The connection may not seem important, but keep in mind that in a desktop machine you don't connect and disconnect your NIC every day. When you decide to look at PC Cards, try it out. Plug the connector into the card a few times. A good connector locks to the card and is strong enough that, if you pull on the cable, the card will pull out of the machine, although I don't advise making a habit of that. Also consider the length of the connector cable since most are either six to 10 feet, or less than 12 inches long.
Some vendors offer enhanced network performance for their cards.
Vendors such as Compaq and 3Com have cards that do parallel processing. Epson, IQ and NovaLink run their cards in full duplex. ConnectWare, D-Link and Farallon have PC Cards that take advantage of the notebook's advanced power management features. These PC Cards will stop drawing power from the laptop when it's not in use. This standard added improved compa tibility and new performance standards.