MITSUMI FA405M BLACK 13-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader

Pros: love the non-obtrusive front markings and lack of any logo. works in ubuntu 7.10 amd64 with no special requirements (other than attach it to the motherboard)

Cons: the specs claim xd support is "optional" -- what does that mean?! had to search on other vendor sites for user reviews to verify that xd actually does work.

Overall Review: xd does work fine; must be a newer chipset, it does not even require the alauda driver or anything special. no problems with sd, cf or microdrive so far. nice.

Pros: None yet

Cons: No Driver Disk included. Anyone that has put a USB device on a Win98 PC knows you got to have drivers. Both of NewEggs links to Mitsumi are dead links.

Overall Review: Mitsumi does not have support for this product anywhere on their site.

Pros: Theoretically, this will read most of the cards you could get your hands on. Plus, an extra front-facing USB port is rarely a bad idea.

Cons: The trouble I had was simple - when installed into the 3.5" expansion slot in my computer, the cable is simply too short to reach my motherboard-mounted USB headers. Not being able to hook it up to the motherboard means not being able to hook it up. Period. The mounting options are very few with this - it's a very small unit, and at least my package came with no screws. I still managed to get it installed into the Antec Solo case, though. If the cord were 4-6" longer, it would be wonderful - but instead, I can't use it.

Overall Review: Doublecheck the distance between your system board's USB headers and the closest 3.5" expansion bay before you buy this product. I give it only two stars, as I WAS able to mount it, but an unattached (but mounted) card reader serves little-to-no purpose.

Pros: A real no-brainer to install. Pretty much works out of the box. My micro-SD card works very well with the SD adapter.

Cons: In low-lighting conditions, you might have trouble locating the proper card slot. Just spend five minutes memorizing the instruction sheet, and you should be fine.

Overall Review: Getting this thing up in Linux (Fedora 4) is a bit of a hack: I have to unload the usb-storage module and re-load it after putting a card in; otherwise I don't see /dev/sd?* devices for mounting (though they do appear in /sys/block/sd? on boot). Might be a hotplug bug on my end though, so I can't really a "con" for sure.

Pros: Front USB port on system quite working. I was using an external card reader and had to plug & unplug every time. With this I get one usb port, plus all the card reader. Connectors are clearly label, hooking up to the motherboard is easy. Remember to save the instruction paper. It does not require addition power supply.

Cons: Wish it had more than one USB port & 1394 connectors

Pros: Its compact. All black faceplate blends in with other black faceplates. No distracting labels all over this thing. Looks great on my qpack2.

Cons: If you work in the dark and use this, try to remember where your card ports are.

Overall Review: Its exactly what i was looking for!