More Space On Pandora

[darien]

I don't think I'll need more than 64GB, but usb powered enclosures for laptop sized-SATA drives are so small and cheap now that if I'm going to carry something around anyways, I might as well use the one I got. Otherwise, I'm living by the economical desert island philosophy, raising your standards so you only carry what you need and the best of what you can get.

 

[gbouilland]

Nice opportunity for French people mostly, I just received today my 2 SanDisk SDHC 32GB 30MB/s for about 115 EUR each (postage and insurance included) from this site

I guess they made a mistake as it is the same price as their similar 16GB SDHC card which is about half the mean price ;o) Anyhow, there are only about 10 left as I waited to receive them before posting...

Not free but still a nice deal.

Edit : Just so you know, they are black h34r:

 

[darien]

Nice opportunity for French people mostly, I just received today my 2 SanDisk SDHC 32GB 30MB/s for about 115 EUR each (postage and insurance included) from this site

I guess they made a mistake as it is the same price as their similar 16GB SDHC card which is about half the mean price ;o) Anyhow, there are only about 10 left as I waited to receive them before posting...

Not free but still a nice deal.

Edit : Just so you know, they are black h34r:

Hope it goes down significantly more than that. Two are like the price of a second pandora.

 

[craigix]

When are 64GB SD cards coming? The dev versions were available almost a year ago now for about $1000.

 

[fischju2000]

When are 64GB SD cards coming? The dev versions were available almost a year ago now for about $1000.

Toshiba plans to launch SDXC cards of either 32 or 64GB in Spring 2010 (non specific at CES), but will only be going to 32gb on SDHC.

 

[Prometheus]

yeah you don't wanna get banned on your 2nd post.
You can click "edit" and remove that part of the post.
Also, DO NOT BUY FLASH ON EBAY even if it seems legit and so does the buyer. It's just a bad idea.

I buy a lot of stuff from Japan, china and I never got a problem with them. Just pay them! LOL!

Required reading: http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/

 

[mindlord]

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/external-hard-drives/270892/freecom-usb-memory-120gb

Previous 1.8in disks we've seen have had a spindle speed of 3,600rpm or 4,200rpm, resulting in poor file transfer speeds. The USB Memory has a 5,400rpm spindle speed, though, so it was only a little slower than 2?in 5,400rpm USB disks such as Iomega's eGo. Unfortunately, backup software is not included.

As I said, platters and heads, seek times, and G-Force susceptibility. Sorry guys and gals, but this is not the droid you are looking for.
I remained skeptical that this is an SSD and I am vindicated.

 

[cobaltage]

I don't see why you couldn't use a short USB extender cable with a flash drive instead. The cable aspect of it would be the same.

Anyway, here are some alternatives:

LaCie Rikki (just announced; it's just a small 2.5" external HDD, but it goes up to 640GB; about the size of the iPhone):
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11401

Buffalo micro-SDHC 5mm USB key (they also made a straight up 16GB USB key, but this seems to have replaced it?):
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/buffalo-offers-5mm-usb-stickmicrosdhc-card-storage-solution-20090810/

Super Talent 32GB Picodrive USB key:
http://hothardware.com/News/Super-Talent-Unveils-Worlds-Smallest-32GB-USB-Drive/

 

[GPJosh]

I don't see why you couldn't use a short USB extender cable with a flash drive instead. The cable aspect of it would be the same.

Anyway, here are some alternatives:

LaCie Rikki (just announced; it's just a small 2.5" external HDD, but it goes up to 640GB; about the size of the iPhone):
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11401

Buffalo micro-SDHC 5mm USB key (they also made a straight up 16GB USB key, but this seems to have replaced it?):
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/buffalo-offers-5mm-usb-stickmicrosdhc-card-storage-solution-20090810/

Super Talent 32GB Picodrive USB key:
http://hothardware.com/News/Super-Talent-Unveils-Worlds-Smallest-32GB-USB-Drive/

I can vouch for the quality of the Super Talent at least. It's super small (thinner than a usb port), can survive the day to day trials/scratching that comes with being on a keychain. A full fledged SSD would be great, but I'm not sure going higher than 32gb in solid state makes sense from a price perspective right now. Pulling out my gp32 the other day, its ridiculous to remember when the 128mb smartmedia cards were all we could get.

 

[Esn]

@cobaltage:

The LaCie Rikki looks very nice, but the specifications on their website seem to say that it won't be compatible:

System Requirements : Computer with a USB 2.0 port
Windows XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7/ Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6
Minimum free disk space: 600MB recommended

 

[Tom`]

@cobaltage:

The LaCie Rikki looks very nice, but the specifications on their website seem to say that it won't be compatible:

System Requirements : Computer with a USB 2.0 port
Windows XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7/ Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6
Minimum free disk space: 600MB recommended

Probably that's what's required to use the included software, but there's no reason it shouldn't work as a mass storage device (would cut into battery life dramatically, though, I would imagine).

 

[Wheels]

I can vouch for the quality of the Super Talent at least. It's super small (thinner than a usb port), can survive the day to day trials/scratching that comes with being on a keychain.

Hmm, that's not the impression I'm getting from reading reviews on Amazon and Newegg (16GB version from the same line). Several people seem to have the same complaints: non-standard size, housing is fragile, and the drive fails after a short time.
Then again, other people seem to love it and have none of those problems.

 

[Jumpman]

Here's my recommendation. 32GB sdhc $89.00 US, free shiping, and a 10 dollar rebate. Can't be beat! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220359&cm_re=sdhc_32gb-_-20-220-359-_-Product It's not a usb drive, but having that kinda cuts out the portability of the Pnadora in my opinion. Anyway, I have 2 of these, both bought from Newegg about 4 months apart. I use one with my Wiz, and it runs perfect. Never any problems. I'm selling my Wiz soon, so I'm just gonna use it with my Pandora at that point. Also it is the only 32gb card that I have found that has a 100% perfect in its reviews. Also the 2 I have are actually black, with a blue sticker. So they will go perfect with the Pandy, for those who care. Now I can't confirm anyone will get black like I did, but when I ordered the site used the same picture of a blue card, and I got black both times.


Jumpman

 

[cobaltage]

@cobaltage:

The LaCie Rikki looks very nice, but the specifications on their website seem to say that it won't be compatible:

System Requirements : Computer with a USB 2.0 port
Windows XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7/ Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6
Minimum free disk space: 600MB recommended

Probably that's what's required to use the included software, but there's no reason it shouldn't work as a mass storage device (would cut into battery life dramatically, though, I would imagine).

I saw that but just assumed that Linux isn't officially supported but would work fine, because it works with both Windows and OSX. My thought about it was that the issue isn't if LaCie supports Linux but if Linux supports a fairly standard USB external storage device. I have pretty limited experience with Linux though.

I could be wrong about that, of course. The special software that somehow increases data access is for Windows only -- no OSX version.

 

[kuru]

I buy a lot of stuff from Japan, china and I never got a problem with them. Just pay them! LOL!

Reminds me of that first and still only time in my life I bought flash memory on ebay. I purchased a 1GB SONY Memory Stick Pro Duo for my PSP.

I was happy putting music and ebooks on it, but the horror came when I started converting large movie files and ripping my games to not have to carry UMDs with me. Some of the games kept failing to load. If was close to going crazy before I started noticing. I got two smaller ISOs to run, but only if those were the only things on the card respectively. Both on one card, one failed to start. Put my one large game on it, it wouldn't start. It took me _ages_ to recognize that there's a pattern.

One day I found out that there's testing tools for flash media like there is for HDs. The end of the story is that the MS had something like 12 corrupted/defect/bad(?) sectors which kept freakin up the files. Which leads me to a question, isn't there a way to tell that the media is faulty, let's say during writing? Is there sth. like a hash code that is automatically checked? I guess this is more a linux question, I'm not sure where exactly my lack is atm^^

In short, be aware where you buy your flash memory.

And I'd vote for a SSD with a flat cable and small USB plug. It certainly is tempting to carry quite some media collection on this beast. Just remembered I still haven't added a TV out cable to my order.

 

[paulet581]

look at this!

 

[Prometheus]

And then look at this.

Never buy flash media on eBay. That item, if genuine, is being sold at a loss of around £200 - why would a seller do that?

 

[GPJosh]

I can vouch for the quality of the Super Talent at least. It's super small (thinner than a usb port), can survive the day to day trials/scratching that comes with being on a keychain.

Hmm, that's not the impression I'm getting from reading reviews on Amazon and Newegg (16GB version from the same line). Several people seem to have the same complaints: non-standard size, housing is fragile, and the drive fails after a short time.
Then again, other people seem to love it and have none of those problems.

Yeah, it seems like you either get one that fails in a short amount of time or one that keeps on going (like a flash drive should). Daily use for the 16gb in the past four months has turned up no problems yet. The one complaint I have is it can get hot to the touch, but that might be just a product of its small size and not having a layer of plastic between the chip and outside world. This amazon page seems to show the gamut of experiences people have with it.



@Sirofdarkness That flash memory looks way too good to be true. With ebay deals like that, it probably either it fell off the truck or its fake

 

[cbox]

That drive is a ssd but read like a class 10 sd card. I got 34mb read / 24 for write on a 40gb test. I don't want to have moving parts. I've seen zif,pata hard drive fall and brake not work again. Plus they burn out quick form over use. SD and SSD have a 20 yrs life expectancy, depends on brand. I just got one, and I plan on using it with pandora. Its super light in my hand and it feels like 3 or 4 credit cards. Its 8.2cm long by 5.8cm and 2cm depth.

No it is not a SSD drive, 120gig SSD drives are like 5x the cost of that.