Recommend A Cf Card To Replace My 31k's Microdrive

[silencer51]

Hello all,

as the title says I would like to hear your suggestions on the matter.

I am lately using my Z as a multimedia device (watching divx movies etc.).

The problem is, when a movie is playing from the microdrive, it will start smoothly (video-audio bitrates: 500 & 96 kbps respectively) but as it progresses, the microdrive gets accessed more & more causing delays, framedrops etc.

I would think that a solid state CF card will not have these problems...

I'm interested in a 4GB card.

I've been reading about the SanDisk extreme series, but it's way out of my league... It costs ~ 250 euros in Europe!  

Is a 133x card even necessary? What I mean is, are there any noticeable differences in speed between a 80x card and a 133x one when used in the Z?

I've found a great bargain - a 4gb Transcend 120x CF card for 120 euros.

Are they any good? The specs sure are nice, and it can function normally at 70 degrees celsius.

Is there anything better out there in the bang for the buck category?

[silencer51]

Anyone?

I plan on buying the card tommorow...

[iamasmith]

I can only recommend the 4Gb SanDisk Extreme III which is what I used... it's a gamble whichever card you choose but that worked well for me.

Choose a card with a lifetime guarantee if you can and low power consumption.

-Andy

[silencer51]

Unfortunately the only cards with a lifetime warranty are SanDisk ones, and the warranty is for the US only, not Europe... :-(

As for the power consumption, both cards operate at 3.3 and 5 volts, I also checked their technical datasheets, they are almost identical in the power department...

Iamasmith, do you think that a new card will solve the problem I have with large video files on my Z? I mean the occasional stuttering when reading from the microdrive...

[Cresho]

I don't see those problems on my zaurus when playing back video.  try out the method i layed out and see if its for you.

[iamasmith]

Iamasmith, do you think that a new card will solve the problem I have with large video files on my Z? I mean the occasional stuttering when reading from the microdrive...
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It is feasible that it may make enough difference. I, however, use and iPod fo video playback so can't comment.

It seems that you will run into performance limitations of the bus before the card when using these high speed cards and I find to get a real performance boost on some file system operations that overclocking really helps... the SanDisk card with the Zaurus clocked at 520 seems to run cooler than the old Microdrive/416 Mhz option.

As for the warranty... you will break the warranty of any card by fitting it internally in the Zaurus since you aren't using it within Manufacturer's recommendation... The lifetime warranty hint is really more about the manufacturer having confidence in the numeber of write cycles that the card can achieve.


-Andy

[silencer51]

What method are you refering to?

I doubt we have the same configuration...

I'm running pdaXrom 1.1.0beta3, and I'm currently using mplayer-bvdd-iwmmx with the bvdd driver installed.

My microdrive is formatted like this:

/dev/hda1/ 256mb swap
/dev/hda2 512mb ext2
/dev/hda3 the rest, fat32

The movies play off /dev/hda3. Perhaps FAT32 is the culprit?

The problem is that the first minutes of the movie play without a hitch, but then the microdrive has to be accessed in order to fill the buffer again. That's when a small pause occurs, which is really annoying...

BTW iamasmith, I found a retailer here in Greece who sells the SanDisk Extreme III 4GB for 199 euros. I figure, if I'm going to do this, I'd better do it right and get the more high end card...

[ml8]

Hello all,

as the title says I would like to hear your suggestions on the matter.

I am lately using my Z as a multimedia device (watching divx movies etc.).

The problem is, when a movie is playing from the microdrive, it will start smoothly (video-audio bitrates: 500 & 96 kbps respectively) but as it progresses, the microdrive gets accessed more & more causing delays, framedrops etc.

I would think that a solid state CF card will not have these problems...

I'm interested in a 4GB card.

I've been reading about the SanDisk extreme series, but it's way out of my league... It costs ~ 250 euros in Europe!  

Is a 133x card even necessary? What I mean is, are there any noticeable differences in speed between a 80x card and a 133x one when used in the Z?

I've found a great bargain - a 4gb Transcend 120x CF card for 120 euros.

Are they any good? The specs sure are nice, and it can function normally at 70 degrees celsius.

Is there anything better out there in the bang for the buck category?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=138423\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

For what it's worth, I have replaced the MD with a Ridata 80x 4GB CF card and files/movies open up quicker compare to MD.  I've had this setup for a few months now with the same partition setup as the MD running Cacko, and have experience no problems so far.  Hope this helps.

[zedkatuf2]

nstalled.

My microdrive is formatted like this:

/dev/hda1/ 256mb swap
/dev/hda2 512mb ext2
/dev/hda3 the rest, fat32

Hmmm...the issue might be the fact that the microdrive has the swap partition...I found performance suffered because of this: the MD is being accessed not only for the files, but also to read/write to swap.

What I've done, and I think it seems to have solved the problem, is to have a 256mb awap partition on my SD card.  I know this will wear it out eventually, but since it's a partition rather than a swap file, it'll only wear out one area of the SD card - I hope!

zedkatuf.