OT: PCMCIA SD Card Reader

One of my notebook computers doesn't have a card reader. I am hoping
to find a PCMCIA card reader so that I can read / write SD cards (from
a camera). Google searches, Sandisk site, etc. haven't turned up
much. I would want it to handle up to 4GB SDHC. Also I don't know
the technical limitations of PCMCIA regarding the speed of data
transfer.

On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:07:39 -0600, Journey <> wrote:

>One of my notebook computers doesn't have a card reader. I am hoping
>to find a PCMCIA card reader so that I can read / write SD cards (from
>a camera). Google searches, Sandisk site, etc. haven't turned up
>much. I would want it to handle up to 4GB SDHC. Also I don't know
>the technical limitations of PCMCIA regarding the speed of data
>transfer.

I couldn't find any good PCMCIA SD-HC card reader, but I found out
that the laptop (D520) also supports Express Card / 34.

The product I ended up purchasing is from newegg. It has some good
reviews. I hope it fits flush with my laptop otherwise it wouldn't
have any advantage over a USB card reader.

Here's a link to the product:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16839176001

On 22 Dec, 05:38, Journey <jour...@merr.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:07:39 -0600, Journey <jour...@merr.com> wrote:
> >One of my notebook computers doesn't have a card reader. *I am hoping
> >to find a PCMCIA card reader so that I can read / write SD cards (from
> >a camera). *Google searches, Sandisk site, etc. haven't turned up
> >much. *I would want it to handle up to 4GB SDHC. *Also I don't know
> >the technical limitations of PCMCIA regarding the speed of data
> >transfer.
>
> I couldn't find any good PCMCIA SD-HC card reader, but I found out
> that the laptop (D520) also supports Express Card / 34.
>
> The product I ended up purchasing is from newegg. *It has some good
> reviews. *I hope it fits flush with my laptop otherwise it wouldn't
> have any advantage over a USB card reader.
>
> Here's a link to the product:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16839176001

Before you purchase look at the images on the site and you will see a
pic of the packaging and that pic shows the reader in a card slot and
it sticks out quite a way.
Trevor Smith

you asked about a pcmcia card but purchased an expresscard.
an express card is not the same as a pcmcia card.
which do you need? what model laptop is it for?

"Journey" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:07:39 -0600, Journey <> wrote:
>
>>One of my notebook computers doesn't have a card reader. I am hoping
>>to find a PCMCIA card reader so that I can read / write SD cards (from
>>a camera). Google searches, Sandisk site, etc. haven't turned up
>>much. I would want it to handle up to 4GB SDHC. Also I don't know
>>the technical limitations of PCMCIA regarding the speed of data
>>transfer.
>
> I couldn't find any good PCMCIA SD-HC card reader, but I found out
> that the laptop (D520) also supports Express Card / 34.
>
> The product I ended up purchasing is from newegg. It has some good
> reviews. I hope it fits flush with my laptop otherwise it wouldn't
> have any advantage over a USB card reader.
>
> Here's a link to the product:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16839176001

You might also consider a USB card reader... Ben Myers

On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:07:39 -0600, Journey <> wrote:

>One of my notebook computers doesn't have a card reader. I am hoping
>to find a PCMCIA card reader so that I can read / write SD cards (from
>a camera). Google searches, Sandisk site, etc. haven't turned up
>much. I would want it to handle up to 4GB SDHC. Also I don't know
>the technical limitations of PCMCIA regarding the speed of data
>transfer.

Hi!

> One of my notebook computers doesn't have a card reader.

> Google searches, Sandisk site, etc. haven't turned up
> much.

I find that surprising. I was in Best Buy not all that long ago and
thought I saw one. (Could have been a mistake, however. I wasn't in
there looking for such things.)

> Also I don't know the technical limitations of PCMCIA
> regarding the speed of data transfer.

True PCMCIA cards are similar to ISA cards and have approximately the
same transfer speeds. CardBus cards, on the other hand, are more
closely related to PCI. A CardBus card runs on a 32-bit bus (PCMCIA is
8 or 16) and uses 3.3 volts instead of 5.

William

Hi Christopher, in the post you responded to it answers your
questions. It is for a Latitude D520, which has one PC card slot. I
thought it was PCMCIA only, but when I looked into it more the Dell
documentation says it also supports Expresscard 34, so I guess either
can go into that same slot.

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:29:59 -0500, "Christopher Muto"
<> wrote:

>you asked about a pcmcia card but purchased an expresscard.
>an express card is not the same as a pcmcia card.
>which do you need? what model laptop is it for?
>
>"Journey" <> wrote in message
>news:.. .
>> On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:07:39 -0600, Journey <> wrote:
>>
>>>One of my notebook computers doesn't have a card reader. I am hoping
>>>to find a PCMCIA card reader so that I can read / write SD cards (from
>>>a camera). Google searches, Sandisk site, etc. haven't turned up
>>>much. I would want it to handle up to 4GB SDHC. Also I don't know
>>>the technical limitations of PCMCIA regarding the speed of data
>>>transfer.
>>
>> I couldn't find any good PCMCIA SD-HC card reader, but I found out
>> that the laptop (D520) also supports Express Card / 34.
>>
>> The product I ended up purchasing is from newegg. It has some good
>> reviews. I hope it fits flush with my laptop otherwise it wouldn't
>> have any advantage over a USB card reader.
>>
>> Here's a link to the product:
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16839176001
>

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 02:33:08 -0800 (PST), Trevor <>
wrote:

>On 22 Dec, 05:38, Journey <jour...@merr.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:07:39 -0600, Journey <jour...@merr.com> wrote:
>> >One of my notebook computers doesn't have a card reader. *I am hoping
>> >to find a PCMCIA card reader so that I can read / write SD cards (from
>> >a camera). *Google searches, Sandisk site, etc. haven't turned up
>> >much. *I would want it to handle up to 4GB SDHC. *Also I don't know
>> >the technical limitations of PCMCIA regarding the speed of data
>> >transfer.
>>
>> I couldn't find any good PCMCIA SD-HC card reader, but I found out
>> that the laptop (D520) also supports Express Card / 34.
>>
>> The product I ended up purchasing is from newegg. *It has some good
>> reviews. *I hope it fits flush with my laptop otherwise it wouldn't
>> have any advantage over a USB card reader.
>>
>> Here's a link to the product:
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16839176001
>
>Before you purchase look at the images on the site and you will see a
>pic of the packaging and that pic shows the reader in a card slot and
>it sticks out quite a way.
>Trevor Smith

A lot of the advertising for these products shows the card part way
into the slot.

I ended up going with a different one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000M5U8KU

Some of the review comments note that it is flush at least in the
computer that the reviewer used.

I have many USB readers, but wanted a flush and "more permanent"
location for a SD card. One of the reasons is that I alternate which
laptop I use and I keep all my data on a 4GB SDHC card. Two other
laptops have a SD card slot built in and all I have to do is put the
card in it and all my data is then on that laptop. The D520 doesn't
have a SD slot though so to get my data to be there via a USB card
reader it sticks out and is a separate thing to carry around.

Hopefully the D520 does indeed support the Expresscard / 34 and that
the one I picked out ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000M5U8KU )
is mostly flush with the computer.

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:07:19 -0500, Ben Myers
<> wrote:

>You might also consider a USB card reader... Ben Myers
>
>On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:07:39 -0600, Journey <> wrote:
>
>>One of my notebook computers doesn't have a card reader. I am hoping
>>to find a PCMCIA card reader so that I can read / write SD cards (from
>>a camera). Google searches, Sandisk site, etc. haven't turned up
>>much. I would want it to handle up to 4GB SDHC. Also I don't know
>>the technical limitations of PCMCIA regarding the speed of data
>>transfer.

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 08:37:11 -0800 (PST), wrote:

>Hi!
>
>> One of my notebook computers doesn't have a card reader.
>
>> Google searches, Sandisk site, etc. haven't turned up
>> much.
>
>I find that surprising. I was in Best Buy not all that long ago and
>thought I saw one. (Could have been a mistake, however. I wasn't in
>there looking for such things.)
>
>> Also I don't know the technical limitations of PCMCIA
>> regarding the speed of data transfer.
>
>True PCMCIA cards are similar to ISA cards and have approximately the
>same transfer speeds. CardBus cards, on the other hand, are more
>closely related to PCI. A CardBus card runs on a 32-bit bus (PCMCIA is
>8 or 16) and uses 3.3 volts instead of 5.
>
>William

There were several PCMCIA cards, but they were very limited and the
reviews noted the limitations.

Sandisk's only supported up to 1GB for example. Another was rated as
"junk" by many users (newegg reviews). Another was rated as being
very slow.

During that Google research and checking sites like newegg, I saw
expresscard listed, and did a Google on "Latitude D520 expresscard"
and saw that the PCMCIA slot also supports expresscard.

Once I found that out then I found a lot more cards that could be used
as a SD card reader, with a lot higher rankings.