4gb CF 133x $25

[GoingUp]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820208339

4GB Compact Flash CF cards. 133x

Just ordered 6 of em

 

[chazzzer]

The 8GB 133x are only $40:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820208340

Both of these are a good deal if they really perform at 133x (20MB/s). Anybody know of any benchmarks on these?

 

[Jawo]

I have been looking at the 4GB and 8GB cards as well. I have the 4GB 120x card and it works great. The only concern I have is that they may not be as fast as advertised...which could be a problem depending on use. There has to be a reason why the 8gb 133x is $40 and the 8GB 266x is $120!

 

[IvanAndreevich]

Any other good deals on CF cards? I need one.

 

[Lurker1]

I'd love to test a 266X card. Don't want to pony up $120 though.

My highest current is 133X, and it seems ok, but certainly not "fast" compare to HDDs or the like.

 

[Throckmorton]

How fast is 133x?

 

[IvanAndreevich]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
How fast is 133x?

Around 20 MB/s, IRRC.

 

[Synomenon]

How does the 133x (when used as a hard drive w/ a CF to IDE adapter) compare to a 7200rpm 2.5" hard drive?

 

[IvanAndreevich]

Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi
How does the 133x (when used as a hard drive w/ a CF to IDE adapter) compare to a 7200rpm 2.5" hard drive?

Very poorly. Good access, but shitty linear reads and writes - 2 times slower. In additions, HDDs have sophisticated caching (reading from a cache is burst speed of around 100 MB/s), while a CF card with an adaptor got nothing of that sort.

 

[Falloutboy]

could you use something like this:
http://www.1topstore.com/produ...ncy=USD&products_id=82
and raid 4 of these up in a raid 0? cableing would be a mess but should get you a very fast Solid state drive for under 100 bucks

 

[IvanAndreevich]

Originally posted by: Falloutboy
could you use something like this:
http://www.1topstore.com/produ...ncy=USD&products_id=82
and raid 4 of these up in a raid 0? cableing would be a mess but should get you a very fast Solid state drive for under 100 bucks

I suppose. However, indeed 4 IDE cables would be pretty harsh.

 

[Lurker1]

Originally posted by: IvanAndreevich
I suppose. However, indeed 4 IDE cables would be pretty harsh.

4 CFs would only require 2 cables. Considering their speed, it's probably ok to run 2 per cable. Now 8....

 

[IvanAndreevich]

Originally posted by: Lurker1

Originally posted by: IvanAndreevich
I suppose. However, indeed 4 IDE cables would be pretty harsh.

4 CFs would only require 2 cables. Considering their speed, it's probably ok to run 2 per cable. Now 8....

Ah, that's right.

However, you still need a dedicated controller - modern boards don't really have 2 IDE ports, and for sure not 2 IDE ports that support RAID.

I would be willing to bet that 74GB Raptor would outperform the makeshift solid state drive, though. It all comes down to effective caching.

 

[Scitex]

Here's a link to some CF testing that includes CF to PC/Mac read/write speeds:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bi...ulti_page.asp?cid=6007

 

[Lurker1]

Neat link - thanks!

Looks like the maximum read is around 45MB/s. That's not shabby, as there should be no seek lag. 4 (or 8) cards in RAID 0 should smoke

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: IvanAndreevich

Originally posted by: Lurker1

Originally posted by: IvanAndreevich
I suppose. However, indeed 4 IDE cables would be pretty harsh.

4 CFs would only require 2 cables. Considering their speed, it's probably ok to run 2 per cable. Now 8....

Ah, that's right.

However, you still need a dedicated controller - modern boards don't really have 2 IDE ports, and for sure not 2 IDE ports that support RAID.

I would be willing to bet that 74GB Raptor would outperform the makeshift solid state drive, though. It all comes down to effective caching.

Hehe $100 for a 16gb RAID SSD... that's enough room for like one modern game.

 

[you2]

Hum - these have been at or near this price for about 4 months not sure this is a hot deal

 

[IvanAndreevich]

Originally posted by: you2
Hum - these have been at or near this price for about 4 months not sure this is a hot deal

Well, is there a better one somewhere? I need a spacious CF card.

 

[syadnom]

The problem with RAIDing these is:
RAID0 intruduces a latency because of the computation
the RAID0 array will have no cache
Hardware IDE raid cards are not cheap, and still dont offer cache

if you were really interested in getting a very fast storage array your would need to convert CF->IDE->SATA and use a 3ware 9000 series(or similar hardware) as they have cache and support 4-12 devices. these CF will probably give you MAX of 16-20MB/s so you would need at least 4 to reach current hard disk performance levels, and would need to go up to 8 or 12 to really get a high end setup. 12x4 is only 48GB but it would be 48GB of almost 200MB/s with 32-128MB cache. This level of card also can computer RAID5 without a significant performance loss so you would be best to use RAID5 in case a CF dies on you.

 

[boha]

Consider what kind of data you're accessing. If it's a big chunk of binary data--like a level map--then what you want is a Raptor, or more than one Raptor in RAID 0. If you want fast, random access to lots of little chunks of data--like a web server wants--than this could be an interesting solution. I don't have any performance numbers, but I do know (because I have one) that dedicated fake-RAID* cards can be had for $40-50 on eBay.

*Somewhere between software RAID and real, onboard memory/processor hardware RAID

 

[Lurker1]

Originally posted by: boha
*Somewhere between software RAID and real, onboard memory/processor hardware RAID

If you're not going full dedicated hardware RAID, then skip the RAID "capabilities" of these cards, and just use straight OS based software RAID. It will save you lots and lots of heartache. You can enable software RAID in XP, if you want to hex edit 3 system files. (Software RAID used to be in all versions of NT based systems until XP... yea MS!!)

To syadnom:
RAID0 has no computational latency (That's RAID3/4/5/6 and their variations). RAID0 cache existence depends on the "drive" and controller, if there is one. Hardware IDE RAID cards worth buying for hardware RAID cost just as much as their SAS/SCSI counterparts, unsurprisingly as they use the exact same chips/hardware/software and the only difference is the output bus and protocol.

Lastly, the last time I looked at drive performance (just about a year ago) only the best drives were near 80 MB/s continuous data transfer (that's what 4 CF cards will get you). You're actually limited by the internal platter to controller transfer rates for anything outside of the cache. Just for giggles, the new velociraptors are capable of 120 MB/s sustained according to WD. I'd like to see tests confirm that, as that's usually the best theoretical numbers for the outside of the platter. There's also a seek time latency on drives (very short these days) but it's still there.

 

[TheDrake]

so this 133x speed is pretty much the same speed as the Sandisk Extreme III's?

I am curious if these would be the same quality its by far much cheaper.