Pros: Nice board, looks exactly like what you'd expect
Cons: Drive disc was useless and web site's driver wouldn't start the device. Good hardware, bad software. Win7 x64 driver just wouldn't work.
Overall Review: Found another device based on the same hardware and used it's driver (se-ec-usb3-01-sedna-driver) and all went well. None of the StarTech ones did.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1JM0HC3707
Pros: See my initial review, still working strong after a wk of hard use on several machines, Windows 7 and Linux.
Cons: Nothing.
Overall Review: Vanilla Fedora 17 (and perhaps other Linuxes) didn't install the xhci_hcd module by default, so USB 3.0 devices are unlikely to work or even be recognized. For reliable operation, you must yum install kernel-modules-extra
Then everything issmooth and fast.
A little work with drivers, but works perfectly6/19/2013 3:18:19 AM
Pros: - works perfectly with 2 laptops I use: 4-year old Toshiba and 1.5-year old Lenovo.
- transfer speeds with USB 3.0 external laptop drives exceed 100 MB/sec when reading (didn't test writing)
- small but sturdy packaging. Your shipping company can go all Ace Ventura on your package, it will survive the trip.
- I'm still getting used to high quality of StarTech hardware. Software may be a little lagging in some areas, but hardware is rock solid.
Cons: - a little trouble with installing drivers. The included mini-CD has 4 folders named after the USB 3.0 chipset I guess, so it wasn't very easy to find the right folder first. Instead I ran Add Hardware wizard in Windows 7 to add a new device, told it to find the driver on selected media, and chose the right one. Afterwards the card appeared in the system and works without any issues.
- could be $10 cheaper. I'm not familiar with licensing terms of USB 3.0 for OEMs (chip manufacturers, device manufacturers), so I understand it needs to be a little more expensive, but when I see another StarTech ExpressCard with USB 2.0 (4 ports) for $16 less, I wonder if for the price I shouldn't have received 2 extra USB 3.0 ports... This is the reason I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5.
Overall Review: A previous reviewer linked to the Sedna website for a driver that worked. I thought that was ridiculous, until I couldn't make the supplied CDR/driver work, and the one from the StarTech website was no better. Then I went to the NewEgg reviews, and *poof*, they provided the solution. The StarTech folks should be ashamed of themselves (and indebted to the community here).
Pros: Love the dual ports and cost seemed very reasonable.
Cons: none so far
Overall Review: Bought this for a Toshiba Qosmio to get USB 3 support for a new external drive. Running Windows 8. Plugged the card in, hooked up the external drive, turned on the laptop and everything just worked from the very beginning.
Overall Review: Even after installing the drivers from the StarTech website, then trying the drivers from other sources (described in other reviews), this device doesn't work. I'm trying to interface a USB3 camera to my Thinkpad 420. It isn't recognized through this device.
Pros: Nice board, looks exactly like what you'd expect
Cons: Drive disc was useless and web site's driver wouldn't start the device. Good hardware, bad software. Win7 x64 driver just wouldn't work.
Overall Review: Found another device based on the same hardware and used it's driver (se-ec-usb3-01-sedna-driver) and all went well. None of the StarTech ones did. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1JM0HC3707