Sans Digital's CS1T and CR2T turn CF cards into 2.5-inch enclosures

We've seen CF-SATA converters before, but what if you were to create a SATA shaped, sized, and interfaced enclosure and allow users to throw Compact Flash cards in there to make their own SSDs for more standard installs? Sans Digital's CS1T is a single-card Compact Flash CF to 2.5" SATA enclosure and the CR2T is a dual-card enclosure that uses RAID to support up to 64GB. Both utilize IDE and, when closed, look and act just like 2.5-inch HDDs for your various installation needs.

[jak0b @ May 24th 2008 5:14PM]

so what??? is this a CF -> IDE -> SATA in one???

[retro77 @ May 24th 2008 7:38PM]

It turns cheap CF cards into an SSD hard drive. CF is IDE so it is also converting it to SATA [the format most of us are using now]

[iPhone Junkie @ May 24th 2008 5:41PM]

Wicked. Finally a way to customize your hard drive...

[DDay @ May 24th 2008 5:17PM]

Sounds like it has great potential, though I don't know why you wouldn't be able to fit 4 cards in something that size. Maybe they'll make a 3.5" form factor that'll support that.

[nikster @ May 25th 2008 6:30AM]

I was wondering about that too. I can only assume the size/complexity of the physical CF connectors and RAID electronics required to support 4 cards would have been too much for the first iteration of this product.

What I don't really understand is why Flash memory in the form of CF cards is cheap while flash in the form of SSDs is super expensive. This product is clearly designed to take advantage of large price gap between CF and SSD - why is there such a large price gap?

[Nihility @ May 25th 2008 9:53AM]

@nickster
It's all about performance, CF can get you 15MB/s so raid0 that and you get 30MB/s (and about half that in write speeds). The high end SSD's get 120MB/s.

[waiownsyou @ May 24th 2008 5:21PM]

I fail to see the practical use of this versus a portable CF reader.

[Tom @ May 24th 2008 5:31PM]

This is an internal SATA interface meant for permanent install. What you're thinking of is an external USB interface meant for temporary use only. Pros of this system versus a CF reader:

SATA interface means faster reads, faster writes, with minimal processor load compared to USB. Also, it more readily allows for booting, and it's internal - so you can do a permanent install in a laptop with no dangly-doos. I hope this helped.

[Shinigami @ May 24th 2008 6:53PM]

"SATA interface means faster reads, faster writes"
But only if the cards support that speed AND USB2.0 was the limiting factor. In this case, yeah, faster. Still slower than industrial SSD, but faster than, uh, CF reader. Maybe.
"with minimal processor load compared to USB"
Possible but yet to be proven in tests.
"Also, it more readily allows for booting"
I can boot XP from my usb flash card. No problems with that.

"and it's internal - so you can do a permanent install in a laptop with no dangly-doos"
And thats the only thing we wanted - install-and-forget, no need for external readers ect.

"I hope this helped"
It did, thanks :)

PS: using 2x32gb CF cards will either make this thing too slow to be of any practical use compared to HDDs, or will put them in same price category with SSDs if you decide to use ultra-fast CF cards. The thing we should be waiting for is: more and more options for flash! This way we'll see price drops. There is a rule in business - if the product is not bought, the price drops. So don't buy SSDs just yet :)

[smcallah @ May 24th 2008 8:30PM]

"There is a rule in business - if the product is not bought, the price drops. So don't buy SSDs just yet :)"

That's not really how it works. The price goes down because they are bought, not because they aren't. Not in electronics.

Eventually, they get to the point where R&D is paid for and they starting making more profit or a break through occurs.

If something is not selling, they tend to not make it anymore if the R&D is not being returned.

[Tid @ May 24th 2008 5:22PM]

Is it really that much cheaper buying this plus 64GBs of CF rather than buying a 64GB SSD? Im genuinely asking, as i dont know..

[dj-kenpo @ May 24th 2008 5:32PM]

yes, it's cheaper, but also has much slower performance, and less write cycels.

gizmodo reviewed one that took 3 cf cards this week. looked beeter, but got a lame 10mb/s in raid.

[Aguiluz @ May 24th 2008 7:06PM]

dj-kenpo!? How dare you speak of the g-word!

:)

[ZeV @ May 24th 2008 5:47PM]

old news is so exciting.jpg

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4255

bare in mind usd 2.0 max = 480 kbps that means theoretically the speed is max out @ 60 MB /s

[dj-kenpo @ May 24th 2008 6:11PM]

if you're going to be a douche bag, know what you're talking about.

your link was OLD NEWS. they've had single cf-ide ones for YEARS. I bought one for an old notbook 4 years ago. which was already late to the party. cf-sata isn't anything more special. it's the same thing.

this one is a dual cf, thus different as it allows more capacity.

either way it doesn't matter and both are a shit product.

[Luke @ May 24th 2008 10:22PM]

Meh. These things are too late on the market to make much sense. With 30g Supertalent SSD's under $300, and Intel SSD's right around the corner, the do-it-yourself SSD is looking pretty outdated.

For nearly the same money, I don't see why I'd want 1/4th the performance.

[Jonyah @ May 24th 2008 6:57PM]

a 30gb ssd is useless. the main reason to use one is for your system drive. Take into account the space windows takes, add a paging file for the amount of ram you have (all my systems have 4gb or more) and you're left with about nothing. The 120 gb for $669 is much more like it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609304

Found it cheaper to get my XPS1330 with the 320gb drive and buy this than to get dell's 64gb ssd, plus i end up with a 320gb drive to put in an external case for extra storage.

[Za @ May 24th 2008 8:28PM]

Jonyah, I think you are missing the optimal uses for this. This would work very well with a small Via mobo/cpu combo for use in a carputer or something of the like, where write cycles would be negligible. The CF cards would be able to hold the trivial 8GB or 16GB necessary, and speed would not be all that important. The CF cards would also be less susceptible to damage from vibrations, bumps, and temperature fluctuations than mechanical HDDs.

[The King of Poland @ May 25th 2008 9:58AM]

1. Build 2.5 inch enclosure
2. Make sure everyone is still hot for SSD
3. Profit!

[Adam @ May 24th 2008 6:27PM]

So this would create a robust (if pint-sized) storage device with low energy needs. The potential for this to do something like play back a full HD movie instead of burning the HDD or spinning a blu-ray disc could be applicable.

It could also make a cool boot device.

I wonder if the seek times might offset the bandwidth limits in some applications.

I've been Googling for a solution to literally stack all my old memory sticks and smaller SD cards etc. into a thing that I imagine would probably look like a lot of memory slots that dynamically adapt to handle different card types. Just stuff it all in there (within reason, give or take the performance of each memory card) and bingo -- you've got 500GB of memory stuffed into a single box and acting like a HDD.

[Pingmeister @ May 24th 2008 6:38PM]

How realistic is the concern over the limited read/write lifetime of solid-state memory?

I am assuming that the ones in manufactured SSD's are likely far higher quality than a couple of old SD cards we might have lying around to go into one of these.

With how an SSD would be used are you expecting these to die in ten years or six months?

[dhughes @ May 25th 2008 1:04AM]

I work in a casino, the Bally games we have use two CF cards one the OS (Linux) and the other for the game.

They have been in constant use for over three and a half years, far more use than a home computer system would use them for although I'd say it's all reads and not writes, but the OS CF card probably is written to at some point.

Only now three and a half years later are some starting to fail, usually with an "MBR read failed" type of failure and nearly always the OS card, although a game card failed once too.

I like the idea of putting two CF cards in a box and off you go. It would be nice to be able to use four or more cards.

[Jonyah @ May 24th 2008 6:53PM]

SDD is for the most part very expensive. I've noticed the the 120 gb drive at newegg for $669. getting one for my new laptop and can't wait. You can't get cf cards and a case for that price and it has awesome speed.

[Howard @ May 24th 2008 6:58PM]

The site is getting hammered now, so I can't check, but I don't think that either device utilizes IDE. From what I saw on another site, the two-card version is $99.

[kccboy2004 @ May 24th 2008 7:09PM]

I agree with Adam's points. Everybody is concentrating too much on comparing this to SSD's and HDD's rather than looking at what this could actually do.

1. Be useful for using up those CF's.
2. Using in a device that favours no moving parts over speed.
3. Questionably, less energy draw.
4. Devices that require only a low capacity storage.

If all of the above, then this is spot on.
If you want cheap and fast, go with HDD.
If you want expensiv and fast, ho with SSD.

[packetsniffer @ May 24th 2008 8:55PM]

"a SATA shaped, sized, and interfaced"
Interfaced makes sense, but SATA shaped and sized? WTF?

"Both utilize IDE"
Um, yeah, okay.

Anyway, this is a really great product. Might pick one up for my lappy if the price is right.

[Life of Brian @ May 25th 2008 12:35PM]

I'm thinking this would be perfect with a mini-itx board in a car computer.

[Chris Taylor @ May 25th 2008 12:44AM]

No sata is not the format most of us are using now. Unless you have purchased a laptop in the last 1-2 years your NOT likely using sata at all!!!

How bout some CF lovin for us old guys who can not afford to throw money at new machines but want the solid state goodness of CF cards.

What about a Dual or Triple Raid card setup for use 2.5" PATA guys!!

[Johnny Venom @ May 25th 2008 4:22AM]

Now that's what I'm talking about! Not all of us have SATA equipped machines yet.

[Howard @ May 25th 2008 4:39AM]

IDE adapters with two CF slots have been around for a long time, and are much cheaper since there's no conversion to do. This is news because it's SATA and not IDE.

[proctopus @ May 30th 2008 11:10PM]

The great part about this product is that it uses Raid to hopefully speed up reads and writes. If this product is under 40$ I will definetly consider replacing my laptop hard drive with 2 4gb cf cards.