CF or SD?

NachoDog · 11-05-04, 11:32 AM

What are the pros and cons to each? Why the need for CF expansions if most ipaqs come with the SD slot?

whitelyt · 11-05-04, 11:58 AM

Most people would say the CF is on its way out. Certainly SD is much more appealing because it is more compact. However CF will be around for awhile. Atleast for me CF expansion is important because there are CF accessories on the market that is not offered in SD. Also higher capacity cards are available in CF. Whether affordable or not you can get CF cards above 8GB in size. SD cards are just getting to 2GB. Capacity is important to some people and CF can offer higher capacity. Plus CF cards are faster in some cases.

Kenundrum · 11-05-04, 01:24 PM

i used to swear by SD cards, never owned a CF card in my life... but now that i have a dual slot pda again, i'm back in the market and wondering about cf now that i actually have a need for 4gb on my pda- for dvd movies

imported_Pogi · 11-05-04, 07:13 PM

CF
pros: higher capacity, can be faster than sd
cons: microdrives are slow

bulky compared to sd cards

SD
pros: higher compatibility with other tech gadgets (cameras, laptops, etc.)
cons: more expensive, can be slower than cf, limited to 2GB

why the need for a compact flash expansion sleeve? GPS, wifi are better suited to be used using the CF slot as the width of the card is less prone to being broken, rather than a sd powered gps or wifi card..

MACMANIA4U · 11-06-04, 10:26 AM

I've switched from Palm to PPC and now that a have CF, I can't live without it.

linguistdude · 11-06-04, 11:52 AM

you need CF and SD simply because it lets you have more memory than SD alone

Cheryl · 11-06-04, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linguistdude

you need CF and SD simply because it lets you have more memory than SD alone

That's my belief

. Two slots are better than one!

Dreamer 66 · 02-12-05, 11:34 PM

For me it's pretty simple. On my 2215 I love the dual slots because it allows me to use a 5gig Seagate CF microdrive (movies, music, pictures, whatever) as well as using the SD slot for a WiFi card. I also use an old 256mb SD card for periodic system back ups. Best of all worlds.

Now if I could just solve the pathetic battery life issue.

slashlos · 02-13-05, 11:53 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does CF always mean the same as a microdrive? I had thought that CF was a media format, slightly larger than SD, while a microdrive was an actual harddisk, packaged with a CF interface. The distinction I think would be power consumption (higher for microdrive) and stability (better for non microdrive), and capacity (higher for microdrive). Given the complexity of having a moving mechanism, I'd also suspect that microdrive based CF storage to be more expensive.

With that said, in the previous discussions, are we talking about solid state CF memory vs. SD (implied to be solid state, non-volatile)?

Dreamer 66 · 02-13-05, 02:42 PM

[QUOTE=slashlos]Correct me if I'm wrong, but does CF always mean the same as a microdrive? I had thought that CF was a media format, slightly larger than SD, while a microdrive was an actual harddisk, packaged with a CF interface. The distinction I think would be power consumption (higher for microdrive) and stability (better for non microdrive), and capacity (higher for microdrive). Given the complexity of having a moving mechanism, I'd also suspect that microdrive based CF storage to be more expensive. [QUOTE=slashlos]

Microdrive is actually less expensive and likely to become even cheaper as ecconimies of scale kick in.

Though CF literally means compact 'flash' (as in flash RAM memory chips) I've always just refered to it as a form factor.

cjssr · 03-26-05, 10:54 PM

Hi I have a new 1 gig compact flash card that when inserted doesn't come up in the memory storage dropdown list but if I insert a 256 MB card it reads it without problem. Any ideas why the 1GB card isn't reconized?

cjssr

colinkhalid · 03-28-05, 05:04 AM

Main 2 reasons for dual slots would be 1. extra storage 2. add ons.

but from what I can see built in bluetooth is more important than a CF slot for such things as GPS, Modems. CF is on the way out few camera's use it, so its only important if you need vast storage space. IMHO

SonicJMC · 04-16-05, 08:53 PM

I usually use CF for "things" (GPS, USB host, camera, presenter, or any other thing that'll plug in to it) and SD for memory. Reason being is that things break easier if they are thinner, and memory is easier to carry if it's tiny.
Also, with my devices being CF, I can snap them in to an adapter for PCMCIA (PC Card).

vedau · 05-09-05, 12:02 PM

So anyone knows approximately how much faster CFs are than SDs? I was always curious to know because I never saw speed measurements when reading their specifications. I only have an SD card and it stores all my files and GPS maps. I'm getting a CF soon and now I'm thinking about putting my maps on the CF since it's faster. Am I on the right track?

JickBahTech · 05-09-05, 01:43 PM

Truthfully I dont really see any difference on my ipaq between CF and SD. Kinda like how I don't see any difference between my regular CF and my camera's high speed CF