Built-in Card Reader V.S. External Card Reader

[David Topete]

Simple question:

Is it faster, and better, to use an external card reader or the one built into my laptop? Pros and Cons?

Thanks.

 

[brunerww]

David - if you have a card reader built into your computer, there's really no reason to buy an external card reader - unless your laptop has USB 3.0. In that case, it might be worth it to buy a $30 USB 3.0 external reader to get lightning fast (~ 500 MB/s) transfer speeds.

Cheers,

Bill

 

[David Topete]

David - if you have a card reader built into your computer, there's really no reason to buy an external card reader - unless your laptop has USB 3.0. In that case, it might be worth it to buy a $30 USB 3.0 external reader to get lightning fast (~ 500 MB/s) transfer speeds.

Cheers,

Bill

I do have USB 3.0 on my laptop. I might have to think about that one then. Thanks!

 

[Samuel H]

Unless you're using cards that go over 50 MB/s (which is the max USB2 speed), I think it will be just as fast: the bottleneck is usually the card, not the reader. Also, the in-built card slot may be plugged to USB2, or to something faster.
I'd say a first step is: test your reader first, see if the card could actually go any faster.