PCIe-to-ExpressCard Bay unit

[Pushpa de Silva]

I would like to know the best PCIe - (To be used with Sony SXS and MXM )Express card slot/unit available in the market. Which can be connected to a PC motherboard via PCIe slot. I have seen SIIG.com has made one but it seems there r some problems when hot swapping express cards after downloading to Hardisk...seems u have to reboot for each swap of Expresscard. Looking for better unit than the one manufactured by SIIG.com

 

[Fohdeesha]

I have a generic one off of ebay (actually looking back, pretty sure it was the siig), they are all more or less the exact same as it's just a form factor adapter, converting the slot on your motherboard to an array of pins in a slot, no conversions or chipsets involved (there will be a circuit board on it, this is for the usb to memory adapter if the one you bought has usb as well as pci-e)

The hotswap problem has nothing to do with the adapter itself and everything to do with your motherboard. Most desktop motherboards do not support pci-e hot swapping, as it's a desktop computer and that would imply you're taking your computer apart, installing a new pci-e card, and expecting it to show up in windows. Which is all technically sound and perfectly possible, but the motherboard manufacturers didn't bother supporting it. Most, anyway.

With most motherboards, when you insert a card nothing will happen, refreshing device manager doesn't do anything either. You have to have the card in there when the motherboard boots, so you need to restart your computer, then it will show up.

If you buy one and it doesn't support hotswapping, you can try updating your motherboards bios, but it's doubtful they would have added support. Hope this helps!

(disappointing I know, I was also looking forward to just sticking SXS cards in the front of my box and offloading at pci-e speeds)


this article may interest you - http://www.synchrotech.com/support/tech-notes-hot_swapping_pcie_based_expresscards.html

apparently it's not only the bios, but the OS as well. Perhaps windows detecting desktop hardware when installed and the chipset drivers it chooses to use not being built for hotswap