One particular PC component that a lot of PC builders miss is the card reader. While true you don’t need one, they are oh-so convenient to have – and dirt cheap.
These days the only good use for the 3.5-inch bay where the floppy drive goes is a card reader. Nobody uses floppies anymore and haven’t for years – yet I bet there’s still a fair lot of you out there with a floppy drive in your computer box. If so, you’re way overdue to let that go and and put something in the bay that actually will be used.
To the best of my knowledge, nearly all card readers sold today are in the 3.5-inch size and also mount and connect the exact same way a 3.5-inch floppy drive would, so this isn’t anything you can’t handle.
Which card reader should you buy?
You should buy the one that has the physical memory formats you use now. For example, some card readers have memory stick support and some don’t. Some support CompactFlash and others don’t.
Not sure which to get? The Rosewill RCR-IC001 is what you want for the following reasons:
- It supports CF (CompactFlash)
- It supports MS (Memory Stick)
- It supports just about every other type of card you can think of
- It has a black face plate but comes provided with a free extra silver face plate
- It has LEDs on the front to tell you when something is in use
- It gives you an extra easy-access USB 2.0 port
The only thing I could find that the IC001 doesn’t support is xD, used by some digital cameras. If you need xD support, get the SABRENT CRW-UNIB instead.
If there’s a format you want to check and see if the card reader supports or not, just click the "Details" tab for the linked products above and look for "Compatibility". It will look like this:
From there you can check to see if what you use is supported by the card reader.
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