Wintec FileMate ExpressCard 34 48GB ExpressCard 34 & Mini USB 2.0 MLC Internal / External Solid State Drive (SSD) 3FMS4D048JM-R

Pros: (See my review below)

Cons: (See my review below)

Overall Review: I'm not sure about the experience of the previous reviewer. Me, I was able to use the drive for ReadyBoost without any problems whatsoever. The system is a Thinkpad T410 with Windows 7 64-bit. All I had to do is right-click on the Wintec drive, select "properties", then the "ReadyBoost" tab... et voila. BTW, the maximum ReadyBoost cache size is 32GB so the remaining space can be used for files. I too keep Outlook.pst on the Winntec drive.

Pros: Cost, ease of use, included usb jack for use as usb drive AND includes a short USB cable

Cons: Small-ish capacity, not as fast as newer SATA SSD

Overall Review: This thing is a BREEZE to set up to use in a MacBook Pro, gives you faster performance by keeping the OS and apps on the drive. I keep my user folder on the internal drive because my documents folder and my music and itunes folder are HUGE. BTW--I also made a separate 48GB partition on the internal drive (same size as this SSD) and use Disk Utility.app to make an image of the SSD from time to time. That way, if the SSD fails or even if you just want to remove it, you can boot the computer from the internal partition just the same way--only without the SSD speed. I do this for security and backup, in addition to a wireless Time Machine backup. In all, I believe this drive to be a fantastic value! Also, I have had ZERO problems with this expresscard SSD! NO overheating, NO corruption of data, NO bad performance... NOTHING like some reviewers have said. I think perhaps there was a bad production run at first, but I would feel free to buy this again! Recommended!

Pros: Loaded OS on this and cut boot time in half. Does exactly what I bought it to do. Photoshop opens in the blink of an eye. Worth every penny if it lasts.

Cons: Price per gigabyte is still rediculous for SSD.

Overall Review: Awesome. Only way to have a fast ssd for os and a spinny for data storage in my laptop. Color me very satiafied. I just hope it lasts.

Pros: works slick, win7 loads drivers, you just initialize it , make a primary partition format and assign a drive letter. using 32 gig readyboost and moved my 8 gig swapfile to it , made girlfriends laptop much more snappy.

Cons: not real fast on read times

Overall Review: 100 mgbites per second read and .4 ms access in hd tack , not superfast read times but the quick access time must be what makes it fast. don't forget to also set up a perminate swapfile to use the left over space after maxing readyboost

Pros: Physical configuration -- Fit the Expresscard slot in HP EliteBook 8530p laptop well -- no exposed sides or parts protruding off the slot. Originally, I intended to use this unit to run ReadyBoost on my laptop with Win 7 64-bit. Found out (after purchase) that Win 7 OS will not allow ReadyBoost to run off SSD drives -- and apparently the OS treats this unit like a SSD, and will not allow it to be used as ReadyBoost cache. So I had to buy & deploy a third party caching program to do this (eBoostr, in my case). However, once caching was enabled (with 7 GBs dedicated to cache operations), it did speed up access to various applications. The improvement is not earth-shaking, but it is noticeable. As noted, I dedicated only about 7 GBs for cache operations. I am using the remaining space to hold large files, for fast data accesss (for example, I keep my Outlook .PST file there). In my case, it did speed up the process of opening large files -- very nice.

Cons: Cannot be used natively with ReadyBoost on Win 7 64-bit; may require 3rd party program to do this -- see explanation above. The unit does heat up at times, but the temperature spikes come and go. When it does heat up, it's annoying (in my case, I can feel the heat in my left hand palm rest area . . . .) I read the other reviews about alleged data loss in the 96 GB version of the FileMate unit. I've had no problems with data loss or corruption so far (knock on wood). Does not appear to have reduced system bootup time as much.

Overall Review: It's an useful product. Will make your laptop run faster -- but don't expect miracles; for that, get a full blown SSD and install OS and applications on it. It's nice to use it like a 2nd laptop hard drive. I wish they had the unit in larger capac(ities), *without* data corruption complaints -- would have bought the 96 GB version of the unit, but for the reviews pointing to instances of data corruption.

Pros: Does not stick out of the side of the laptop, benchmarks prove higher values than manufacturer, works as expected.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I have an SSD drive in my existing laptop and decided to purchase this for the temp files, local machine profiles, email files, etc. It may be a bit overkill, but I keep my 120 GB SSD light and this for handling local profile stuff. I felt the heat but I am not getting it as hot as others on the web have claimed. Seems just fine to me.

Pros: It looks like it's working as advertised. Transfer speed in the ExpressCard slot is minimum 88 MB/sec, maximum 105 MB/sec, and average 97.5 MB/sec. Access time is a cool 0.4 ms. That's for reading. I didn't test write speed but judging by the fact that the manufactured did not exaggerate the read numbers much, I would guess they are more or less as claimed (i.e around 65 MB/sec).

Cons: It's not as fast as a regular SATA SSD drive. But then again, if there is a faster ExpressCard SSD out there, I sure could not find it.

Overall Review: No write cache. No NCQ.

Pros: None

Cons: This purchase was a complete waste of money. The Wintec FileMate ExpressCard worked flawlessly for about two weeks. Then, I began to receive a "file corrupt" message, when I attempted to open documents stored on the ExpressCard. I formatted the card, it worked for a day, and then I began to receive "file corrupt" messages again. I formatted again. Same error messages. I spent over $100 on a piece of junk. I strongly recommend that you steer clear of any product made by Wintec. I have a similar card made by another manufacturer, and it has performed flawlessly for over eight months. It has been 40 days since I purchased the ExpressCard from NewEgg, so I cannot return the defective merchandise.