The $99 dollar SSD has arrived

[bexamous]

(Wtf I just replied and its not showing up?)

You sure that IDE-CF adapter works? I got some off ebay that suck.

Not all converters support DMA: http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/5/24/46

Find one that works with DMA and performance will probably be better.

This is also why M0n0wall disables DMA by default, too many problems with CF cards when the kernel tries to use DMA.

[humpty]

I had no problems with a $5 converter and DamnSmallLinux;
http://petepr.hopto.org/cf/cf_cards.html

[halfmanhalfamazing]

You sure that IDE-CF adapter works? I got some off ebay that suck.

Not all converters support DMA: http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/5/24/46

Find one that works with DMA and performance will probably be better.

Interesting piece of information. Thanks for sharing.

I wish there were an easier way to test that out without having to do some soldering.(or at least, that's how I read it, that's the fix)

[halfmanhalfamazing]

I had no problems with a $5 converter and DamnSmallLinux;
http://petepr.hopto.org/cf/cf_cards.html

I'm gonna be giving DSL a try here soon. I saw the new release of Sabayon, gonna try that out as well.

Where did you buy your CF converter from? Can you point me to the webstore? I'd like to try one of the ones you have considering you've verified higher transfer rates than 6.5MB, and they're dirt cheap anyways. :-P If at all possible, I'd like to rule out the converter itself as the reason why I'm not getting the transfer rates that I should be getting.

I especially like that female one for the fact that it looks like it would just plug in directly into the motherboard, I wouldn't have to worry about the IDE cable and mounting issues.(see my pics for reference)

[Michael]

It looks like we will be doing a comparison with a CF converter at Phoronix shortly. Just waiting on the CF card(s) to arrive.

[halfmanhalfamazing]

A couple of things worthy of note. I've had several people ask me in various places if I'm worried about the lifespan of my new device.

Not really:

http://www.embeddedstar.com/weblog/2...ssd-longevity/

Add to that AMD's new technology, hyperflash. Using a Flash/NAND device as a cache buffer.

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paed...n-and-puma.ars
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...sh+AMD+storage

[Syzygies]

This is a beautiful thread.

The Intel Desktop Board D201GLY is a powerful, almost complete
computer for $70, aimed at Intel's "next billion customers."

http://www.intel.com/products/mother...1GLY/index.htm

As others have also noted on the web, it cries out to have dozens
assembled into a cheap supercomputer, e.g. a Linux Beowulf cluster.
Just need memory and a drive, per board, supply them all power, and
network them through a switch.

I was thinking USB pen drives, till I found this thread.

On the other hand, USB pen drives would save on the conversion
hardware, and wouldn't matter after booting if one then used a RAM
disk.

[halfmanhalfamazing]

I was thinking USB pen drives, till I found this thread.

On the other hand, USB pen drives would save on the conversion
hardware, and wouldn't matter after booting if one then used a RAM
disk.

You're in a whole different territory than I am.

If you're running a cluster, then they would all be a slave to the primary computer, correct?

You'd only need a high performance setup on the primary computer.

I'd probably just go with pendrives, you can get them for 10 dollars each(256mb) off of pricewatch.

Glad I could offer you a possible alternative though. :-)

[Syzygies]

It looks like we will be doing a comparison with a CF converter at Phoronix shortly. Just waiting on the CF card(s) to arrive.

I'm hoping that CF can improve Linux memory swapping perfomance.

Here are some links re: DMA support:

IDE Compact Flash Adapter with Mounting Plate
http://www.acscontrol.com/Index_ACS....CF_Adapter.htm

Which Compact FLASH cards support DMA?
http://www.acscontrol.com/Index_ACS....CF_Adapter.htm

[Kano]

With a new pc with usb boot support you can directly use USB sticks for linux. Little ones with 1/2 GB are enough to run a Linux livesystem (compressed), bigger ones can hold even a hd install. The install onto usb is a bit tricky, but possible. The sticks that work have usually a 512 byte sector size, one 2 GB stick I have got has 2048 sector size - that does not work. There is a simple check for it:

blockdev --getss /dev/XXX

Older pc can be used to boot from a cd with kernel/initrd stored on it and root fs on usb. And there are much faster usb sticks than 6 mb/s...