Swap HD for CF setup?

[RTID75]

My A1200 uses an old, very loud (but working) 4Gb hard drive and I am considering swapping for a CF setup. My IDE interface is the Power Flyer Gold. I can't remember the original manufacturer name for it, but mine came from Power Computing.

Questions: Is it as quick? Will it be compatible with the Flyer? Is it worth the bother or should I just put up with the noise and leave the old HDD in there?

Thanks!

[gertsy]

Sorry I have no idea about compatibility with the Power Flyer Gold but if you aren't running other devices off IDE a CF interface will work off the native IDE header.
The performance is faster IMO and better still: "Silent running".  I use a 4GB Sandisk Ultra II in my A1200 and a 8GB in my A4000.
In one word : Beautiful.

[fitzsteve]

Hi!

I have a Power Flyer Gold in my A1200, I get 5mb/sec with SFS and my CF Card @PIO3

I've been able to run PIO4 for 5.6mb/sec but only with a 300x CF card, you'll probably have more success at higher speeds with a Hard Drive however  CF card has zero seek time and is cool and uses less power.

The Power Flyer also runs pretty warm so if this is all inside an A1200 case then I'd suggest the CF over the HDD.  In a Tower, I'd go with a real 3.5in 7200rpm HDD.

Steve.

[RTID75]

I need to make a sig of my spec, but yes, it is in a tower case.

Is there any worry about card life? I know these things don't last forever, but don't know how that compares with a hard drive.

[fitzsteve]

I need to make a sig of my spec, but yes, it is in a tower case.

Is there any worry about card life? I know these things don't last forever, but don't know how that compares with a hard drive.

Hi!

In a Tower then really, the best option is a nice new HDD, you can use SATA with converter or a new IDE if you can find one for the best results.

CF Cards as we know have limited writes, if this is a workhorse system you may come into trouble eventually with this (i have some old CF's that were punished in Camera's before Amiga use and they are failing now but my new CF's are all fine however my Amiga's are only used a couple of hours a week.

If you just use it a few hours a week you can expect the CF to last

Another nice idea is that you can mount a CF in a removable bay on the front or rear of the case for simple back-ups/add data and to allow you to have several setups at your disposal on different CF's.

All the best,

Steve.

[AmigaMance]

What is the capacity of these cards? I remember asking about this years ago and the answer put me off.

 Since fitzsteve mentioned it, are all SATA->IDE adapters compatible with Amigas?

[runequester]

Given that amiga's don't write to the drive constantly, I imagine a good quality CF card will outlast your amiga.

[fitzsteve]

What is the capacity of these cards? I remember asking about this years ago and the answer put me off.

Do you mean in general or do you mean my cards?

All my cards are between 2 and 4gb, which is plenty of storage for a gaming Amiga given each game is 1-2mb

Of course you can buy larger CF's. such as 8gb/16gb, these need a little more skill to setup (patched SCSI device and advanced file system like SFS/PFS3)

In my A1200T & A4000 I have 20 & 40gb HDD's attached to the SCSI via SCSI-IDE conveters.

Since fitzsteve mentioned it, are all SATA->IDE adapters compatible with Amigas?

I don't know about 'all' but most of the el-cheapo adapters on eBay should work fine

Steve.

[AmigaMance]

Do you mean in general or do you mean my cards?

All my cards are between 2 and 4gb, which is plenty of storage for a gaming Amiga given each game is 1-2mb

 The capacity of your cards can't possibly put me off.
I want to know the capacity barrier for these devices. I think it used to be 4GB.

Of course you can buy larger CF's. such as 8gb/16gb, these need a little more skill to setup (patched SCSI device and advanced file system like SFS/PFS3)

 I have done all these already. 16GB is a good start but still too small for me.

In my A1200T & A4000 I have 20 & 40gb HDD's attached to the SCSI via SCSI-IDE conveters.

I don't know about 'all' but most of the el-cheapo adapters on eBay should work fine
Steve.

 This is good to hear.

[Franko]

CF cards go up to 128GB in size but expect to pay at least £650 for one (more like £900 for a decent one) even for a tiny 64GB (Decent) CF card you're looking at at least £300... :eek:

Like FitSteve said, CF cards have a limited read/write time before they begin to fail (experienced this in many cameras) if you're only going to use one in an Amiga for just playing games and the odd bit of production a few times a week a CF Drive should be fine...

If however you use your Amiga 7 days a week like me and require GB's of storage space, then I certainly wouldn't use or recommend using these CF drives, apart from the cost to get to 1TB of storage like I use, HDs have a much longer lifespan than CF cards are faster and more importantly much safer from data loss...

Basically it boils down to how often and what you use your Amiga for and how much storage space you need...

Just playing games and occasional use of your Amiga and not requiring vast storage space then CF Drives are fine...

Using your Amiga for productivity every day, requiring vast storage space & maximum read/write speeds, and not wondering if your data is safe then for both cost & reliability HD's are the way to go...  

PS: Buying "Cheap" CF cards is not recommend, anyone who has used them them a lot in cameras a will most likely tell you, expect to get 2 years out of them if you're lucky before they begin to fail...

[Waccoon]

Another thing you may want to keep in mind is that flash cards don't really retain their data forever.  Due to the nature of the technology, they leak power and will start to erase themselves over time.  I wouldn't worry about the cards wearing out, since this is the Amiga filesystem we're discussing, but data retention may be a bit iffy.  Make sure you have a decent backup solution.  Hard drives are far, far better at data retension, though you should at least power up a HD once a year to help prevent it from seizing.

I hear a particularlly good flash will keep data for 10 years, but consumer CF cards and the like probably don't last that long.  In theory, the larger the card (the smaller the manufacturing process), the faster it leaks.

I use a small SSD as a boot drive for my PC, and a really slow laptop drive for data, temp, and swap.  Write cycles don't bother me too much, because technically the drive should still be readable, but I wouldn't trust a SSD at all for long-term storage.

I thought about getting a CF card, but settled on replacing my 85MB hard drive with a new 4200 RPM 20GB.  The heat and noise difference is incredible.  I have an A1200 running on stock IDE, so a faster drive makes no sense.  I'd imagine that a CF card wouldn't be faster, either.

[gertsy]

.......
Basically it boils down to how often and what you use your Amiga for and how much storage space you need...

Just playing games and occasional use of your Amiga and not requiring vast storage space then CF Drives are fine...

Using your Amiga for productivity every day, requiring vast storage space & maximum read/write speeds, and not wondering if your data is safe then for both cost & reliability HD's are the way to go...  

Agree with most of the points here, but I have my favorite set-up on IDE drives which I keep as a backup.  Both a 2.5" and 3.5".
All my Fav programs and games are on the setup. I don't write much N E more as there isn't that much to write.  Which makes CF Cards excellent; fast, silent, and cool.

But I use a Pee Cee day to day for all the other stuff.