USB 2.0 Card Reader

USB 2.0 card reader is now the standard in terms of card readers that come pre attached with your laptop or desktop.  Gone are the days of slow USB transfers, now with the news USB 2.0 card readers, transfer speed has been improved quite a bit.  You photos will transfer instantly, your videos in minutes and your music in seconds utilizing the news usb standards.

Althought USB 2.0 is rated for transfer rate upto 5.0 gbps, I highly doubt you will get speeds even 1/10th of that.  Generally the speed of your usb 2.0 card reader is bottlenecked by the speed of your PC, the RAM and the sheer processing power required to transfer the data and replicate it on the hard drive. Hard drive speed also plays a key role in determining tansfer speed.

There is also the restraint from maximum cable length for your usb 2 card reader.  Like any other usb device, there is a limit of 5 meters or about 17 feet of cable length.  This should not be any concern because normally card readers are pretty close to the computer, it would not be an issue.  If for whatever reason you are not next to the computer, then 5 meter of cable is quite a lot.  Keep in mind this is the maximum distance supported by usb 2.0 standard, not the standard size of the cables.  Generally the cables that come with your reader are no more than 5 or 6 feet.

You should purchase your usb 2 card reader from the internet.  It is usually much more reasonably priced and even with shipping fee you should come out ahead. Online you can buy a usb card reader for less than half of what the brick and mortar store charges.

Please be aware when you purchase any item online, especially a usb 2.0 card reader that it is what you need for your card. Also be sure it's usb 2 and not usb 1.1. It is best to buy all in one usb reader, this way it will meet your immediate need as well as any future need you may have for usb 2.0 card readers.