generally produces quality products. I have purchased a number of StarTech products over the years, always with great results. That's why I picked the StarTech branded option over some of the lower cost alternatives that are offered here. Anyway, hopefully you find this feedback helpful. Enjoy!!!

I thought I wrote a review, but apparently not. This is for a Win7-era laptop that had the correct slot. It worked okay, but not as well as I hoped. Being an add-on, this ExpressCard allows you to add two USB 3.0 ports on a laptop that only has USB 2.0 ports. USB3, SuperSpeed, greatly speeds up copying from hard drive to usbstick. This works within certain limitations. 1) It's been about a year, and Renasas has never updated the driver for Win7. I keep checking but nothing newer, so I have to live with the limitations. You must use the Renasas driver; there is no MSFT driver for this addon hardware. 2) Being an add on, the hardware IS NOT RECOGNIZED AT BOOTUP and is not available until Win7 has booted up completly. This means you CANNOT boot from a USB 3.0 usbstick using this ExpressCard. In addition, until Win7 is booted completely, NO USBSTICKS are recognized by the ExpressCard at all. 3) It worked okay to copy data from and to the hard drive with USB 2.0 and 3.0 sticks for about 2 weeks, but then became totally unresponsive. I tried reinstalling the driver, rebooted, reinsterting card, etc. The pattern remains this way: Once Win7 boots completely, you can use USB3 ports for send and receive data. If you do not use the ExpressCard for a certain period of time (not sure, guess half hour or hour) DURING THAT SAME SESSION, it is completely unresponsive. The only way that helps is to shutdown the laptop, reboot again into Win7, then it works again. So THE DRIVER WORKS but at some point, it "let's go" and stops working. You reboot and it works again. Annoying. I didn't return it but live within its limitations. When it works, you can copy large amounts of data quickly. Nowdays, laptops come with USB3 supported by the hardware mfr and MSFT, so you can boot from USB 3.0 devices.

If you have a 54mm Express Card slot and want USB 3.0 connectivity, this is what you need. It is perfectly flush mounted to my Dell D830 Laptop, and the ports are fairly sturdy. That said, as with most express card applications, you probably want to hold the card when removing a cable connection so as to not pull out the card. I actually don't have any USB 3.0 devices other than a hub yet, but I have noticed a slight increase in speed when using multiple devices via the USB 3.0 connection. I also have a USB flash drive connected to this card for utilizing 16MB+ of Windows 7 ReadyBoost. I did a LOT of research before buying this item and it seems like the best option by far if you want the 3.0 capability/need more USB ports for a laptop. The downside is due to the 54mm Express Card only providing only 3.3volts, you will need to use the included USB power cable, which goes from the center power input on the card to another USB 2.0 port or a USB wall adapter. The primary complaint I've seen is people saying the card doesn't provide enough power to run an self-powered external HDD, sometimes even with the included power adapter in place. My suspicion is the USB 2.0 port they are getting the power from for this card doesn't have the standard 5.0 volts or sufficient wattage. You can't expect a 3.3v device to power a hungry external hard drive without the power cable or an adequate auxiliary source. If you do want an external hard drive to work with this, buy one that is, or at least can be, externally powered. The other chief complaint is the power plug doesn't fit the power hole in the card correctly. Luckily, I have not had this problem, and mine fits perfectly. I know this is a problem with the AKE version of this card, and among other reasons that's why I didn't go with that (cheaper) option. StarTech has drivers available for download from their website as well as on the included CD - which are the Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 drivers. Overall, this card has worked well for me since I started using it a month ago, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for the increased speed of USB 3.0 or an extra 1 or 2 USB ports.

I brought this item to use on the old professional laptop and its not too old also it has intel i5 processor and 8GB RAM. I was researching for one month whether i should buy starttech as it is expensive from chinese products almost three times. Finally i have ordered this product without hesitating on money as i dont want to take risk with chinese products it may damage the laptop. When i got this product it seems to be working fine on the USB 2.0 after installing drivers. I tried to connect my WD My passport USB 3.0 Harddrive (HDD) which is new but it HDD did not connect. tried multiple times by removing the cable but it did not work. Its not even showing the drives in my computer. Even i tried my friends HDD and that also did not work. Finally i have contacted starttech over the chat and they have provided me the new drivers and new bios for the Express card. this new divers and software also did not work. Finally he asked me to connect the external powered USB 3.0 external HDD to the express card connector and it did work. The speed they claim it may go beyond 2GBPS but it never crossed 70MBPS. Starttech person asked me to connect the power cable which came in the box to the express card power port but it did not worked on my portable WD HDD. He suggested to purchase the external power adopter which has 2mA current and 5V output. Why i will buy the external power adopter and what is the need of portable HDDs then. It means that this card will work only for external powered HDDs and not to portable HDDs. Do not take this product if you have portable HDDs it will not work on those HDDs. And one more thing they say it will properly fit to express card slot as it has flush mount but it never fitted properly on my laptop always it use to come out when I pull the USB cable. *****Strongly recommend do not take this product*****.

First Review: 1 star Installation was easy. The USB 3.0 Expresscard worked immediately and didn't have any problem when connected to USB 3.0 external hard diver. Its the right fit for expresscard. Its a little bit hard to be reomved but that makes it not pulling out when unplugging the USB cable (Image is included on the product description). However. The transfer speed was exactly as it is in USB 2.0. I thought it could be a power issue, so I connected the power adapter that came with the item but nothing changed. Transfer rate is between 12MB to 30MB/sec which is equivalent what I get from USB 2.0.. Tried everything possible nut nothing worked. My laptop is Thinkpad X201 with Expresscard 2.0 which support much higher speeds. Second Review: 5 star Now I came to update my review. I gave the product 5 stars. I updated the driver from 2.1.28.0 to 2.1.32.0 (not available from the company. Found it in a forum) and flashed the new firmware 3.0.28 while the original firmware was 3.0.25 (Also not available from the vendor). Now I am getting higher speeds. I downloaded HD Tune Pro which tests the speed of any USB drive. I connected my USB3 HDD to an USB 2.0 and ran test drive. The result I got are as follow : Read 31MB / Write 26MB with a maximum speed of writing to 50MB. Transfer time for 665MB almost 1.5 minutes. Then I connected the HDD to the USB 3.0, ran test drive and got the following result: Read 110MB/ Write 55MB with a maximum speed of writing up to 110MB. Transfer time: 0.5 minute. I uploaded four images (find the images within the product images up in the left corner of the product description page). an image showing that it fits right to the expresscard. Another one for the update for the driver and firmware. Third image for the read/write speed and the time to transfer over USB 2.0. And finally, the read/write speed and the time to transfer over USB 3.0. Not the speed expected from USB 3.0 but this is due to the limitation of the expresscard while I do have ExpressCard 2.0 I blame the company for not including the updates for the driver and firmware in their website. I am not sure if I am allowed to post links for the updates here or not. reply to this post if you need the links. Good luck **UPDATE March 6th, 2013 I added the links to the firmware and new driver at the end of the posts. Here is the link for my new post: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2PLB72KM0UXC3/ref=cm_cr_rev_detmd_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=B00535CMEE&cdForum=Fx321LV4W8CNCCZ&cdMsgID=Mx301LBYXEUCZV3&cdMsgNo=10&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx35VHC5N1MR7D2&store=electronics#Mx301LBYXEUCZV3

If your laptop is new enough to have native USB 3.0 ports, you may be better served getting a USB 3.0 Hub instead. However, if you're like me and have a laptop that's several years old and only has USB 2.0 ports, this card will allow you to use the faster USB 3.0 devices, but there are also several cons. ExpressCard slots are basically PCI 1x slots that you find in modern desktop PC's. Unfortunately the original (version1) ExpressCard slot's, found on 2010 and older laptops, only have 2.5 GB/sec bandwidth. USB 3.0 is rated for 5.0 GB/sec. So, right off the bat, you need to realize that your only going to get 1/2 the speed of a native USB 3.0 port. Another issue is power. USB 2.0 ports should provide up to 0.5 amps of power, but USB 3.0 ports should provide up to 0.9 amps. There is a little cable included with this card that's supposed to provide additional power to the USB 3.0 ports by plugging in to a USB 2.0 port. This didn't work for me, and I kept crashing my laptop when I plugged in a power hungry device like a portable hard drive. Funny thing is that same drive (technically a USB 2.0 device) works fine when plugged in to a USB 2.0 port. I had to use a powered hub in order to use them with this card. It's not all bad though. I could use a flash memory stick or (sometimes) a SSD hard drive without needing to use the hub. Another problem I encountered was finding the Windows driver for this card. The package does include a mini CD and the correct driver was on the disc, but it's a multi device CD that does not AutoPlay (paper instructions says it does), and the folder names on the CD are cryptic. I tried downloading updated drivers from the manufacturer's web site, and those didn't work either. I sent an e-mail to StarTech and they responded that new drivers would be released soon. Since "soon" could be anything from a few days to a few weeks, I wanted to either get this card working or return it to Amazon before the return window expired. I started digging in to the contents of the CD and examined every folder. I was looking for the hardware device ID string in one of the INF files. I finally found it, got the drivers installed, and the card is now working. The manufacturer has since released a new set of drivers on their web site. I've not tried them, so I don't know if they work or not. I'm still using the drivers I found on the CD (under the 72021_2 folder). I have swappable hard drives in my laptop and I can confirm these same drivers work with Windows XP and Windows 7 64-bit. I did a little more digging and apparently my card has a newer host controller chip. The drivers posted on the manufacturer's web site for this card are for the older host controller chip. If you get the updated version of this card like I did, you want to use the RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-30160-setup.exe to install the drivers. So after all of these problems and limitations, why am I still giving this card 4 stars? SPEED. Even though these ports work at half USB 3.0 speeds, they are still up to 5x faster than USB 2.0 ports. I also discovered that USB 2.0 devices were showing a 10 - 20% faster read AND write times during my tests. Devices designed for USB 3.0 are even faster. Maybe not as fast as they could be with native USB 3.0 ports, but definitely faster than USB 2.0 ports. Final Note: Wikipedia shows that ExpressCard specifications also include pins for USB ports (from your motherboard chipset). On an older laptop this would be USB 2.0 ports. If you have native USB 3.0 ports on your laptop, then these should be USB 3.0 ports. I've seen some extremely cheap USB 3.0 ExpressCards. I don't know for sure, but these cheap cards could be just exposing those existing USB ports, and that's why they are so cheap. Since I had so many problems finding the correct drivers for this card's host controller, I know it's the real deal.

今回3.0使いたくて購入しました。さすが3.0ということだったのでデータ移行スピードは速いです。windows8.1を使ってますが面倒なドライバーなども導入せずに使えました。express card侵入口に差すだけで認識してすぐ使えました。USBポートに差して外すときに手で押さえながら外さないとcardごと抜けてしまいます。そこが1つ難点です。そういう仕様なのかはわかりません。以前に別のものを購入して使えなかったのでまぁその辺はいいかって感じです。コスパは高いですが使えたので良かったです。

Worked great in my Thinkpad X220. No issues thus far.

I've bought cheaper editions of this type of product before and none of them worked. This was easy to install and worked first time. An excellent product.

I chose the Startech 2 USB 3.0 ports card reading the reviews from some sites, Amazon included. Even it's not a so cheap item, I prefered a 54 mm card and the brand. Thanks to previous reviewers. The pack arrived in 3 days, which was a real performance for a deliver to the South-East of Europe. I was very impatient. The card slid easy into the slot of my notebook, a HP 8530w model, but... but you must be carefully to hear the click, to be sure the card is well fixed in its slot. Otherwise, it is possible it goes out when you plug out any device connected to it. It is rather difficult to extract the card - you must push stongly for the card to be ejected. Never mind, the card will remain into my laptop and I will use it permanently, so it is not a disadvantage. Hardly it can be observed because it fits well into the laptop. The first disappointment: my Corsair Flash Voyager can not be connected into the card. The rubber protection of the Falsh memory is too thik and it stops in the upper wall of the laptop. If the card was a milimeter longer, the stick would entered well. So, I had to cut 1 mm the rubber protection of the stick. And now... the soft from the supplied CD. Surprise: in Windows 7, any wizard pops, so I had to look for the driver myself. I found the Renesas driver and installed it. A bad new again: windows did not recognize my WD Passeport ! So, I went on the startech.com, I downloaded again the driver and... it worked ! On the CD, I suppose, it is an older version of the driver. And now the good news: 1. I coppied a first 3GB file with the HDD conected to the card: 75 sec. The same file coppied through a usb 2.0 port lasted 125 seconds. Fabulously ! 2. I copied a bigger folder: 3 min 54 sec with the HDD connected to a usb 2.0 port, only 2 min 50 sec with the Startech Card. Well enough. 3. Further power is needed only if I use 2 external devices simultanously. For a single hdd connected to the card, the power cable supplied with the product is not necessary. Conclusion: The card works well and it makes his duty. I have now an upgraded laptop with two usb 3.0 ports ant that's fine. If someone needs the same thing, than this item is the solution.

Very easy to install, I suggest installing the drivers before inserting the card. ExpressCard 2.0 as speed tests on an external M.2 SSD yielded 288MB/sec read and 263MB/sec write. Plug and unplug works just like any other USB device. I do suggest plugging in the USB device before inserting the card. When you disconnect, remove the device from the cable, then remove the card. In my case (Dell Latitude E6430), NO power cable was required for a variety of devices. Top notch product and drivers!