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    A couple of questions about the 1705 usb/pci-e ports.

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by JoshRose, Dec 17, 2006.

  1. JoshRose

    JoshRose Notebook Enthusiast

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    Ok, first of, in my device manager it shows one of my usb ports as a "usb 2.0"

    I have an external hard drive that is usb2 compatible, so I would like to use it with that port, but how do I determine which port on the computer that actually is?

    As for the PCI-E port on the right side of the computer, what is everyone using it for? I haven't found a use for it yet, since the computer already has a firewire. I'm just curious as to what else I might use it for? Is there any type of performance enhancing card that you can slip in there? I figure I might as well put it to use if I can think of a reason to.

    Perhaps maybe some type of musician interface that has 1/4 inch jacks or something. That would be handy. Anyhow, what do you use it for?
     
  2. logume1881

    logume1881 Notebook Consultant

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    As far as I know, all the ports are 2.0. I don't use the ExpressCard slot for anything because the cards I would use aren't available yet.
     
  3. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    As far as I know, all of the ports on the Inspirons are 2.0, so you should be able to use your ext. hard drive with any of them without any problems.

    As for the PCI E- this is relatively a new technology. Before Core Duo, most laptops had PCMCIA cards, and there are several cards that are helpful to consumers. Things like sound cards, tv tuners, etc. PCI E does have a few cards that are available and should have new one coming out in the future. Here is a list of some cards available:
    http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/cons_wtb.jsp