Alternative to dual adapter

R

Richter Video Equipment

Well-known member
Hi,

I finally bought a super fast pcimia slot for my desktop and I can offload cards in no time. I want a better solution form my laptop. I have an express slot, but no pcimia slot. I know there is a usb reader available, but its not fast enough. At the end of a shoot I need to be able to offload (2) 64 gb cards and get them on an external in less then 30 min. That's 73MB/S average. USB just wont cut it. I've heard about the Dual adapter, but I also heard it was buggy. Does it work on PC? Is it buggy? Any other adapters that work better? Basicaly I'm lookign for suggestions on how to get data of may cards ASAP. I have an esata raid for the external so getting off the laptop is no bottle neck.

Thanks
 
The fastest reader is the PCD35, which you can get in ExpressCard form. They also have just introduced a new 3-slot reader coming out that is USB3.0.

On the cheap you can get the Rosewill adapter; I've got one and it's infinitely better than the Duel adapter and less expensive too, however, I can't get it to work with large (i.e., 64GB) E-series cards.

A couple of other things to consider -- first, ExpressCard is the worst. It's simply intolerable. I've got both the Rosewill PCMCIA adapter and the Lexar Professional CompactFlash reader, and it's a nightmare to keep these big bulky adapters actually plugged in to an ExpressCard slot. ExpressCard doesn't securely latch like PCMCIA did, it's a self-ejecting nightmare. Might work okay for little ExpressCards that slide entirely into the slot, but for something that sticks out (like a CF reader or a P2 reader) I simply hate it. I gave up on the Lexar CF reader and went with a USB3 reader instead, and it's infinitely better.

Second -- what hard drive do you think you're going to be offloading to? You're not going to get 128gb of data in 30 minutes on any conventional hard drive. You're going to need a RAID of at least two fast 7200RPM SATA drives to be able to sustain those data transfer rates. I've seen 64GB "A"-series cards offloaded in 10 minutes, which is almost the pace you're talking about, and it took a five-drive SATA RAID to be able to sustain that data transfer rate. Now, "E" cards are actually faster, so if you're using a PCD35 or the USB3 reader and you're going to a five-drive RAID you might indeed be able to offload at the pace you're talking about -- but that's not exactly a laptop configuration!

At the bare minimum you're going to need to use the very fastest, highest-minimum-write-speed SSD drives you can get, to sustain that kind of data transfer rate on a laptop.
 
Thanks for the info Barry. You always have the right answer. I'm not the best editor so I bring my 4 disk raid with me, offload the data and send it home with my editor/ assistant camera operator. That's why it has to be quick because they don't want to hang out after the shoot. I'll probably try out the rosewell you were talking about. I like the "On the cheap" option. Will that give me better speeds then the usb one slot reader I have now? I have mostly 32gb "E" Cards. (so its really 4 32gb not 2 64) Do you have any bench marks for it?

Thanks,
Cody
 
Richter Video Equipment said:
Thanks for the info Barry. You always have the right answer. I'm not the best editor so I bring my 4 disk raid with me,
I'll probably try out the rosewell you were talking about. I like the "On the cheap" option. Will that give me better speeds then the usb one slot reader I have now?

Thanks,
Cody
Click to expand...

If speed is your issue, then I'd suggest you buy more P2 cards to shoot for the day without off loading in field, remember you only have to buy them "once" and they are not expensive anymore.
or if your after a "real cheap fix", take your desktop with you? that would cost you nothing.
In years past when P2 cards were not available i've mounted my old MDD G4 in my van to off load and edit, worked great.
Now I have enough cards for whole day shoot, and if needed use my New early 11 MBP with SSD drive/s to perform in field edit etc. (with PCD2 reader), not fast but cheap and works nice and is very universal USB2.

cheers from down under
Tom
olinevideo.com.au
 
As a rental company I don't want to have my p2 in use for 2 weeks during editing. Plus i would need to loan her my p2 reader or a cam. I much prefer to give her my raid for 2 weeks and when she is done I have all the edited files. If I buy more p2 i want to be able to rent it. I think I'll try the Rosewill adapter.
Thanks
 
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