Author Topic: Big Storage Options... (Read 12871 times)

kotjmf · « **on:** January 29, 2006, 04:07:56 pm »

I've got an itty bitty paper weekly planner that I've found works much better as a PIM than my 5500, especially given my ADD-addled brain. As a consequence, the Zaurus has been sitting in a corner, lonely and unused, for about a year.

Recently, I've been looking around at mp3/ogg players, and have been rather enamored of the latest crop of flash-based video player.

"Those are neat," I think to myself, "but they're damned expensive, and if I'm gonna spend that kind of money I want something that'll let me ssh, check email, browse the web occasionally, and read ebooks."

"SSH... email... ebooks... videos... Oh. Yeah. I've got a Zaurus."

D'oh.

So I'm now determined to dust off the Zaurus, install the latest OZ or Hentges, and buy myself a big, fat SD, MMC, or CF card.

Which leads me to my question:

In y'all's humble opinions, where's the sweet spot right now for price/size/battery life with SD, MMC, CF, and MicroDrives?

I'm looking for at least 1GB, but preferably 2GB or more. Enough to have a couple or four divx/xvid movies and maybe a dozen albums.

I'm not particularly worried about splitting out my apps and my files, or swapping CF cards for wifi and storage - I don't intend to multitask, so a Microdrive would seem to be where it's at. Given that battery life sucks so bad in ideal conditions, though, I'm worried about draining the heck out of it.

Since I'm trying to do this on the cheap, price is a factor.

What do you recommend?

nailbunny · « **Reply #1 on:** February 03, 2006, 01:02:57 pm »

Quote

I've got an itty bitty paper weekly planner that I've found works much better as a PIM than my 5500, especially given my ADD-addled brain. As a consequence, the Zaurus has been sitting in a corner, lonely and unused, for about a year.

Recently, I've been looking around at mp3/ogg players, and have been rather enamored of the latest crop of flash-based video player.

"Those are neat," I think to myself, "but they're damned expensive, and if I'm gonna spend that kind of money I want something that'll let me ssh, check email, browse the web occasionally, and read ebooks."

"SSH... email... ebooks... videos... Oh. Yeah. I've got a Zaurus."

D'oh.

So I'm now determined to dust off the Zaurus, install the latest OZ or Hentges, and buy myself a big, fat SD, MMC, or CF card.

Which leads me to my question:

In y'all's humble opinions, where's the sweet spot right now for price/size/battery life with SD, MMC, CF, and MicroDrives?

I'm looking for at least 1GB, but preferably 2GB or more. Enough to have a couple or four divx/xvid movies and maybe a dozen albums.

I'm not particularly worried about splitting out my apps and my files, or swapping CF cards for wifi and storage - I don't intend to multitask, so a Microdrive would seem to be where it's at. Given that battery life sucks so bad in ideal conditions, though, I'm worried about draining the heck out of it.

Since I'm trying to do this on the cheap, price is a factor.

What do you recommend?
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

2gb, on the cheap [a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008JF0C6/sr=1-12/]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008JF0C6/sr=1-12/[/url]

pny makes a lot of cheap cards. i'm not seeing a lot of reviews, and i don't own one, so caveat emptor.

SD memory usually costs (a lot) more than CF memory. if you don't need the CF slot for something fancy, buy cf memory. you can also use CF memory to install OZ (but not SD!), OK? microdrives are strictly novelty items, when solid state memory is cheaper, more reliable, amd more power efficient. and good feckin' luck finding affordable memory over 2gb.

macemoneta · « **Reply #2 on:** February 24, 2006, 04:53:01 pm »

2GB SD now down to $69 at CompUSA, after rebate.

Ferret-Simpson · « **Reply #3 on:** February 27, 2006, 05:36:02 pm »

Microdrives AREN'T just a label.

Flash is more reliable, in that Magnetism or shock have little effect in small doses.

However. (Big, earth shaking BUT.)

Flash drives have a limited number of read and write cycles before they wear out, which is far smaller than that of a magnetic disk. That's why Microdrives were created in the first place. so Tada! You want longetivity? Microdrives. If you're gonna bash your zaurus around and leave it on top of your TV/Hifi, go Flash.

Ferret-Simpson · « **Reply #4 on:** February 27, 2006, 05:37:52 pm »

Quote

Microdrives AREN'T just a label.

Flash is more reliable, in that Magnetism or shock have little effect in small doses.

However. (Big, earth shaking BUT.)

Flash drives have a limited number of read and write cycles before they wear out, which is far smaller than that of a magnetic disk. That's why Microdrives were created in the first place. so Tada! You want longetivity? Microdrives. If you're gonna bash your zaurus around and leave it on top of your TV/Hifi, go Flash.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=116290\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Oh, forgot to also mention that the Zaurus SD card slot is FAR more limited in speed than the CF slot. So for Video, Cf.

JohnX · « **Reply #5 on:** March 01, 2006, 12:50:14 am »

IMHO, the real factors to compare flash memory CF vs micro drive CF, is cost vs power usage. A flash CF costs more than a micro drive for the same amount of space. On the other hand it soaks up almost no power when idling or reading from the card. It does take some power to write. A microdrive will take power just to sit there spinning and then more power to move the head around and read or write. Also a micro drive will take time to spin up coming back from a suspend or when you turn it off to save power. And as for the limited number of writes to flash: The minimum number of writes to a block before it dies is 100,000 with more than 1,000,000 being possible. If it were me I'd pick up a flash based CF card from a vendor that had a good warranty, and not even worry about the write limit. I've been *swapping* to the SD card in my Zaurus (when multitasking it's essentially being read from/written to constantly) since summer. In that time I've had one card die, and I really don't know if it was related to the read/write cycles or just from being moved between Zaurus and USB card reader a lot.

And as for micro drives being created for longevity: I really think their creation had more to do with making cheaper, high capacity storage for MP3 players and PMPs.

Ferret-Simpson · « **Reply #6 on:** March 30, 2006, 04:54:34 am »

Heh, that's less than a year you know, and given the current prices of the big cards Picstop ask Â£150 for a 4GB flash card. To replace that twice a year? |winces|

Ouch. . . If you're rich!

lardman · « **Reply #7 on:** March 30, 2006, 05:50:30 am »

1GB CF cards are pretty cheap. Why not just buy a handful (and you'll probably get a handful for Â£150) and swap them out when you need to.

Have one for some albums, and others for videos, etc.

Si

JohnX · « **Reply #8 on:** March 31, 2006, 03:19:58 am »

Ferret-Simpson: Heh. I'm far from rich, but even I can pull off the ~$10 to send my SD card out for replacement under warranty. Also, from the way it failed I kind of doubt that it had anything to do with a write limit. After it "died" I got nothing out of dmesg on the Zaurus or my desktop when I inserted it. I tried it on a Windows computer which also didn't even blink. It was like the thing had transmuted from flash memory to a piece of plastic shaped like an SD card. One minute it worked, the next minute any computer I plugged it into acted like it didn't exist.

Actually, this made me think about something: Has anyone had an SD card or CF card die on them that they're *relatively sure* died from exceeding it's number of write cycles? Also, how would such a card act?

Ferret-Simpson · « **Reply #9 on:** May 23, 2006, 08:26:20 am »

Hmmm. . . What have I told you about connecting your SD card directly to the Mains supply? When will you kids learn!? Three point THREE volts, not 110/230!

cho1ce · « **Reply #10 on:** May 24, 2006, 12:04:27 am »

this is a nice informative thread! thanks.

i have a couple of questions too.

is there an absolute max that the zaurus sl-5500 will accept on the sd an cf slots?
(like is there any hardware limits that would restrict size.)

also, would one of those: SANDISK SDSDX320489 2GB Extreme III SD Memory Card
) anyone know or think this is compatible?

i would like to have a massive sd card, or if there was a good working sd wifi card (an driver) then i would get a massive cf card instead, cuz i always have my linksys wcf12 in the slot, so i'm probably going to have to go with a 2 gb sd, unless theres bigger?

i mainly just want lots of space to have wav samples,instruments,mods for milkytracker, an ipks so i can install an uninstall them, when i need internal space.
TIA!
-rahn

-----
oh yeah doesnt sandisk have lifetime warranty on their sd an cfcards?

cho1ce · « **Reply #11 on:** May 24, 2006, 12:09:47 am »

Quote

Ferret-Simpson: Heh. I'm far from rich, but even I can pull off the ~$10 to send my SD card out for replacement under warranty. Also, from the way it failed I kind of doubt that it had anything to do with a write limit. After it "died" I got nothing out of dmesg on the Zaurus or my desktop when I inserted it. I tried it on a Windows computer which also didn't even blink. It was like the thing had transmuted from flash memory to a piece of plastic shaped like an SD card. One minute it worked, the next minute any computer I plugged it into acted like it didn't exist.

Actually, this made me think about something: Has anyone had an SD card or CF card die on them that they're *relatively sure* died from exceeding it's number of write cycles? Also, how would such a card act?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=121195\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

not really related to the exact nature of your question but, i had a somewhat similar situation, where i could only read an write to the sd card on my zaurus.
when i put it on my windows box it wouldnt blink either an then i reformatted it on the Z an it was able to finally be seen on my windows box.

hakujin · « **Reply #12 on:** June 21, 2006, 03:33:57 pm »

Quote

Quote
I've got an itty bitty paper weekly planner that I've found works much better as a PIM than my 5500, especially given my ADD-addled brain. As a consequence, the Zaurus has been sitting in a corner, lonely and unused, for about a year.

Recently, I've been looking around at mp3/ogg players, and have been rather enamored of the latest crop of flash-based video player.

"Those are neat," I think to myself, "but they're damned expensive, and if I'm gonna spend that kind of money I want something that'll let me ssh, check email, browse the web occasionally, and read ebooks."

"SSH... email... ebooks... videos... Oh. Yeah. I've got a Zaurus."

D'oh.

So I'm now determined to dust off the Zaurus, install the latest OZ or Hentges, and buy myself a big, fat SD, MMC, or CF card.

Which leads me to my question:

In y'all's humble opinions, where's the sweet spot right now for price/size/battery life with SD, MMC, CF, and MicroDrives?

I'm looking for at least 1GB, but preferably 2GB or more. Enough to have a couple or four divx/xvid movies and maybe a dozen albums.

I'm not particularly worried about splitting out my apps and my files, or swapping CF cards for wifi and storage - I don't intend to multitask, so a Microdrive would seem to be where it's at. Given that battery life sucks so bad in ideal conditions, though, I'm worried about draining the heck out of it.

Since I'm trying to do this on the cheap, price is a factor.

What do you recommend?
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

2gb, on the cheap [a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008JF0C6/sr=1-12/]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008JF0C6/sr=1-12/[/url]

pny makes a lot of cheap cards. i'm not seeing a lot of reviews, and i don't own one, so caveat emptor.

SD memory usually costs (a lot) more than CF memory. if you don't need the CF slot for something fancy, buy cf memory. you can also use CF memory to install OZ (but not SD!), OK? microdrives are strictly novelty items, when solid state memory is cheaper, more reliable, amd more power efficient. and good feckin' luck finding affordable memory over 2gb.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=113547\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Um you can install OZ from an SD card. I have installed OZ 3.5.4 with Opie and then with GPE and then with OPie then with Sharp ROM and then back to Opie. So SD cards do work for flashing. The card I used was a Sandisk 256MB card. I have also tried 1 sd card which was over 2GB it was an Adata SD. It didn't work. Zaurus slowed way down and never recognized the card. Also I tried a 4GB MMC card from pqi which also didn't work with the same symptoms. Does anyone know of an SD card over 1 GB that does definitely work in Zaurus. I have a poodle (sl-5600 with the pxa 255). Or CF drive micro or flash that works? Alternatively I could buy a monkey load of 1 giggers but I am lazy as hell so I would like a massive single card if possible.

Ferret-Simpson · « **Reply #13 on:** June 21, 2006, 04:39:51 pm »

PXA255? BAH!

|is secretly jealous, but can't admit to it.|

hakujin · « **Reply #14 on:** June 23, 2006, 02:30:32 pm »

Quote

PXA255? BAH!

|is secretly jealous, but can't admit to it.|
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=132255\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Would you like me to send a pic of it? :-)

News:

Author Topic: Big Storage Options... (Read 12871 times)