SL-5500 compatible CF & SD cards???

[Fraggy]

Hi there!

In december I wanna spoil my Z (SL-5500), so I'll go shopping for some accessories, but I'll need some advise here about what devices will work for the SL-5500. For example I've read that not all brands and sizes (capacity) of memory are officialy supported, but that a lot of them do work.

www.myzaurus.com says CF memory: up to 256Mb (pretec & sandisk), SD memory: up to 128Mb (only pretec). That would make my choice quite limited and the amount of memory too, hehehe. So is there any compatibility list somewhere to help me?

How about Dane-Elec (up to 2Gb CF) and they also have CF XS cards with a nice guarantee (99 months, replacement within 24h worldwide), which sounds really cool   and how about Dane-Elec's SD cards???

Then there's Kingston, Sandisk (I've read somewhere that Sandisk should better be avoided because they were very bad), Expansys cards, other brands?

I'd like to have at least 512Mb cards (both CF and SD) and even more (1Gb) if my budget will allow it.

Then I also want to buy a wireless networking card. I'm thinking about the Linksys WCF12. Is that a good choice? Or are there better / more compatible options? (Compatibility is veeery important, I don't want to loose too much time in searching / compiling drivers, but "low power consumption" would be nice too).

I'd appreciate the advise and eventually a reference to a compatibility list (also for other hardware / gadgets for the SL-5500).

[caunt]

Hi Fraggy,

I'm a newbie too, but I just jumped on a deal for a 1gb SD card from PNY.  It works fine in my 5000d!  

[Zauruman]

I bought a standard sandisk 1Gb (not the special version as Zs don't make use of the special bits IIRC) - works fine and I can bascially run my Z like a linux box

[Fraggy]

Sounds promising so far. I guess I should ask the salesguy in a PDA shop if I can test the CF / SD before I buy it, if it's an 'unkown' or 'untested' brand.

But has anybody tried to use Dane-Elec cards for his Zaurus?  I would like to hear about that, because they seem cheap and high quality (very long guarantee!). And I would like to know if the Dane-Elec "XS" series work, because they are supposed to be ultra fast!

I'd like to hear more reactions  

[Zauruman]

The "ultra fast" element will most likely not work in the 5500 but will probably work on your card reader. I only keep my SD in my zaurus at all times so it was pointless for me investing extra money for something I wouldn't actually use.

I paid £40 for a new sandisk SD on ebay (posted from Singapore IIRC) so you should be able to pick another one up for around that price...

[technojunkie]

The Z doesn't take advantage of the high speed cards, but I have learned that high speed cards tend to work better with the Z because of something related to their i/o timing. I had a standard Lexar 128MB SD card that worked fine for storage, but When I migrated to a 64-0 ROM with all data on SD it would crap out when resuming from suspend. But When I upgraded to a high speed lexar SD card the problem went away.

Just something to keep in mind.

[Fraggy]

Zauruman,

The brand sandisk is available in about every shop around me at reasonable prices, so perhaps easiest to stick with sandisk then? But what about the rumour they delivered malfunctioning cards? (Apparently they corrected that?).

For me, the SD card is meant to function as "permanent" storage (so the SD card will be used to install programs and that card will stay in the Z at all times). Therefore I think this should be at least 512Mb, 1Gb prefered...

The CF card, on the other hand, will be used as removable storage, like a diskette. The CF slot will have the Wifi card when needed, otherwise a CF memory Card with games (mame, ScummVM), mp3, movies or data. Here it could be handy to have several 128Mb cards, but for Lucas Arts adventures that are "talkies" (or the Monkey Island CD version) it would be handier to have a 1Gb card so it will be able to contain the whole Lucas Arts collection  unless I restrict myself to the non talkie versions

Offtopic:

In the end the Z is an expensive toy

I got mine (SL-5500) for only 290 euros (including leather case, extra screen protectors and a 128Mb CF card) but what's a Z without connecting it wirelessly to your LAN? (and showing off it's power by wirelessly receiving a live stream from a TV card on your LAN).
What's the Z without at least an extra CF and SD card? I got a laptop with a dead battery and I don't want my Z ending up the same way, depending on a wall outlet converting it into a not-so-portable device, so I bought a Socket Mobile Power Pack as an external battery. With all accessories, including Card Reader, it's an expensive toy  but boy, what a nice toy  

I'm a bit disappointed with the CPU power of the SL-5500 (I wonder how long it will take before the SL-5500 can't keep up with software demands anymore), but then again, it's my first PDA, so I can't complain. I hope a lot of newer models will appear quickly one after the other (already happened: SL-5600, SL-6000, C series, SL-C3000) and prices will drop quickly.
And then I'll hope all accessories & memory will still be compatible in the future, but we'll see about that.

Long live King Z.

[Zauruman]

SanDisk have a 5 year guarantee on their SD cards so hopefully you'll be OK financially. I haven't heard much trouble with them in recent months but I did hear like you there were some problems a year or so back.