StarTech.com 3.5in Drive Bay IDE to Single CF SSD Adapter Card Reader, TAA (35BAYCF2IDE)

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.

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!

my server is used mainly for data storage over the network and so i like to have as many different ports as possible onto it to make it easy to rip physical media to my network attached storage. this lets me add card ports like microSD and regular SD to my server so no more need for dongles. i use a lot of SD cards and microSD cards. i like this device because all it requires is a single USB 3.0 header to power the whole multi-card reader. you do need to buy a separate adapter to let it fit into 5.25" bays tho keep that in mind.

It works extremely well in that it does what it says, with one exception -- I DO have UHS-2 (with the second set of fingers) cards for my Canon R6Mk2, and the maximum transfer speed (to a nVME drive in my desktop) still maxes out around 90MB/sec.Now that's nothing to scream about, but its not the sort of transfer rate being claimed for some of these cards and, most-importantly, its not any different from putting the SAME card in the right-hand (no UHS-2 second set of pins support) slot.