Solid state alternatives to SSD

**thunderbay** · 11-12-2009, 01:21 PM

I'm just starting my first carpc. I'm from canada where temps get pretty low (-35C). I'm wondering if any of you have ever thought about using a memory card to ide or sata adapter? SSD is too expensive for me right now (just had my first child!). But I've got a sdhc 8gb card laying around from an old cell phone. I found some sd -> IDE and sd -> SATA adapters on ebay for around $10 and $20 respectively. Hooked up with on of those the card should read as a regular drive to boot up no problem (unlike a usb adapter). It should also effectively be similar to an SSD in the fact that it'd have no moving parts.

I'd like to boot the os (probably a lite version of WinXP), and use a 2.5" 80gb drive that I have for media. That way, I should be assured that the computer will boot, and when the other drive works, I should be able to utilize all my media!

Any thoughts? They'd be much appreciated. Like I said, I'm new to Carputing, and I'm speaking in theory with no real world experience.

EDIT: Last minute I thought that I should ask if the 4Mbps speed of the sdhc card would effect the overall speed of the computer that much? Too Much? What do you think?

Thanks in advance!

Elijah Harp

**Punky** · 11-12-2009, 03:19 PM

this has been discussed many times before, and for some its worth it, for some its not.
sd card is not very fast, so your computer will be very very slow. sd has limited write cycles so if you do not have EWF installed (which is also a complicated procedure) it'll die in a short time.
Your next bet is CF card which is faster, but still not as fast as normal HD, and it also have write limits which means u also need EWF.
The reality of it is, PRICE (CF + Adapter) = PRICE (SSD) nowadays. However no one has yet done anything testing on SSD in cold weather. I myself is one pioneer among others, testing ssd in car to solve cold issue. Last year i tried using patriot ssd, which failed majorly. This year i'm using OCZ ssd, which haven't been fully tested yet because we haven't hit below -10*C yet in calgary this year. More information will be available this winter as more ssd have been tested. Check the environmental section there's a thread dedicated for this info.

**Tidder** · 11-12-2009, 03:31 PM

Good input Punky.

CF would definitely be much better than SD, but neither really have the set up for use as a normal hdd. SSD has wearing algorithms so the drive doesn't die so quickly from write cycles. CF and SD cards really don't do this. However, with EWF, a CF card is an ok solution. I ran this for a while in my car and it was acceptable. I haven't tried SD at all, but would think that it would be a horrible choice. CF at least has some IDE-ish connectivity, and some even support UDMA with the right IDE to CF adapter.

**nobb** · 11-12-2009, 04:58 PM

Unfortunately for us Canadians that have to deal with -40c winters, SSD and automotive grade drives are the only solution. Both of which will cost about $100 minimum. There is no cheap way around it if you want your system to work. Running off a memory card is going to be useless if you are planning to run a full OS like XP because it's too slow. I would also consider myself somewhat of a pioneer in the area of designing equipment to work in extreme conditions as well. Ive somewhat developed an interest for this area after having to frustrate myself over failed designs. Having gone through 3 winters with various setups, the best advice I can give is to not cheap out and to do it right the first time. Otherwise it might end up costing you more over the long term as you find out certain parts dont work and end up having to buy new parts.

Its been pretty warm this winter in Calgary, I wish it would get to -40C soon so I can test my new OCZ Summit SSD

**thunderbay** · 11-12-2009, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by nobb

Its been pretty warm this winter in Calgary, I wish it would get to -40C soon so I can test my new OCZ Summit SSD

WOW! It's not often you hear someone wish for -40C! I always hear ppl wishing for some snow so they can use their snow machine or go skiing buy that the extent of that. We personally have barely hit -5 overnight yet. Usually by the time halloween hits we've got 5 or six inches of snow. Our climates definetly changing. In 1996 we had accumilated 6ft. of snow by jan.! The other day we had a high of +20, pretty unheard of.

Anyhow, it's too bad that the sd card idea would be too slow. I was hoping for a cheap solution. I have a hard enough time justifying my $150 migrus via c7 1.7ghz pc to my girlfriend. let alone the up coming purchase of the touchscreen.

thanks fer' the input!