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12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 PCI express USB 2.0 on Mac ProJun 10, 2007
By John E. Buckley
I expanded my MacPro with this Pci express, USB 2.0 / 5 port adapter after another card failed to work in the same machine. No problems, easy installation.
Update 9/2011
I recently updated from OS 10.6.7 to 10.6.8 and now I lose function of the card with computer sleeping. Function returns after re booting. The best solution is a no sleep preference setting so far. There is no available update or fix for this at present.
Apple Mac Pro MA356LL/A Desktop PC (Two 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processors, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive)
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Good card, false advertisingFeb 12, 2010
By Ruined
This is a good, fast, well-made and reliable card. But, you are not getting everything that is advertised when you buy one - hence the 3 stars.
Belkin says:
"The Belkin USB 2.0 5-Port PCI Express Card offers the perfect solution for users who want to add Hi-Speed USB 2.0 ports to their computers. The Card is designed to take advantage of the additional bandwidth and features provided by the new PCI Express I/O interconnection standard."
Unfortunately, this statement is false. Shortly after receiving the card I noticed a little Texas Instruments chip near the PCI-E connector, part#XIO2000A. So being suspicious, I looked it up. Turns out it is a PCI-E > PCI bridge chip! So, what you are getting here is in essence the same $30 Belkin standard PCI card that is offered elsewhere, with a bridge interface slapped on it so it works in a PCI-E slot.
Therefore, this card was *NOT* designed to take advantage of PCI-Express. It was designed as a PCI card and a bridge chip was plopped on it to make it work in a PCI-E slot - it is not native PCI-E. While it is possible the speed increase from a native PCI-E card may have been minimal anyway, the product description offered by Belkin implies that this card is native PCI-E - and the PCI-E > PCI bridge chip is a dead giveaway that this is wholly false.
So, decent piece of hardware, but very overpriced for nothing more than a bridged standard PCI card. Disappointing.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Mac Pro - Features?Feb 19, 2009
By D. Beijer
As others say, easy installation and OS identified without incident.
Installation:
I didn't bother to lay the Mac on her side as Apple recommends because there are so few contacts. I did miss getting the card tab in the proper position first time. You'll know, if it doesn't flush with the back of the computer and seat easily, try again.
Features?
Use BootCamp? Don't plug keyboard into this card. Card is not identified initially. Holding the Option key down at startup so you can boot from another disc or partition doesn't work - it boots the default Startup Disc. If you have a BootCamp partition or DiskWarrior on another HD, plug the keyboard into the Mac. Assume holding C key to boot from optical would have same problem.
My LabelWriter, if left on, would not allow Sleep when connected to the computer's USB port. It would try Sleep and then wake up. Connected to this card, LW can be on and still sleep soundly.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Installation a Success in New HP Computer with Windows 7, 64 bit, 4 core OSJul 27, 2010
By David O. Kubiatowicz
I recently purchased a new "HP Pavilion P6000 Series" (p6597c) with Windows 7 (Home Premium 64 bit, Quad Core) installed and sporting a 1 terabyte hard drive with 6 gigabytes of system memory.
The tower has 4 USB (2.0) ports in back and 2 USB (2.0) ports in front for a total of 6. But, from past experience I always needed more USB ports than those supplied.
I bought a 4 port USB PCI card at Best Buy and tried to install it in the provided plug-in slots inside the computer but the card wouldn't fit! That is when I discovered my new computer had 3 "PCI Express" slots which are meant to accept only "PCI Express" cards of a different terminal configuration. I returned the card to Best Buy and learned they didn't have any USB cards with the "PCI Express" Configuration. The idea behind the PCI Express cards is faster data transfer. The new USB 3.0 standard also has this in mind.
I logged into Amazon.com and found a "Belkin USB 2.0 5-Port PCI Express Card" Part #F5U252 (Which is on the packaging but I don't know if it is in the Amazon description). There is 1 internal port and 4 external ports. I ordered one by overnight delivery (which was only about $3.50 extra because I already have a Prime membership with 2-day free shipping).
Only then did I start reading the discouraging reviews of the product which seemed to work well on Mac machines but not so well on Windows machines!
I received the Card Monday 7/26/10 and read through the bubble pack that the system requirements were: "Windows based computer with available PCI Express slot" and "Windows 2000, XP, 2003 Server" . My new Windows 7 OS was several years away from XP. I wondered if the card was going to work. I called Belkin Technical service who said that the card was a "Plug and Play" device and it would either work or not work and it "shouldn't" harm the computer if it doesn't work. It simply would not install.
So I followed directions and used the provided CD to install the card's device driver. I then shut down the computer, opened the case (again) and installed the card.
When I booted the computer, at first I got a message in the System Tray that the "unknown" device would not install because of a faulty driver. In five minutes or so Windows (on its own) must have found a driver that worked because the message went away. The instruction booklet says: "The New Hardware Wizard will launch and recognize the card. Windows OS will automatically install the correct driver"
The instruction booklet then instructs to go to Control Panel | Device Manager | Universal Serial Bus controller and check for the presence of 2 "NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller" entries and 1 (the instructions should have said 3) "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller" entries. This I did and all were working and all had the following Windows driver version: 6.1.7600.16445 dated 6/21/2006. In fact, all the other USB ports on my computer showed the same driver. I don't know if the one provided on the Belkin CD was this driver or not but it doesn't matter. Windows used the one that worked. Each of the USB ports had a different location when looking at "Properties" for example:
1) NEC PCI 1: PCI bus 3, device 1, function 0
2) NEC PCI 2: PCI bus 3, device 1, function 1
3) Standard Enhanced PCI: PCI bus 0,device 19, function 2
4) Standard Enhanced PCI: PCI bus 3, device 1, function 2
5) Standard Enhanced PCI: PCI bus 0, device 18, function 2
Now confident that the new USB ports worked, I sequentially inserted a Flash Drive with files and photos into each port, each time removing it with the "safely Remove Hardware" icon in the right desktop tray. Each time a window popped up asking me how I wanted to open the files and I made sure I could read the files, play the video and see the photos.
Finally I rebooted the computer to see if everything still worked. It did!! In summary, installation of the USB 2.0 5-Port PCI Express Card" was a complete success after much apprehension.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Belkin wins over Dell (StarTech) USB CardAug 07, 2010
By DakotaSurfer
"DS"
I recently bought a new Dell Studio XPS 9000 system. All the bells and whistles that I needed except I had to have 4 more USB ports in the back so I could connect my (4) Maxtor external drives. When I was ordering my system the Dell sales rep suggest the PCI420USB 5-Port USB 2.0 PCI-Express Card from StarTech. This was a mistake. The card was identified when I started my system but none of my external drives would load. So I tried them in the built-in USB ports and the drives worked just fine. So being a retired tech it was obvious this StarTech card was a piece of crap. So I visited my faithful old Amazon.com and found a comparable Belkin 5-Port USB card. Exactly what I needed and thought I was getting when I ordered the one from Dell. By the time Dell added shipping the price difference was negligent since I'm an Amazon Prime member. Got the card today, installed it and hooked up my external drives. Worked perfectly, the card and all 4 drives correctly identified and working properly. I've always been a fan of Belkin components for over 20 years. They have never steered me wrong and have never had issues with their components. So if you're buying a new system and have a need like I did, buy Belkin. Dell does advertise the same Belkin card but it always says out-of-stock so they can palm off a crappy replacement plus their price for the Belkin was higher then Amazon. So hats off to Amazon and Belkin for coming to my rescue once again.
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based on 25 reviews