The device allows for data transfers of up to 600 MB/s

Feb 27, 2015 10:45 GMT  ·  By

Most motherboards in use today have at least one or two SATA III 6.0 Gbps ports, usually more, so there isn't anything that can prevent high-end HDDs and SSDs from working at their best.

Still, maybe you have one more than you have SATA ports, or perhaps the drive doesn't work as fast as it could over the normal interface.

Or maybe you have a relatively restricted PC (small case maybe) or Mac Pro and would appreciate a way to use a 2.5-inch SSD you have lying around.

Getting an external USB case is one method, but if you want something more permanent and your motherboard has a free PCI Express slot, you can use the new device from VisionTek.

The VisionTek DriveXpander

The VisionTek DriveXpander is a 2.5-inch drive expansion slot adapter which will connect a SATA drive to a PC through a PCI Express or legacy PCI slot.

On PCI, the performance won't be all that great at all, but when installed on a PCI Express slot, the data transfers should go as high as 600 MB/s.

That's just about the same limit that SSDs reach, or come close to, when installed normally inside a computer system.

The drive can have up to 2 TGB of storage, which is more than most solid state drives can manage, but not that odd for HDDs. On the flip side, HDDs won't be able to work as quickly as SSDs potentially could.

Interestingly enough, the expansion card has a back panel entry hatch, through which an SSD can be pushed or pulled out.

This means that the DriveXpander offers hot-swap functionality, allowing any SSD, yours or your friend's, to be connected to the PC on the fly, like you would a flash drive via USB.

HTPCs will probably appreciate the extent to which this expands the media library already stored on them, and the recording options opened for TV programs thanks to essentially unlimited storage potential.

Availability

The VisionTek DriveXpander has a price of $19.99 / €17.82 and is already up for sale through VisionTek and retailers or e-tailers like Amazon, Tifer Direct. Dell has also joined in, along with D&H and Ingram Micro.

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VisionTek DriveXpander (3 Images)

VisionTek DriveXpander
DriveXpander installedDriveXpander, closed latch
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