Pretec breaks records, banks with 100GB, 64GB, and ultra-fast 32GB CF cards

Remember the days when 64GB sounded huge for a CompactFlash card? Well, now you can pick up the world's largest CF: a 100GB Pretec 233x operating at a zippy 35MB/sec. And if that's not big enough for you, through some kind of crazy voodoo magic (aka Pretec Q-SATA) four 64GB cards can be transformed into a 256GB SATA drive -- assuming you have $1,596 burning a hole in your pocket. And if speed is your game, Pretec can outfit you with a 333x 32GB CF card running at a record-breaking 50MB/sec for merely $630 -- chump change, right?

[Via Business Wire]

[Matthew C @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:05AM]

400 gb SSD, why not?

[iofthestorm @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:12AM]

These CF cards, while fast for CF, aren't really SSD speeds and are probably slower than most decent hard drives, although they might be around the same speed as 5400rpm laptop drives. And the price...

[Matthew C @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:06AM]

Are any of my comments going through?

[Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:13AM]

nope

[xValentine @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:36AM]

I don't see it.

[Jay @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:30AM]

That cactus kinda looks like a man...it must be a mirage.

[Matthew C @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:53AM]

wow - my first comment didnt show up until over 10 minutes after I wrote it

[ethana2 @ Sep 23rd 2008 3:03AM]

Welcome to engadget. ..Just wait until your replies start getting appended to the wrong comments ;)

[Danger @ Sep 23rd 2008 3:18AM]

Welcome to Engadget.

[Danger @ Sep 23rd 2008 3:19AM]

Just wait until you find out that your smart-ass reply was superseded by another like-minded smart-ass but wasn't posted for ten minutes..

[Greg @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:07AM]

Gonna need this 100GB baby for all the HD video I'll be shooting with my new Canon 5D MII !!!

[Patriks7 @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:11AM]

I gotta say Engadget, your Paint skills are awesome!

[helloUser @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:18AM]

That would be photoshop skills, MS Paint doesnt do soft edges.

[ipodrulz @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:19AM]

Hmm... the iPod Mini can fit a CF card right!?

[Stephen Lang @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:10AM]

Yeah, it's basically a drop-in replacement. 32GB CF cards go for around $100, but the higher capacity cards are obviously not so economical right now.

You can also get an adapter for the regular-sized iPods. I figure when my Classic eventually goes, I'll swap in a 64GB or 128GB CF card for reasonably cheap by that point.

[Mark @ Sep 24th 2008 5:04AM]

Oh! I'll definitely buy these!

[Bsouid @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:32AM]

man hard drives get like 50mb/s right. so take 4 of the 32gb ones throw em in a raid 0 ssd enclosure and bam that is one fast as shit piece of hardware.

[ウィル @ Sep 23rd 2008 7:23AM]

A normal 7200RPM hard drive can pull contiguous data at a nominal speed of 133MB/s. Flash memory's strength lies in its very low seek times, which allow much faster random access.
Given that I can get 12 terabytes of hard drives for the same price as that 256GB flash array, I think you know which way I'd be looking.

[ED @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:55AM]

fake! the 100 looks 'shopped, by the colour and font. I think that under the clever Photoshop work, it's actually a 64 GB card!

[farfisa @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:12AM]

It looks more like a 48 GB card. And you were doing so well! ;)

[ED @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:15AM]

That's what they WANT you to think!!

[Muhammad-Oli @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:28AM]

Whoa I think he's right! Anyone else see that?

[farfisa @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:13AM]

No shit! Well that's a better photoshop than I thought.

[Ian @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:25AM]

How much hi-def porn do people plan on shooting with the 5D Mk-II?

[Muhammad-Oli @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:27AM]

Whoa I think he's right!

[Muhammad-Oli @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:28AM]

Damn comment system.

[jivetrky @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:29AM]

So if you can put 4 of them together does that quadruple the throughput? cause a 400GB SSD that does 140MB/s wouldn't be too shabby to me.
Or heck if you can quadruple those 333x 32GB CF's, then you get a 128GB with 200MB/s. Also nice. (though the post just says "operating at such and such speed" .....is that read or write or are both equal?

[ウィル @ Sep 23rd 2008 7:36AM]

Or... you could get two 500GB disks for $100 and have double the access speed for as much as a 64GB CF card will cost you.
I mean, flash memory is cool for its shock resistance, but in any static application... who cares? You're going to burn through these things pretty fast running BitTorrent or something on 'em, too.
I can't find supporting statistics for it, but I believe flash has a much shorter lifetime than the magnetic media used in most hard drives.

PS: Upon further reasearch, I've discovered that my earlier comment was somewhat misleading: information close to the inner edge fo the platter may have actual transfer speeds as low as ~50MB/s, according to Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_drive#Other_characteristics.

[wickedpheonix @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:42AM]

"chump change, right?"

Hells yeah, for professional sports photographers. Those guys EASILY spend tens of thousands of dollars on their lenses and camera bodies - and having a faster CF card, you'll be able to take more shots in one go with rapid shooting - also useful for wedding photographers or any other photographer who needs to photograph something that's not going to happen again; i.e. cannot be reposed, like the touchdown or the first kiss as man and wife.

[gad get @ Sep 23rd 2008 6:28AM]

Yeah, but hopefully such photographers are smart enough not to put 100 frickin' gigabytes of their eggs in one basket when they're shooting!

[Chuck @ Sep 23rd 2008 3:06AM]

I remember when our office upgraded to the 1MB hard drive in our computer. MAN! We thought we were something for that.