• Overview
  • Tech Specs
  • Accessories

Add SuperSpeed USB Connections to Your MacBook Pro or PC Notebook Computer

USB 3.0 Ports IllustrationYour MacBook Pro or PC notebook computer has USB 2.0 ports, and they’ve served you well. Talk about compatibility—keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, joysticks, digital cameras, flash drives—what couldn’t you plug in? Talk about performance—well, that’s where USB ports 2.0 are merely passable—they limit data transfer speeds to around 25–30 MB/s. For most peripherals, that’s perfectly adequate, but when you connect an external drive and expect great performance, that bottleneck is a problem—video editing, backing up, and other data-intensive activities suffer as a result. Enter Sonnet’s USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 adapter(1), the bottleneck breaker! This Sonnet host controller is based on the new USB 3.0 standard that offers up to 10x the performance of the decade-old USB 2.0 interface. A single hard drive with a USB 3.0 interface is capable of transferring data at up to 125 MB/s, while SSDs (solid state drives) are capable of even faster transfers—insert Sonnet's USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 adapter into your notebook computer's ExpressCard slot to exploit the full performance potential of these fast drives.

Sonnet’s USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 works in ExpressCard/34 and ExpressCard/54 slots. This card supports hot-swappable storage connections. Insert Sonnet's USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 adapter into your MacBook Pro or PC notebook to experience the super speed of USB 3.0 connectivity firsthand.

 

Key Features

Adds USB 3.0 Connectivity—Simple way to add two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports to a MacBook Pro or PC notebook computer with ExpressCard/34 slot

Super Fast USB 3.0 Speed—Transfers data up to 10x faster than over USB 2.0 connections

Supports Hot-swappable Device Connection—Plug in and disconnect peripherals without shutting off your computer

Shadow

USB 3.0 Hard Drives and SSDs

Use Sonnet’s USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 with your MacBook Pro or PC notebook to exploit the full performance potential of the latest hard drives and SSDs with a USB 3.0 interface.

 

See Tech Specs Tab for footnotes
Part No.  
USB3-2PMA-E34 Discontinued
Hardware  
Warranty 1-year
Bus Interface ExpressCard/34, PCI Express 2.0 interface
Peripherals Supported(1)(Mac OS X) USB 3.0 and 2.0 hard drives(1), SSDs, thumb drives, and media readers
Peripherals Supported (Windows) Supports industry standard USB 3.0, 2.0, and 1.1 peripherals
Peripheral Power Available Provided by computer's USB 2.0 port(2) via included cable
Cables Supported USB 3.0 with Standard-A male connector, USB 2.0 with Standard-A male connector
Chipset Fresco Logic
USB Support  
Number of Ports 2 external
Standard Complies with OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface), EHCI (Enhanced Host Controller Interface), and xHCI (eXtensible Host Controller Interface) standards
Data Transfer Rate USB 3.0: 5 Gbps
Number of Devices Supported Up to 31
Hot Plug Supports hot-pluggable and hot swappable device connection
Package Contents
  • USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 host controller card
  • Documentation

 

Specifications subject to change without notice.

 

 

 

 

Mac Compatibility

MacBook® Pro (with an ExpressCard slot)

OS X® 10.8.5+

macOS Sierra compatible

PC Compatibility

PC notebook (with an ExpressCard slot)

Windows® 10, 8, 7, Vista®, XP (SP2)


Technical Notes

  1. USB 3.0 devices require USB 3.0 cables to support USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed) transfer speeds (up to 5 Gb/s). Use of USB 2.0 cables between USB 3.0 devices and USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 is supported, but data transfers are limited to USB 2.0 speeds (up to 480 Mb/s).
  2. This may be insufficient power to support USB 3.0 bus-powered 2.5" hard drives or SSDs.



Mac LogoWindows LogoUSB 3.0 Logo ExpressCard/34 Logo roHS Logo

 

Product image Product Name Part No. Description
ExpressCard/34 to 54 Stabilizer ExpressCard/34 to 54 Stabilizer E34-E54-BK Brace for stabilizing an ExpressCard/34 adapter card in an ExpressCard/54 slot