Review on StarTech Com Internal Multi Card Reader Support by Cody Michels

I just assembled a new desktop PC and wanted a memory card reader among other things. I have several digital cameras and it was important to be able to insert their memory cards into a reader to transfer photos to my desktop. I tried to migrate an old card reader from a previous build to a new computer but couldn't find any drivers for it. While Win 10 is really good at finding working drivers for addons, I think the reader in this case is just too old and doesn't seem to have the necessary built-in ability to work on its own. So I bought this Startech.com branded reader. Why? Well, with all the internal card readers I've read in reviews, the thought of buying one of them made me feel like I was in danger of wasting my money. Either the material and/or build quality concerns mentioned in the feedback, issues with actually being firmly bonded to the case, issues with early failures, not working on first use, etc. If not, I really wanted the internal reader to be decent looks and doesn't have to deal with a loose cable wrapping around the top of my PC case, then I would order one of the external card readers, which have gotten much better overall. Reviews, not only for the transfer speed, but also for durability and reliability! But I needed an internal reader, so I went with what I know: I've bought several Startech.com branded products over the years and they all worked well and still work, so I bought this one. Well it fits securely, looks well built, the connectors allow all the different cards to fit properly and function as they should. Is it the best or ideal? Just no. Printing on ports is hard to see (white case would be better, with black letters), CF port doesn't let card go very far, so you need to be very careful when using CF card to align your seat properly before inserting it, otherwise you will bend the pins. This could be disastrous for future use of the reader. If the connector on the small motherboard were moved further back in the reader, the alignment slots on the two side edges of the card could snap more fully, and this would allow the card to align and support itself much better. This seems to be ubiquitous in most modern internal memory card readers. Why? I don't know, so be careful with any CF card when using an internal reader. Neither of the two CF cards I have could be read by this card reader. Is it a reader or cards? Well, I don't know either. I can read them with the old external USB card reader used on the new device, but moving those cards back to the new reader doesn't allow it. I can't help but think it's just a compatibility issue as these two CF cards are also very old, just like the first generation CF. All other ports work very well with my other cards, as does the built-in extra USB 3.0 port that the reader comes with. So do I recommend this Startech.com card reader? Yes, provided you use modern memory cards. If you happen to be reading old maps, that's the icing on the cake. I've used a PC long enough to remember that many of the things you've wanted to do on a computer had compatibility issues. Not everything that is older is necessarily better! 9/16/21: I wanted to update my review after having a few more days to use the Startech card reader. I've previously noticed that it wasn't reading my two old CF cards and figured it was probably a compatibility issue. Well that seemed like the right thing to do when I stumbled across a Hitachi branded microdrive and tried it. If you're not familiar with these little card drives, I'm not surprised. They are almost as old as the original CF 1 cards and have a similar structure to CF cards. They use the same pins as CF and if your reader has a large enough opening (top to bottom) they will be read by the CF card reader. What made them attractive was that their skills were much higher than the early CFs. My two CF cards are 128MB and 256MB and I think when I bought them the 256 was the largest CF 1 card I could use. My Microdrive is 2GB, which was huge back then! I believe the Microdrive format can go up to 8GB (on paper) but the largest I've seen was 6GB. You can still find these cards for sale, but they only appear to be used. What counts in any case is that the Startech reader reads and writes like a champion on the microdrive! This makes the Startech card reader an excellent choice and works well with almost all memory cards currently in use. Hope this helps with the decision.