& Performance

Considering that the Lexar CompactFlash reader is a FireWire 800 device, it will be interesting to see if it can tickle the most out of the fastest compact flash cards on the market. The FireWire 800 interface translates into a theoretical bandwith maximum of 100 MB/s. No CompactFlash card on the market can sustain this speed. If we ever see 700x CompactFlash cards, then this maximum could be achieved. To test this, we take a UDMA Compact Flash card, capable of over 50 MB/s read and 40 MB/s write speed. Sure, we won't see these speeds with a USB 2.0 interface, but this gives us a method to show you the difference between the different card readers. The unit is compared to an external and an internal USB 2.0 based card reader and an ExpressCard 34 CompactFlash reader.


The Lexar FireWire 800 Reader manages to push the CompactFlash card very nicely. This is certainly an option if you plan to use the unit at home or if your notebook already has an FireWire 800 port. However, the PCIe based ExpressCard 34 reader - available for around 25 US Dollars - manages to outperform the Lexar variant by a fairly large margin. The unit was connected to a PCIe x1 based FireWire 800 card with a Texas Instruments OHCI conform host controller.