Question 1

I have a usb 3.0 pcie card but only a pci slot remaining. will this adaptor limit the speed of the usb 3.0? either way i need the extra 4 usb slots.

Accepted Answer

I have done exactly what your proposing but the answer is.... Yes it will severely limit the benefit and performance of the USB 3.0.  I have done it simply to provide compatibility (connectability with USB 3.0) and use a PCI port when nothing else was available.  Max theoretical Bus speeds are as follows and you can see a large difference between PCI and PCI-Express (and this is especially so with later and faster generations)...PCI	1056 Mb/s	 AGP 8X	2,133 Mb/sPCI Express 1x	2,500 Mb/sPCI Express 4x	10,000 Mb/sPCI Express 8x	20,000 Mb/sPCI Express 16x	40,000 Mb/sAt its most basic USB 3.0 is 5000 Mb/s /  PCI is 1056 Mb/s	 and PCI-E x1 (Gen 1) 2,500 Mb/s or 5,000Mb/s (Gen II) so you can see that indeed even multiple port USB3.0 using PCI-E x1 (Gen 2) will have trouble keeping up with more than one USB 3.0 port.  Hence why there are some companies producing PCIE x4 4 Port USB 3.0 cards (but they cost a lot more).    However in comparison with USB 2.0 the USB 3.0 PCI-E/PCI Adapter limited to 1056Mb/s is still much better than the alternative single USB 2.0 High Speed 480Mb/s....So indeed this option I use and you are considering is better than that by a factor of 2 (theoretically).   ANd USB3.0 provided more power so some USB 3.0 external drives will not work from USB 2.0 without external power, and this solution also alleviates that issue.  Hope that helps.

Question 2

I'm wanting to add my old pci soundcard, a creative soundblaster audigy to my new pc.  has anyone tried this?  will it work?

Accepted Answer

It should work but it is really designed for half height cards and the creative soundblaster audigy card is not really a half height card but you may be able to shorten the end mounting plate of the card so that it will fit.

Question 3

Will this adapter alllow me to write to a pcmcia memory card, or only read from a memory card?

Accepted Answer

The CB2EC will allow you to use CardBus cards as if they were in a native CardBus slot. You will be able to read and write to these card. However the CB2EC will only support 32-bit Type I/II CardBus cards.

Nick, StarTech.com Support

Question 4

my pci port only has 1 "notch" in it and I see this has 2, will it still work?

Accepted Answer

Yes - the two slots in the card allow it to be plugged into either a 32-bit 3.3 Volt PCI slot or a 32-bit 5 Volt PCI slot.

ASIN	B0024CV3SA
Best Sellers Rank	#204 in Internal Computer Networking Cards
Brand	StarTech.com
Compatible Devices	Desktop
Customer Reviews	4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars (321)
Global Trade Identification Number	00065030834629
Hardware Interface	PCI
Item Dimensions L x W x H	5.3"L x 2.8"W x 0.8"H
Item Weight	0.05 kg
Manufacturer	StarTech.com
Mfr Part Number	PEX1PCI1
Model Number	PEX1PCI1
Operating System	OS Independent; No additional drivers or software required
Style Name	PCI Express to PCI
UPC	065030834629
Unit Count	1 Count
Warranty Description	2 Years

StarTech PCI Express to PCI Adapter Card, TAA (PEX1PCI1)

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