CFexpress card reader mounted in new PC build -- possible?

[ahsanford]

Hey all,

Finally joining this decade and picking up an R5 Mark II before too long.

I've always been an SD card shooter on my 5D for convenience and the lack of a high speed shooting need. But I'm giving that a rethink in light of pre-continuous shooting with the R5 II and my ever-so-slight uptick in shooting birds/wildlife (it's rare, but when I need a buffer I really need it). So CFexpress seems likely for me.

And I'll be building a new PC soon as well. So this thread is about the reader itself: I hate loose, dangly readers on my physical desktop, they almost always require two hands to insert a card, the cords are annoying and I don't place things like that on top of my computer case. I prefer a dedicated card slot like I've enjoyed with SD all these years.

PC Case manufacturers never made case-integrated CF readers that I can recall. Instead, component manufacturers used to make mountable modules for the front of PCs (similar to how an optical drive sits) for card readers:



Do they make those for CFexpress? I did a quick scan of New Egg and B+H and I'm not seeing anything.

- A

 

[koenkooi]

I have a PCI slot one from Deelock (https://www.delock.com/produkt/91748/merkmale.html?f=s), but that's at the back where it's hard to reach. I'm very happy with the Prograde CFe reader, it has a nicely strong magnet at the bottom that keeps it in place on my monitor stand (Ikea ELLOVEN https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/elloven-monitor-stand-with-drawer-white-50474770/). If your new PC case is ferro-magnetic, that reader will stay in place and only requires one hand, you can even mount it on the side!

 

[ahsanford]

Yeah, rear won't work for me in how my office is setup.

But a magnetic holder could work. Will check out, thx.

- A

 

[koenkooi]

[...]But a magnetic holder could work. Will check out, thx.[...]

I have the USB4 one, which is really, really fast when used on a USB4/TB port as well as the CFe+SD one, that is 'only' 10gbit/s USB3. Both are the same footprint and have identical magnets. I get around 700MByte/s out of the CFe+SD reader, which is about 3 times faster than the fastest SD card. The USB4 reader is, with the right card, 4 times faster, but that needs a USB4 port and a fast target drive.

 

[neuroanatomist]

I have the USB4 one, which is really, really fast when used on a USB4/TB port as well as the CFe+SD one, that is 'only' 10gbit/s USB3. Both are the same footprint and have identical magnets. I get around 700MByte/s out of the CFe+SD reader, which is about 3 times faster than the fastest SD card. The USB4 reader is, with the right card, 4 times faster, but that needs a USB4 port and a fast target drive.

I have the CFe+SD one, works very well. I don't need an SD slot, since my MacBook Pro and the Stone Pro dock for it both have SD slots, but I bought it before the USB4 version came out. Honestly, even though I have TB5 ports on my MBP and am writing to internal storage, 1/4 of 4 faster is still...plenty fast enough.