Use SD and CF Cards For Storage?

[Scylla]

I've been using SD cards for file storage (ebooks, Mapopolis maps, etc.), and I've NEVER used the CF card slot!

Most seem to reserve that slot for accessoraries like cameras, GPS receivers, and the like.

I started with a 128 MB Sandisk SD card (amazingly no problems with it!), then went to a PNY 256 MB card when I needed more than 128 MB of storage.

Now that I'm up to 180+MB on that card, I need more space! Rather than buy a 512 MB or 1 GB SD card, I'd like go cheap ( ) and buy a 256 MB CF card and use it along with the 256 MB SD card.

Before I buy the CF card, is there a problem using both cards for storage at the same time? Do certain programs/files run better from one slot or the other? Can both be accessed by the device at the same time? Eg-programs like Calligrapher running from the SD card being used to edit a note stored on the CF card?

Any rules of thumb here?

Thanks for any and all advice!!

[andybrown]

i have an x5 as well and i use both of the card slots at the same time with absolutely no problem. its great because this allows us to use so much memory at the same time!!:D

[bearcatx16]

Greetings:

I use both the SD and CF cards at the same time for storage and running of programs and have not experienced any problems. As far as one card running a program(s) better than another I fortunate as my AX5 was my first ppc. For me it works and works well as far as being fast or slow, well ignorance is bliss

[Scylla]

Thanks for the input!

Looks like I'm going with the CF card!

[andybrown]

yeah, CF is great! and cheap! go for it

For the foreseeable future and well beyond, CF flash memory cards will always be:

1. much faster - up to 80x now already, I think fast SD cards are in the 10x
2. come in much higher capacity - now 8 GB with 12 GB announced;
3. be much less expensive; tho the price for those latter are quite expensive ($9999 for the 8 GB), cards with same capacity are half to a third as much; it's simple mathematics: with much more room inside the CF cards, either you can put chips with the same density and have much higher capacity or less dense chips that are much less expensive to reach the same capacity at much lower prices

[pecos]

In fact my axim works faster with both CF and SD cards inserted, as I store everything on them and leave the internal memory free to run progams
SD 128 MB - storage
CF 128 MB - storage

RAM 31 MB OPEN AND RUN PROGAMS/PIMs

BUILT IN STORAGE 5 MB - storage

Originally posted by jlp
For the foreseeable future and well beyond, CF flash memory cards will always be:

1. much faster - up to 80x now already, I think fast SD cards are in the 10x

could not be further from the truth. typical high speed SD cards are advertised at around 32X, I think the fastest Sandisk (Ultra II) is 60X(?). 10X is a standard SD and CF card write speed. (Read speeds are faster than write speeds for pretty much all memory.) You can get fast CF cards, and the fastest CF may be faster than the fastest SD, but you will pay a pretty penny for it, as you will for high speed SD.

And my SimpleTech 512MB SD card--not a high-speed card, just regular SD--out-ran a Lexar 40X professional CF card in my USB 2.0 card reader. (Write test.) The SimpleTech was a full MB/sec faster than the Lexar, which is supposedly capable of ~7MB/sec sustained write speeds.

see my thread in the X5 general discussion board for more details.

Mildly agree with your other points, though. I think it is a bit early to write off CF as a memory and IO format.