I looked it this on amazon and the reivews say it needs a seperate power supply to get the USB3.0 speeds which isn't possible in many machines. I have no idea what that involves. I think I'll stick with the tried and tested internal HDD. Thankds for all the advice.
No idea what you're referring to. Please quote the URL for whatever it is that you say you read.
The Transcend card is simply an internal PCIe x1 card. Inserts into a PCIe x1 slot, just like any other PCIe x1 card... Creative X-Fi, etc. All power to it comes from the PCIe bus. Nothing external or "separate power supply" about it at all. I have no idea what kind of customer review of this $13 card would claim it needs an external power supply. It doesn't.
As far as the external USB drive, well of course it has the usual 12V AC/DC power adapter that plugs into the wall. Same for any external drive. You need to power it, and it's a drive, so it does not get power from the USB connection. It needs to be plugged into the wall through its power adapter (just like a router or most other similar external devices). I'm sure ANY external drive or external drive adapter kit (e.g. that convert IDE or SATA drives to USB) of any kind, has the same need. This is not unusual. I don't mind plugging an external drive into the wall through a standard AC power adapter.
So... what Amazon review (URL), of which device, makes you unhappy?
This one as wanted to check if available in the UK
Transcend PCI Express Interface USB 3.0 Dual Expansion Card: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
a number of the reviews mention needing a powersupply off the Molex socket. Mention of only running at USB2 speed without it
Amazon.co.uk: Customer Reviews: Transcend PCI Express Interface USB 3.0 Dual Expansion Card
Oh... completely forgot about this. There is actually a 4-pin MOLEX socket on the card, for internal connection to your power supply. That's true. Absolutely correct. My oversight.
But this isn't any different from having an internal hard drive which needs 12v power (either MOLEX plug or SATA plug), or most modern higher-end video cards which need supplemental 6-pin PCIe power plugged into a socket on the card.
So yes, it was so unimportant to me that I'd forgotten I had to plug a MOLEX cable branch from my power supply into the Transcend PCIe card. Hardly an issue. And if you're going to remove your internal hard drive you can just pull its power cable over to the other side of the case, or split any existing cable from your power supply with a Y-adapter to get power over to the Transcend card.
Anyway, it's nothing special for me. Certainly I was willing to provide it with power to get USB 3.0 capability.
Same as I'm willing to allocate two adjacent slots to use a modern PCIe x16 video card (e.g. my ATI HD5770 and HD4850 and HD4670 and HD3850) which all take up two slots in its width and also require a 6-pin PCIe power cable to them (they can take up to 75 watts of power from these cables, by themselves).
ok great doesn't sound as bad as people were making out. thanks for the suggestions as seems a bit more future proof and flexible.
Quote