If your board has a 1.3 ghz core 2 duo u7700 processor then NO there is no PCMCIA adapters that will help your video or cpu. You are way beyond any of those older things that might.... just my opinion.

Horun wrote on 2023-05-20, 02:24:

If your board has a 1.3 ghz core 2 duo u7700 processor then NO there is no PCMCIA adapters that will help your video or cpu. You are way beyond any of those older things that might.... just my opinion.

I thought that would be the case, integrated graphics is limited to 8mb so I thought I would see if there was anything out there and I love fixing up old computers and learning about the tech i missed 😀. or possibly could be used as ram or cache. Thank you. I am guessing the best use would be as swap space but I wanted to investigate some options.

If your laptop was say a Dell Vostro then you might internally upgrade the video like the 1500 which has a upgrade to nV8600 w/256Mb VRAM. I have one with the opted upgrade when I ordered it decades ago.
Do not think there were many others that you could do that to.. but could be wrong...

Horun wrote on 2023-05-20, 03:44:

If your laptop was say a Dell Vostro then you might internally upgrade the video like the 1500 which has a upgrade to nV8600 w/256Mb VRAM. I have one with the opted upgrade when I ordered it decades ago.
Do not think there were many others that you could do that to.. but could be wrong...

No that was not common unless you paid a high price, and the dell latitude d430 notebook (though expensive in those days) does not have the slot, despite them being very close and running the same or similar chip sets, operating systems, and bios.

I also have a compaq contura 430c 😀

vanquishedangel wrote on 2023-05-20, 00:54:

Hi guys and thank you for reading this. […]
Show full quote

Hi guys and thank you for reading this.

I am fixing up an old dell d430 and have taken it apart and rebuilt it with various parts and I am down to the last few components. I have been reading on PCMCIA cards and came across a few things. To note it is running q4os debian linux. (I was alive and well in the era these were used but sadly have little experience other then wifi cards of the time)

The laptop has 1.3 ghz core 2 duo u7700 processor (I swapped out the motherboard)

2 gigs ram (max)

bluetooth module (installed on motherboard)

upgraded to intel wifi with 5ghz

cellular modem (getting upgraded to 4g capable)

upgraded to SDD using a ziff to m.2 adapter

This notebook has a pcmcia slot and I would like to make the best use of it and read that there was pcmcia cards that could improve on board graphics performance and other things. I have also read about the different storage devices like ata and sram etc. I need more understanding of these devices before I make my decision on what card to buy. I can use storage as swap space but I am not sure speed wise if it would be worth it. I see that PC card type 2 can go up to 133mbs almost doubling the ziff HD limit of 85mbs so I guess storage used as swap would be worth it.

Are there PC cards that can improve internal graphics performance? processor performance? Any other ideas?

You've probably seen these thraeads dedicated to different types of PCMCIA cards. Post them just in case yo haven't.
PCMCIA Sound PCMCIA Sound Cards
Storage PCMCIA Storage
Graphics PCMCIA Graphics and Video decoding cards

The problem is that most of those cards are 16 bit and won't work on anything newer than Windows 98. Except for storage cards and some network cards.
Your laptop has 32 bit Cardbus port, which is less fun in my opinion, but still there are many interesting cards to try. LIke TV tuners, video caprure cards, video cards (VTbook with some basic 3D acceleration), sound cards and on. I'm still using my Creative Audigy ZS Notebook, which is a great card for bit accurate digital(optical) output and also has a decent DAC for audio playback, and also supports EAX.
Another potentially useful card is a 3G modem, like Merlin u740.
As for improving internal graphics, there were MPEG decoder cards, but not sure they can be useful for your laptop. I used one with Pentium 233 laptop.

To add to what Bondi wrote, there are also external docks with PCI slots that use a Cardbus card to connect to a laptop.

Your laptop supports ExpressCard 34, you should look more into that type of cards for a performance boost: USB3.0, eSata, and adapters to full size PCIe or M.2 miniPCIe.

lolo799 wrote on 2023-05-22, 12:11:

To add to what Bondi wrote, there are also external docks with PCI slots that use a Cardbus card to connect to a laptop.

Your laptop supports ExpressCard 34, you should look more into that type of cards for a performance boost: USB3.0, eSata, and adapters to full size PCIe or M.2 miniPCIe.

I like this and looked into it but I can not find documentation to say that the d430 supports expresscard. It was published that many in the model line do support expresscard 34 both usb and pci, but, it must be 34mm and through an pcmcia to expresscard adapter, this would negate speed gains.

Question asked that I found that was answered: https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-Genera … rt/td-p/3177829

Manual: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc … CnMFkqBqFw6QCke

If there is documentation that would be great, but I can not find any.

Bondi wrote on 2023-05-22, 08:12:

You've probably seen these thraeads dedicated to different types of PCMCIA cards. Post them just in case yo haven't. PCMCIA Sou […]
Show full quote

vanquishedangel wrote on 2023-05-20, 00:54:

Hi guys and thank you for reading this. […]
Show full quote

Hi guys and thank you for reading this.

I am fixing up an old dell d430 and have taken it apart and rebuilt it with various parts and I am down to the last few components. I have been reading on PCMCIA cards and came across a few things. To note it is running q4os debian linux. (I was alive and well in the era these were used but sadly have little experience other then wifi cards of the time)

The laptop has 1.3 ghz core 2 duo u7700 processor (I swapped out the motherboard)

2 gigs ram (max)

bluetooth module (installed on motherboard)

upgraded to intel wifi with 5ghz

cellular modem (getting upgraded to 4g capable)

upgraded to SDD using a ziff to m.2 adapter

This notebook has a pcmcia slot and I would like to make the best use of it and read that there was pcmcia cards that could improve on board graphics performance and other things. I have also read about the different storage devices like ata and sram etc. I need more understanding of these devices before I make my decision on what card to buy. I can use storage as swap space but I am not sure speed wise if it would be worth it. I see that PC card type 2 can go up to 133mbs almost doubling the ziff HD limit of 85mbs so I guess storage used as swap would be worth it.

Are there PC cards that can improve internal graphics performance? processor performance? Any other ideas?

You've probably seen these thraeads dedicated to different types of PCMCIA cards. Post them just in case yo haven't.
PCMCIA Sound PCMCIA Sound Cards
Storage PCMCIA Storage
Graphics PCMCIA Graphics and Video decoding cards

The problem is that most of those cards are 16 bit and won't work on anything newer than Windows 98. Except for storage cards and some network cards.
Your laptop has 32 bit Cardbus port, which is less fun in my opinion, but still there are many interesting cards to try. LIke TV tuners, video caprure cards, video cards (VTbook with some basic 3D acceleration), sound cards and on. I'm still using my Creative Audigy ZS Notebook, which is a great card for bit accurate digital(optical) output and also has a decent DAC for audio playback, and also supports EAX.
Another potentially useful card is a 3G modem, like Merlin u740.
As for improving internal graphics, there were MPEG decoder cards, but not sure they can be useful for your laptop. I used one with Pentium 233 laptop.

So far I bought a 2gig Amtron Industrial ata flash PCMCIA card to use as swap space. This may help relieve the 85mbs upper limit on the ziff hard drive connection when loading and also have less wear on the ssd. Generally speaking older devices almost always work in Linux, even in newer Linux environments. You may know or not know Linux, but swap space kinda functions as a ram extension when the device has too little ram. The limit for speed will be about 50-60 mbs on the amtron card. expresscard would have been great because of the increased speed.

vanquishedangel wrote on 2023-05-22, 16:15:

I like this and looked into it but I can not find documentation to say that the d430 supports expresscard. It was published that […]
Show full quote

lolo799 wrote on 2023-05-22, 12:11:

To add to what Bondi wrote, there are also external docks with PCI slots that use a Cardbus card to connect to a laptop.

Your laptop supports ExpressCard 34, you should look more into that type of cards for a performance boost: USB3.0, eSata, and adapters to full size PCIe or M.2 miniPCIe.

I like this and looked into it but I can not find documentation to say that the d430 supports expresscard. It was published that many in the model line do support expresscard 34 both usb and pci, but, it must be 34mm and through an pcmcia to expresscard adapter, this would negate speed gains.

Question asked that I found that was answered: https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-Genera … rt/td-p/3177829

Manual: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc … CnMFkqBqFw6QCke

If there is documentation that would be great, but I can not find any.

It's right on page 55, it supports ExpressCard 34 through an adapter, as for speed, you'll have to experiment, PCIe graphic card may work better than the integrated intel 945 chip.

I'm not sure a 16bit pcmcia flash storage card will work at 32bit cardbus speed, thus even more limiting your purpose...

lolo799 wrote on 2023-05-22, 19:44:

vanquishedangel wrote on 2023-05-22, 16:15:

I like this and looked into it but I can not find documentation to say that the d430 supports expresscard. It was published that […]
Show full quote

lolo799 wrote on 2023-05-22, 12:11:

To add to what Bondi wrote, there are also external docks with PCI slots that use a Cardbus card to connect to a laptop.

Your laptop supports ExpressCard 34, you should look more into that type of cards for a performance boost: USB3.0, eSata, and adapters to full size PCIe or M.2 miniPCIe.

I like this and looked into it but I can not find documentation to say that the d430 supports expresscard. It was published that many in the model line do support expresscard 34 both usb and pci, but, it must be 34mm and through an pcmcia to expresscard adapter, this would negate speed gains.

Question asked that I found that was answered: https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-Genera … rt/td-p/3177829

Manual: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc … CnMFkqBqFw6QCke

If there is documentation that would be great, but I can not find any.

It's right on page 55, it supports ExpressCard 34 through an adapter, as for speed, you'll have to experiment, PCIe graphic card may work better than the integrated intel 945 chip.

I'm not sure a 16bit pcmcia flash storage card will work at 32bit cardbus speed, thus even more limiting your purpose...

You were correct and I even looked at that, but as I said, it is by adapter which means it really does not support express card and will be limited but the pcmcia slot anyway unless I am missing something. I will see how the amtron works but I think it will be great for my needs. we will see.

vanquishedangel wrote on 2023-05-23, 04:09:

You were correct and I even looked at that, but as I said, it is by adapter which means it really does not support express card and will be limited but the pcmcia slot anyway unless I am missing something. I will see how the amtron works but I think it will be great for my needs. we will see.

I'm completely unfamiliar with Expresscard, you were right.
Cardbus adapters only support Expresscard using USB 2.0 mode and don't work at all with the PCIe cards, so it limits your use to those:
https://www.synchrotech.com/support/tech-notes-01.html#ECA16
Best would be an Expresscard ssd in usb mode, such as this http://www.datafab.com/product/p2express_SSD.asp but its performance aren't exactly amazing:
Read/Write: 32/22 MB/sec

So to report the Amtron 2 gig card is doing well. At first I noticed no real difference, boot times were about the same. So I put it under load. I filled about 640 mb on the card under a stress test using it as swap and there was a perceived performance boost and that apps appeared to resond faster, but this was also backed by a noticeably faster wake from sleep time. Generally when returning from sleep I have to wait about 1 minute before the mouse will respond and longer if apps are running. This changed to just a few seconds before the mouse responded.

I suspected that at a certain point, the bottle neck from the ziff connection to the hard drive was being made worse when loading a program and swap was needed. This would happen because a program was trying to load from the hard drive but memory would run short so the computer would swap out the ram content to the swap space on the hard drive, competing for limited bandwidth (85mbps max). I figured at the very least, this will reduce writes to the hard drive (ssd) making it last longer.

To note I also installed software to better handle entropy, so this could also be due to that. I think it could be both.