DIY SSD adapter takes 6 SDHC cards, the cake

Seems everyone is coming out with a cheap, do-it-yourself SATA adapter to convert all your extra flash memory cards into a makeshift SSD. This time, we're looking at the ¥10,000 (about $91) PhotoFast CR-9000. The 9.5-mm tall, 2.5-inch, 3Gbps SATA adapter accommodates up to 6x SDHC cards and should fit into most slim laptops. That's enough slots to make a 192GB SSD (using 6x 32GB cards) for a bargain $900 or about $270 for a 48GB SSD based on a quick calculation of SDHC cards found on-line. While performance depends upon the weakest card of the lot, Impress Watch was able to squeeze a respectable 111.4MBps reads and 55.17MBps writes from their RAID 0 setup using class-6 rated, MLC-based, SDHC cards. That's nothing like the performance of the latest MLC-based SSDs but not bad for what you pay. Still, with SSD prices in freefall, these DIY adapters are quickly becoming less and less attractive.

[Nihility @ Aug 11th 2008 8:05AM]

I feel like we've been waiting for something like this to come along and do RAID 0 with flash right.
You can't use cards that you actually need for your camera, these will have to be dedicated cards as removing one will corrupt the RAID 0 volume. It's a very obvious solution and about time someone did it with decent speeds.

[LondonConsultant @ Aug 11th 2008 8:07AM]

Not long until even Eee PC users will demand RAID 0...

[Totalfixation @ Aug 11th 2008 8:11AM]

So is this comparable to a actual SSD hard drives?

Also, to me, i don't see raid 0 improving performance as much as it did for disk base hard drives.

[Nihility @ Aug 11th 2008 10:22AM]

What are you talking about?
They took 6 memory cards that have a maximum of 30 MB/s and they RAIDed them together to achieve over 100 MB/s.

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Aug 11th 2008 8:17AM]

Hmmmmm, I thought these were the same guys who were making the SSHD for PSP? Nice of em to use my idea that I was trying to get out into your hands two years ago. Funny the same week I was working on it my pc got hacked and then wiped. Coincidence?

[Jon MacDoanld @ Aug 11th 2008 8:45AM]

Yes.

[broli @ Aug 11th 2008 9:18AM]

Omg same thing happened to me when I had the idea of making a phone that only uses a touchscreen.

[Evan Rodgers @ Aug 11th 2008 9:21AM]

Yes. Coincidence. They had one of these years ago. It was just as expensive and nobody wanted it. Addonics has a CF version for $99 that is the same thing. Oh, and so does sandisk.

You are not original. We've all had this idea.

[rock99rock @ Aug 11th 2008 10:13AM]

Conspiracahhhh!

[CosterMonger @ Aug 11th 2008 10:17AM]

can you rephrase the question?
I think I just got stupider :)

[TavisJohn @ Aug 11th 2008 11:49AM]

Next time get a PATENT right away!
Then you can become a patent troll and sue them!


Besides your computer was not hacked for your "SSD Solutions" but for your rare gay bondage port archive. :p

[Fred @ Aug 11th 2008 8:24AM]

Wait, so only a day ago, "SSD has provided us with lackluster and even controversial performance gains, while battery improvements haven't been revolutionary and the prices still aren't exactly wallet-friendly." and "Most of that is unlikely to change in the next couple of years.", and a day later SSD prices are suddenly in freefall?

[giuliop @ Aug 11th 2008 9:22AM]

Plus, now SSD prices are in freefall; I wonder if they think that SD prices are going up?
Because you know, Engadget, if SD cards prices go down at the same pace they've been going for years, one sure thing is that these adapters will become *more and more* attractive.

[OneLove @ Aug 11th 2008 10:05AM]

Freefall please, right into my lap.

[Down @ Aug 11th 2008 8:26AM]

At least the SSD technology is reducing in price as it becomes older.

On the other hand, blu-ray...

[Lifelion @ Aug 11th 2008 8:28AM]

6 SDHC cards in RAID 0 is data suicide.

[Catsceo @ Aug 11th 2008 8:42AM]

Thats why you have backups. RAID 0 isn't always a bad thing.

[zargon @ Aug 11th 2008 9:18AM]

The goal of this product, and all SSD drives, is the largest amount of storage on one device possible... not redundancy.

If you want to protect your data, you could either back it up or run another one in RAID 1 to mirror it. Or the best solution, RAID 1 plus a regular schedule of backups.

[Lifelion @ Aug 11th 2008 9:33AM]

It is not only about loosing data.
If you are on the move and one of the SDHC cards starts to fail then your laptop is bricked.
You must find the time to find out which cards has failed, restore or reinstall the OS.

Safer RAID should indicate that one SDHC card has failed and that it would really be a good idea to backup your data asap.

[Tech^Cellfish @ Aug 11th 2008 1:56PM]

Not that different from regular SSDs which have multiple chips

[Dakota @ Aug 11th 2008 7:56PM]

What's the difference between RAID 0 and RAID 1?

In RAID 0, the 0 stands for how many files you'll get back if something goes wrong.

[Paul Dullford @ Aug 11th 2008 8:30AM]

The cake is a lie! I'm waiting for SSD prices to come down. Then I won't even need an SD SSD adapter.
Besides, these things seem very dangerous.

[cook @ Aug 15th 2008 10:01PM]

Very dangerous? You mean because of RAID 0?

Let's think about it again:
Flash memory is very slow as we all know. These high speeds can only be gained by setting up RAID 0 over all cards. The more the merrier, that's the great plus about RAID 0, speed increases the more volumes participate. The great minus, if one volume fails all data is gone.
Now what's the conclusion? Other flash based SSDs work with RAID 0 too!! How else could they achieve acceptable speed rates? But the manufacturers don't tell that, cause everyone would back away from their products.
If one flash chip fails, the data's gone on ANY flash based SSD - except if it's one that features RAID 5 or RAID 1, but I haven't heard of that yet.
So what are you gonna do? You can't replace the dead chip on a normal SSDs. With the adapter I can replace the broken card. Or resize my SSD whenever SDHC prices are in free fall again. And SATA 3Gbps interface is nice, I'd hate to have an IDE based one.

[ScOObyDoo @ Aug 11th 2008 8:32AM]

Fry's regularly sells 8GB SD cards for $30, which makes this thing much more interesting.

[rektide @ Aug 11th 2008 12:40PM]

Thats the same price as advertised in the original-story: $270 for 48GB is 6x 8GB. $270 price - $91 adapter cost is 179. 179 / 6 is ~$30. You can do better on deal sites, but if you are building yourself a fake SSD, you probably owe it to yourself to get high performance SD cards.

[Mike Silva @ Aug 11th 2008 8:52AM]

Now this solution using (hardware) raid-5 or raid-6 seems the perfect solution for data reliability on the move...

Or maybe an SD card adapter with 3 micro-SD slots for using 1G micro-SD cards would be enought for important data to be safe and removable/replacable, etc;)

Maybe 2 micro-SD in mirror (replacable from the outside with the SD adapter fited in) would be enought and easy implemented hardware mirror inside the adapter.

Or a small USB device for this propose.

[Brian @ Aug 11th 2008 9:10AM]

For the same price as that 48gb setup, you can buy a real SSD like the OCZ Core 64gb and have more space and better performance without the risk associated with RAID0.

[Metkis @ Aug 11th 2008 9:14AM]

You can get a 64Gb SSD from Newegg for around 250. $270 for a 48GB SSD isn't that good if you look at it that way.

But of course, we could always find cheaper SD cards.

[Howard @ Aug 11th 2008 9:20AM]

Why get 48GB for $270, when you can go to Newegg.com and buy the 64GB for $239.00?!?!

[broli @ Aug 11th 2008 9:20AM]

Die already damned hard drives...DIIIIIEEEE.

[Knives_Out @ Aug 11th 2008 10:29AM]

amen brother.

[CosterMonger @ Aug 11th 2008 10:30AM]

I personally like to get 500GB HDDs @ $65
but hey, if you want 500GB SSD for $650 that totally up to you :)

[paragraph @ Aug 11th 2008 9:32AM]

If this supports JBOD (or mixing capacities) i'm golden, i have hundreds (no lie) of sub 4gig chips (some promos, most were for my cameras) since i only ever use chips bigger than 4 gigs they just chill, i wouldn't mind putting them to use, 12gb isn't a lot, but it's better than nothing, and it's enough to install windows on.

[Brian @ Aug 11th 2008 1:31PM]

So, buy a few dozen of these and fill each one with same capacity chips, buy a very high end raid controller card to raid 0 the dozens of drives, and be the first person to raid 0 two hundred SD cards.

Let us know how long the system can perform random read / writes before it crashes. :)

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Aug 11th 2008 11:33AM]

Is that megabytes or megabits? Cause if it's megabytes, it's pretty impressive.

[rektide @ Aug 11th 2008 12:34PM]

This is a pretty bright idea. You can nab 16GB SD cards for $40 if you scan the deal sites. 96GB for $340. The other positive is that your $160 pile of 8GB SD-cards ($27 a pop) can be replaced by 32GB cards when they too drop to $30 a pop in another 3 years or whatever. Of course SSD will almost assuredly have higher performance by that point, but theres still a pretty good upgrade path.

I would rather have the adapter shown up as a bunch of different drives, soft-raid is just as fast and allows for better reliability.

[BassTek @ Aug 11th 2008 1:48PM]

So the choices are:

1. Actual 64GB SSD drive, the OCZ Core for $240 after rebate on Newegg.
2. DIY adapter plus 6 SD cards, 48GB for $270.

I think this adapter is about a year too late.

[eloj @ Aug 13th 2008 5:24PM]

It might fit into most slim laptops, but it won't fit the Eee.

[Musha @ Aug 19th 2008 3:12PM]

just got myself one on ebay! really looking forward to transform my pile of mem cards into a ssd, ha!
am doing a lot of tech support, great for diagnostics i think
gonna install a bunch of rescue tools and make it read-only - that's the first time i actually use the lock switch on my mem cards, haha!