OESF Portables Forum
Everything Else => General Support and Discussion => Zaurus General Forums => Archived Forums => Accessories => Topic started by: Anonymous on December 08, 2003, 10:14:52 pm
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I just noticed that the 360 MB Micro drvie was coming in around $70. Does the 5600 support these things?
markpmc
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yes, the microdrive will work fine on the 5600...
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It supports them fine but they generate a little heat, not so much so that it\'s unusable / hot.
I also think they\'ll chew up the battery more than a regular flash CF card, but this one I\'m speculating on.
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<quote>I also think they\'ll chew up the battery more than a regular flash CF card, but this one I\'m speculating on.</quote>
can someone collaborate on this ?
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I\'m no physics major, but I think it\'s pretty much a no-brainer that physically spinning a platter (no matter how small) is going to use more energy than just accessing memory when you need it. (The \"flash\" part of CompactFlash)...Yup, here you go:
IBM Microdrive 1G/340MB specs: http://www.premierelect.co.uk/microdrive.html (http://www.premierelect.co.uk/microdrive.html)
Sandisk CompactFlash guide (look for \"mA\", match case) http://www.sandisk.com/pdf/oem/ProdManualC...CFlashv10.1.pdf (http://www.sandisk.com/pdf/oem/ProdManualCFlashv10.1.pdf)
It looks like the \"writing\" is about 5x less, and the \"sleep/standby\" is...Ummm...? I don\'t remember how to read that one. 10x less? 100x less? 1000x less?
Plus my favorite part, right above that table: \"Shock, Operating: 2,000 G maximum\". Hehe. 2,000 Gs....cooooool.... I might be pulped, but my CF card....SURVIVES!!!
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You\'d be surprised how many Gs a fall can generate for a small PDA (really). Anyway, just a couple of things about the MD as I\'ve been using one for years... Firstly, the 340mb MD is power hungry. IBM actually made the 1mb and 500mb versions (you cant find the 500mb ver anymore, they barely made many) less power hungry, as this was a big concern with the 340mb. However, given you have a 5600, this wont be too bad. When I used to use my 1gb md with my 5500, it would die pretty quickly. Secondly, I think the 340mb is a bit better than the 1gb when it comes to spinup/spindown. My 1gb does it CONSTANTLY, I guess to conserve power, but everytime it does, it pauses the whole pda while it spins up to access data. Not killer, but irritating. And the worst thing about it, is when I come out of suspend, it umounts, then remounts the drive. I dont know why it has to do this, but it\'s quite irritating and slows the machine to a crawl as it does. After say 5-7 seconds, everything stabilizes, and everything is okay, but it pretty much negates instant-on usage.
Now the above is with a 1gb MD, which may be more prone to \"power conservation\" (ie constant spindown/spinup cycles), so the 340mb may not be quite as finicky, but you might want to try it out if possible. However, I dont think you\'re going to get away from the umount/remount issue. In today\'s market, I\'d recommend a larger mem card unless you\'re aiming to buy in the 2gb range. Price wise, I just picked up a lexar 12x 512mb card for ~CAD$150 which is just over USD$100.
Yz
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I find that the 5600 is significantly warmer than the c700/760 ... It\'s immediately noticeable.
Yet another item in the long list of why I prefer the clamshell model.
Scott
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In integrated microdrive would be the feature tres cool on a Z. Just imagine a C860 with 2 GB of diskspace...
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You don\'t have to imagine it: Sandisk already makes a 2GB CF card ($600 tho)! I heard rumors of a 4GB coming a few months back... ;-)
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Pretec announced a 6gb card in March this year (should be out now!).
It wasn\'t cheap £7000, but they did drop the price of the 3gb card as well.
http://www.mobigeeks.net/e/forum/showthrea...hp?threadid=538 (http://www.mobigeeks.net/e/forum/showthread.php?threadid=538)
Peter
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Ohhhh damn ... i did not realize that the units were not solid state ram cards.
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i had a ibm microdrive...i only recommend those for photographers....since you usually pop the drive in and out, you can run into the problem of conpressing the motor in the case and making it unusable...i destroyed 2 of these 2 g\'s so i stuck with compact flash only..
i curently have a 1gb/
Cresho