USB 3.0 Internal Multi-Card Reader with UHS-II Support - SecureDigital/Micro SD/Memory Stick/Compact Flash Memory Card Reader , TAA (35FCREADBU3)

First and foremost, you can't go wrong with StarTech's products. They do amazing work and produce quality peripherals. I use SD cards all the time for photography and need a dedicated port on my PC for them. In the process of building a new PC, I realize no new (good) cases really come with an SD slot and if they do they are sketchy at best, so I needed something like this to add to a case that had expansion bays. With a 5.25" adapter from the same company, I was able to get this installed and working easily. The black color is great as it matches most modern cases. Since StarTech is based in North America, the experience of actually using this device is well thought out for a western mindset. The text labels makes sense, the design is intuitive, and—again—the quality is impeccable. Love that this supports the new UHS pins for next-gen SD cards on the left slot. I don't have any or devices that support them, but I bet I will someday and be happy not to have to get a different reader/adapter or settle for slower transfers. Because of the UHS SD slot, this technically has 2 full-size SD card slots which is super nice for transferring data between them or just pulling files from both simultaneously. The Micro SD slot is wonderful too (no adapters needed) and I appreciate the support for legacy CF and MS cards (though... TBH, I don't plan on ever using them). I really didn't need an additional USB port on the front, but I can see it being handy for many users. Lots of cheap imported media card readers seem like they use old technology and the fact that this is only one of a handful to use full USB 3 for all slots is kinda mind boggling. So many readers have a USB 3 header cable for the USB ports, but then utilize only USB 2 for the card reader part causing bottlenecks in transfer speed. Not to mention some of those other card readers cost basically just as much as this one! If you need a memory card reader, don't bother with the cheap crap out there unless you know you don't need the quality or speed. This one will provide top-notch transfer rates, great compatibility, and solid construction that I trust will last for years to come.

This review is for the StarTech model 35FCREADBU3, the USB 3.0 version, not the 2.0 version. I have an older PC, an i7 2600k Sandy Bridge system, on an ASUS P8P67LE MB with no onboard USB 3.0 header. That mother board comes with PCI Express 2.0. I run an Oculus Rift so had installed a 5 port Inateck USB 3.0 card, the KT5001 ($29, w/ a 20 pin USB 3.0 header), because of the sparse number of 3.0 USB ports available on my box. I chose that Inateck card knowing I wanted to add a card reader and bring at least one USB 3.0 to the front of my PC. The StarTech model 35FCREADBU3, 3.5” wide, reader is simply plug and play behind my Inatech PCIe card. I only use microSDs for active file storage on my laptop, so this review won’t cover the other card types the unit handles. In the past, it was usually faster for me to use a USB 3.0 flash drive for transfers instead of a microSD to USB adapter. First the unit’s hardware. I gave it 3 stars while the value and ease of install got 5. The microSD slot resisted the first time I put the card into the slot but with a little patience, I was able to ease the card into the slot without damaging either the card or the slot. After a few inserts, it’s much easier to slide a card into the slot. The USB 3.0 port was much more of a problem. The port has grounding springs on each side and the left one was stiff and pushed right up against the male plug inside the port. Until I forced it back a bit, plugging in a flash drive was problematic. I’m happy to say that both the USB and microSD slots work fine now. I plugged a 3.0 flash drive into the port and transferred random files and folders from the drive to a folder on my desktop. Windows 10 reports random reads as high as 121 MB/s to a low around 35 MB/s. I’d guess the average transfer rate from the flash drive at 90 MB/s for real world reads. Write speed to the microSDXC I U3 was a steady 50 MB/s +/- 2, on sequential transfer of a 0.25 GB (262,146 KB) bitmap to the card. Read speeds, transferring to the PC’s SSD, for the same file was too fast to determine. Clearly, I’m impressed enough to recommend the StarTech (3.0) unit for older PCs and the Inateck card if you don’t have a 3.0 header on your mother board. Btw, this ASUS mother board comes with PCI Express 2.0 so any later version should also work. I’ve ordered the TOOLFREE MRA916 5.25 inch to 3.5 inch Drive Bay Mounting Bracket Black Aluminum, at ~$12.

Finding a USB 3.0 internal card reader is pretty rare, for whatever reason. Many still use USB 2.0 but this one (and one by Vantec) seem to be the only ones that actually transmit the card reader over the USB 3.0 interface. Mine read an SD card just fine so no issues there. Download the driver offered by Windows so it hides all the card interfaces when you've got nothing in those slots. I will say this feels overly expensive for what it is, though. Something like this feels like it shouldn't be more than $25, even for a strictly USB 3.0 card reader.

The Multi Card Reader does what it is supposed to do, at least for SD cards and the USB port. It reads my UHS-II cards at 210 and writes them at 170 which is good. Can't test CF and MS slots. It installed easily into a 3.5" slot. The green status light and red activity lights are ok, but may clash with your PC color scheme. Drawbacks: Keep in mind it takes up one of the USB 3 mobo headers. I understand most mobos only have one, so if you connect this you will not be able to feed any other front USB3 headers. There may be splitters but from what I read they are a bit of a headache. I wish there was a way to route this into an external USB3 port. Was looking for adapters but no real luck. Instead of the green status light, I wish there was a subtle (maybe white) internal light which lights up the various slots so it is easier to find the right one to stick your card in, especially for microSD which can accidentally fall into the larger slots. But these are small quibbles, hopefully it will last a while. Will report back if it craps out prematurely. It's not super cheap, so it should provide a few years of service.

So this is the third brand I've tried of these. The other two were much more cheaply made. This Startech unit is completely enclosed in a metal case. On the previous two I tried the circuit boards were exposed and there was no surrounding case. Also, on this one, all the ports are at full USB 3 speed. Many of the other brands you will find have two separate connections: one USB 3 and the other for USB 2. On those models the ports are split and the thumb drive USB slots were USB 3.0 but the memory cards were on a USB 2.0 cable and had one quarter of the speed - which may be OK for the slower cards, but if you are using the faster SD cards, you will not get full speed with those USB 2 connections. This unit also had the longest connecting cable which was long enough to reach my USB 3.0 port on the motherboard. Both the other units I tried required buying an extension cable. One downside - Take note that this unit is the size of a small floppy disk drive and is made for the smaller 3.5 inch drive bay on the front panel of the PC. You will need an adapter (about $5) to use it in a full size (CD-Rom sized, 5.25" bay) front panel slot.

Exactly what I was needing. Works great, fast interface, sleek design, fits perfectly

All ports EXCEPT the C.F. port work perfectly as advertised. First time I tried to use C.F. port, I happened to take a look with a flashlight and pins were bent. Bought before I built my new system, old one did not support USB 3.0 natively (onboard Marvell USB 3.0 12xx controller on Asus Rampage III Gene x58 with i7 980x from 2009 or 2010 that USB 3 speeds never worked on), so kept it in the box until I built my new, Kaby Lake i7 7700k system that would support it natively on the mobo. First time I try to put a C.F. card in, NOPE NOPE NOPE. Check with a flashlight, pins bent to hell and touching. I did not jam the C.F. card; I am always careful with all my gear, and buy reliable reputable kit. StarTed stuff has always been good. I was expecting it to work as it was new, just sitting, as the USB 2.0 port on my Nikon D300 died unexpectedly, so I actually needed to use a C.F. card reader. In the end, project was saved by an old USB 2.0 card reader, also by StarTech, that I had to drive over and scavenge from my folks computer, which was also my old Rampage Gene/i7 980x system. I would gladly rescind my 1 star rating if StarTech would accommodate this unfortunate situation or reach out to me. Otherwise everything works flawlessly and fairly speedy. Granted it has sat since January of 2016, and I should have checked it out first, but I did not expect the card reader to have bent pins; a simple q&a check could have caught it. I never even unboxed or installed it until Feb 28 2017, when I built this new system.

Bought this to read camera cards as part of my media processor/server. It seems to be the only 3.5in internal card reader that supports uhs-ii via USB3, and does that extremely well, reading at over 200MBps/1.6Gbps from a V60 card to an Asus ProArt MBO & M.2 SSD; though not quite as fast as the uhs-ii reader in my Dell laptop, that achieves 250MBps/2Gbps with the same cards. Just beware that the CF slot below the uhs-ii slot has no floor to it, so it is too easy to "post" a uhs-ii card in there and thence into the bottom of the card reader's case, which then requires careful retrieval with sticky tape on a flat, flexible stick: hence the tape & label on the CF slot in the picture above!

Il prodotto rispecchia assolutamente la scheda del costruttore. Arriva in un imballo ben protetto ed il montaggio è estremamente facile. Su un computer con sistema operativo Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit è stata riconosciuta senza alcuna necessità di drivers. Per ora funziona egregiamente. Nonostante il prezzo un po' alto, la consiglio vivamente per il fatto che una porta USB 3.0 frontale fa sempre comodo, ma, soprattutto, in quanto legge anche le più recenti schede UHS-II. A voler esser precisi, peccato solamente sia presente solo nella colorazione nera e non sia compreso nemmeno il frontalino bianco sostituibile. Questa mia recensione è assolutamente autentica, rispecchia, nel bene o nel male, il mio personale giudizio sul prodotto e la mia esperienza d'uso con lo stesso. Il prodotto in oggetto è stato da me personalmente acquistato pagando l'intero importo, non sono stati utilizzati buoni o sconti e non ho ricevuto alcun demo od omaggio dal produttore.

Lo que más me agradó es que la velocidad de transferencia de datos es muy estable, mis tarjetas SD y USB van a 45MBps sin caídas, pero porque ese es el limite de dichas memorias, supongo que si le pongo algo más rápido lo lee y escribe a su máxima velocidad sin problemas

Sehr gute Qualität!

Très bien : - boitier caréné ce qui protège les composants (de la poussière ou d'autre chose). - longueur de câble suffisante : 40 cm environ en sortie de boitier, ... et non les 10 cm spécifiés dans un descriptif lu par ailleurs et qui avait été précédemment confirmé par la Stupidité Artificielle (ce qui m'a fait inutilement acheter une rallonge USB). Pas bien : 4 lettres de lecteurs mobilisées (par le système dés la reconnaissance du périphérique), ce qui pourrait être bien pour lire plusieurs cartes + l'USB en même temps, mais ne se fait généralement pas avec ce genre de lecteur, d'autant que les emplacements se gêneraient les uns les autres. Exemple : l'emplacement du lecteur microSD (pour ma part le plus utilisé/utile) juste au-dessus et trop proche du connecteur USB, n'est pas facile d'accès si un câble USB est branché (le concepteur n'a pas tenu compte des doigts et de la petitesse de la carte). Verdict : bien dans l'ensemble.

Muito bom! Melhor que já vi! USB 3.0 Rules!