CF for which book?

[classic]

G'day all

I have just received a CF adapter in the mail and have a Kingston 8GB CF card.

I'm in a bit of a quandry as to which of my mac laptops to fit it into.

The choices are:

5300 with 16mb of RAM/10GB

1400c with 64mb of RAM/30GB

3400c with 80mb of RAM/2GB

Pismo with 768mb of RAM/80GB

Clamshell Blueberry with 292mb of RAM/20GB

Clamshell Indigo with 512mb of RAM/40GB

The Pismo is also appealing, as its a snap to do.

I wish I had waited a bit before pulling apart the ibooks...

For what it is worth, I think that I might have a go at the 3400c, as all the rest have already been upgraded.

Any suggestions/advice much appreciated!

 

[Byrd]

Go the lowlier laptops, as standard CF cards used in boot devices aren't as fast as you'd think - in some cases, much slower than a standard HD, certainly in your G3 laptops. Also put it in a laptop with a decent amount of RAM, so you can disable virtual memory (ie. 1400c or 3400c).

Also consider that a cheap PCMCIA --> CF adapter does let you boot from it in the 5300/1400/3400 models.

JB

 

[classic]

I was hopeful that I might gain some disk speed improvement, but with the current CF card I have that looks like it may not be so.

Still, an 8GB drive beats 2GB!

I have a PCMCIA--> CF adapter and will install the system (think I will go with 8.6) and boot from that before I disassemble the 3400c.

When I'm done, I'll post up some pics.

Thanks for the advice Byrd.

 

[MacJunky]

It depends on how old the computer is and what you want to pay for what speed of CF card. There are CF cards around that are faster than the buses of some of these old Macs. It really just depends how cheap you are.

 

[Byrd]

I was hopeful that I might gain some disk speed improvement

It does and it doesn't improve disk performance in slower Macs - from my experience using cheap CF cards (and ever cheaper PCMCIA adapters) booting and reading is faster, but writing definately isn't (especially lots of small files). But as mentioned the older the laptop, and going from a slow noisy stock HD, the CF card will make a more noticable improvement. I've taken to using PCMCIA CF adapters and CF cards as a universal "boot" device for all my Mac laptops (running OS 8.1 I think), and shoved in 10 - 30GB IDE drives into those capable that I've scrounged from old PC laptops.

JB

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

How does/should SD <-> IDE compare to CF <-> PCMCIA as a Silent Book Drive?

I've never benchmarked the 512 MB & 1GB CF <-> PCMCIA troubleshooting combos that I've been using on and off for about 9 years now. The SD/IDE unit is slated to go into a 5300ce. I haven't gotten to the point of trying it yet.

Has anyone done this comparison? :?:

 

[Byrd]

"One day" (and I do mean one day, as we await our first born today/tomorrow/sometime soon!), I'll test all of this out, having a PB540 with PCMCIA card cage and the requisite Apple SCSI --> IDE adapter in the 2.5" HD slot.

JB

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Congratulations! :approve:

 

[kite210]

Congrats Byrd

 

[Byrd]

Thanks all - my wife was "due" yesterday, obviously nothing has happened ... but lots of aches and pains so I'm very much on call!

Regards

JB

 

[classic]

I completely botched it. Dismantled everything down to the drive cage.

Go to connect the CF adapter and it does not fit. I read somewhere on these forums that

it is necessary to snip one of the pins, which I did. Only it was the wrong pin! :I

I ) was in upside down land. Its nay too much bother though. I found a

10GB drive and put that in and though not silent, works much better than the 2GB drive.

I think if I want to start up off CF I will do it with PCMCIA adapter.

Congrats Byrd!

The first year is the hardest, after that, it gets a little easier.

I found a fathers group (I'd go once a week) beneficial for that period.

I have 2 lads, one who is 20 months and the other who is eight.

They bring joy that technology cannot.

 

[LCGuy]

Best of luck Byrd

For what its worth I put a IDE CompactFlash adapter in my 1400 a couple of months back...while the speed doesn't exactly push me back into the seat, I am quite impressed with how much faster it is than the 4200rpm Hitachi TravelStar I had in it previously.

 

[MidnightCommando]

I strongly recommend CF'ing a 1400, it's a nice little performant laptop, and that's what I'll be doing when I get mine (hopefully wednesday or a few days after).

Also, passive CF-IDE adapters (both 44 and 40-pin) can be had from buyincoins.com - they will provide free shipping and are so cheap you can afford spares to mutilate

 

[Bunsen]

How does/should SD IDE compare to CF PCMCIA as a Silent Book Drive?

From what I've heard, not from personal testing, SD is much slower than CF.