Fitting 2 PC cards in laptop

[Exonimus]

Hi everyone,

I've recently converted an old laptop into a home server, and I'm currently planning to extend its capacity with an external hard disk. Problem is, however, that the laptop does not have usb 2.0 nor gigabit lan. It does have two pc card slots, though, so I figured the problem was solved. However, these cards are so big that if I insert one, I doubt I'll have space for another (due to the usb/network extension) since the two card slots are right above eachother. Does anyone have any idea if there's a solution to this problem?

 

[fimbles]

How about the lan card and a cheap external usb hub? unless you really really need usb 2 ofc, or have no usb slots at all.

 

[hughva]

How about an NAS device?
This device is cheap enough and has worked well for me:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/NSLU2

 

[Exonimus]

Thanks for the replies,

While I did look into a NAS device earlier (the one in this topic is sadly not sold in my country) I found that the major downside is power management. I wrote a simple script that makes the server WoL when any pc in the house is turned on, and another script that checks if any pc is on every half hour or so. If it's not, it shuts itself down, thus saving major amounts of power. I have not found a single NAS device that does this.

I recently came across a usb 2.0 gigabit ethernet adapter. I have no idea if this'll work properly (far from gigabit speeds due to usb 2.0 limitations, I know, but still at several hundred mbits from what I heard) so I cheaply ordered one second hand.

Usb 1.0 was not an option due to an external hard disk being needed; the copying would be painfully slow over 1.0. I'm considering a samsung g3 station as the external hard disk to buy atm.

 

[Leeky]

Thinking outside of the box here....

Use one PCI slot for gigabit LAN, and then utilise a PCIMA (or however its spelt!) card slot (which most laptops have) to fit a USB2 card?? You could even consider a firewire version as well... You could piggyback external HDD's to your hearts content then.

Voila, both sorted.

 

[Exonimus]

>_> utilising a PCI slot on a laptop? That sounds like a hard to do idea.

But as I said, since I already purchased a usb 2.0 pcmcia card and a usb to ethernet gigabit adapter, the problem is probably already solved =)

 

[Leeky]

>_> utilising a PCI slot on a laptop? That sounds like a hard to do idea.

But as I said, since I already purchased a usb 2.0 pcmcia card and a usb to ethernet gigabit adapter, the problem is probably already solved =)

Yeah I sort of misread it; I assumed you'd found an internal slot, and were talking about the space between them.... haha @ myself now I've realised what I've said!