USB 2.0 Adapter Card for a Laptop

[lilFajita]

Hey ATers...I am in process of trying to purchase a USB 2.0 card for my laptop, and I was wondering what kind of price is reasonable. I saw them at Best Buy for $60...and then some random brands at Fry's for about 40 and up. Is that it, or do they get cheaper? Does brand really matter on such a thing? Thanks...I'm really clueless on this stuff.

I didn't know if this was a general hardware question or not...sorry in advance if it is!

 

[RossMAN]

You do know that your CD Burner will work with your laptop's current USB 1.1, right? It doesn't have to be USB 2.0 although it is significantly faster than 1.1 is.

I would aim for $50 or less, brand does matter a little when it comes to the quality of the product, the tech support and most importantly SOFTWARE DRIVERS ... if you buy ABC Technologies card for $40 and they go out of business in 6 months, their website goes offline and there's no more driver updates then you could be screwed ... or you could pay more like $60 and get a namebrand such as Netgear, Linksys, Adaptec, OrangeMICRO, etc. get a better product, tech support and frequent software driver updates.

I would first check your local Fry's again.

Also check out NewEgg.com and Buy.com

Or you could have bought a Compaq Presario 1500T laptop which comes with a beautiful 15.0" SXGA display, ATI Radeon 7500 32MB graphics card, TWO USB 2.0 ports and ONE FireWire port all for under $850

Oh wait did I just now describe my laptop? Why yes I did