Thinking of getting a flash card/floppy combo drive

[blueshiftoverwatch]

I have an external flash card reader and was thinking of replacing it with something a little more professional looking. My case came with a 3.5 adapter to fit into one of the 5.25 slots on the front of my computer.

I was thinking of getting this drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813998514&cm_re=floppy-_-13-998-514-_-Product). Not only does it have all of the flash card slots I'd probably ever want but it also has a floppy drive to boot. I have no idea what use I'd have for a floppy disk in the year 2010. Maybe I could use them to backup small text configuration files or something. But I have two boxes of them sitting on a shelf upstairs and I think it would be cool to have one just for the novelty if nothing else.

The only downside is that my case doesn't have any spare internal USB usb connectors to plug into. So if I bought that model I'd have to run the USB cable out the back of my computer and plug into one of the rear external USB slots. It would look kind of ghetto, but it's not like anyone's going to see the back of my computer.

How long do you think IDE connectors will continue to come standard on motherboards? And how long before they develop a whole new standard of flash memory cards and I'll have to buy a whole new flash card reader to make use of them? I don't really follow the world of digital cameras. I just have a couple of SD and microSD cards.

edit: Took me a few minutes to realize I posted a link to the wrong drive, it's fixed now.

[Dr. C]

It is a nice drive. By the way floppies us a floppy connector (available on most motherboards) not an IDE connector, so I would check if your motherboard has a floppy connector (most still do) before getting this drive. The other option if your motherboard does not have a floppy connector is a USB floppy drive.

As for the 3.5in floppy it came out in the mid 1980's and first computer that supported it was the 286, yet it is still around.

[Hwæt]

Pfft. Real men use punch cards.

[blueshiftoverwatch]

The other option if your motherboard does not have a floppy connector is a USB floppy drive.
Yeah, but all of the USB floppy drives are external. Too bad they don't make an internal USB floppy drive because in a few years they'll probably stop putting them on motherboards altogether.

As for the 3.5in floppy it came out in the mid 1980's and first computer that supported it was the 286, yet it is still around.
HP just stopped supplying 3.5'' floppy drives last year and with Windows XP being replaced by 7 nobody's going to need floppy disks to load RAID drivers anymore.

[Skripka]

Flash card readers are cheap. You can go to BestBuy and get one for the cost of a pizza-cheap as computer hardware goes.

[blueshiftoverwatch]

Flash card readers are cheap. You can go to BestBuy and get one for the cost of a pizza-cheap as computer hardware goes.
Best Buy charges outrageous prices. I bought my external Dynex flash card reader for $20, and it only reads SD and microSD cards. Compared with the internal flash card reader I linked to that can read a variety of formats and is internal.

[Skripka]

Best Buy charges outrageous prices. I bought my external Dynex flash card reader for $20, and it only reads SD and microSD cards. Compared with the internal flash card reader I linked to that can read a variety of formats and is internal.

I know. My point was that even if a new flash format comes out-readers are cheap, and you don't have a great deal invested in tech.

I'd be more worried about USB3 coming out myself.

[Hwæt]

I'd be more worried about USB3 coming out myself.

What about DDR3? You need a new MoBo for that, as well.

[Skripka]

What about DDR3?

DDR3 is out and hardware is already common for it, and DDR2 works fine for most things. You can switch whenever you want.

Everything, peripherals/mainboards/cases/etc is designed for USB2 right now, and switching over to USB3 is going to be a big time headache...because you need basically an entire new computer post-2009 to talk to the new USB3 peripherals. It also means you needs to buy all new USB3 peripherals as well. I presume that USB2 headers on mainboards will not work with USB3-but that is another degree of uncertainty with the whole matter.

[Dr. C]

DDR3 is out and hardware is already common for it, and DDR2 works fine for most things. You can switch whenever you want.

Everything, peripherals/mainboards/cases/etc is designed for USB2 right now, and switching over to USB3 is going to be a big time headache...because you need basically an entire new computer post-2009 to talk to the new USB3 peripherals. It also means you needs to buy all new USB3 peripherals as well. I presume that USB2 headers on mainboards will not work with USB3-but that is another degree of uncertainty with the whole matter.

Just get a PCI-E USB 3 adapter card. They are already on the market. http://gizmodo.com/5394159/asus-continues-usb-30-onslaught-with-a-cheap-pci+e-card. No different from upgrading from USB 1 to USB 2 by buying an adapter card.

[Skripka]

Just get a PCI-E USB 3 adapter card. They are already on the market. http://gizmodo.com/5394159/asus-continues-usb-30-onslaught-with-a-cheap-pci+e-card. No different from upgrading from USB 1 to USB 2 by buying an adapter card.

The 1st comment says it best:



SATA 6G is 6 Gb/s
USB 3 uses 5 Gb/s

This card therefore needs a maximum bandwidth of 6 + 6 + 5 + 5 = 22 Gb/s

Unfortunately, PCIe X4 provides only 4 * 500 MB/s which is 15 5/8 Gb/s. This isn't even enough to fully use one USB 3 device when the SATA is saturated. This card should have been designed for PCIe X8.