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What's the largest (legitimate) capacity CF card I can buy? Needed for a thin client

RussBlakeman

RussBlakeman

Experienced Member
Joined
May 22, 2011
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Location
Clarkson, KY USA
I have two thin clients with VIA Eden processors in them that have both a CF slot inside and a 2.5" IDE. They have a laptop 40GB drive in each but I have a feeling that CF would run the Windows XP they have faster than the HD especially since the cable inside is a 40 wire ATAPI cable rather than the newer 80 wire. I see lots of listings for huge capacity CF cards but I know many of them are fakes or have the guts of something else in them and I figured many of you deal with the CF drives and would know.
 
Sandisk offers CF drives between 32 GB and 256 GB. I suspect that those thin clients were designed while the standard for CF cards was capped at 128GB. The revisions to the spec to permit cards with capacities over 128 GB were produced in 2010. AFICT, legitimate 512 GB or larger drives are for the CFAST (SATA) or CFExpress (PCIe) variants.

I have never used a 256 GB CF card.
 
I probably wouldnt need more than a 64gb anyway, possibly a 32gb would work as well. I'm only planning on using it as a bench machine to use with a browser to look things up, read PDFs, etc rather than run programs on it. I have an 8mb (yeah that small) that I am going to load some files on and put it in the CF slot as a non-boot drive and see if the unit sees it as a hard drive or a floppy. No manual for the thing and there's no brand markings on the units so I'm basically going by what I can see inside and the motherboard make/model that shows at boot. 32gb and 64gb CFs don't seem too expensive though I might also try a CF to SD adapter if I can find it before I spend money on a regular CF card
 
You can get microSD to CF adapters, some even take 2-4 cards. The size at this point is easily 1-2tb affordably. Sadly they changed the interface with CF-2, so size is kinda limited if you wish to stay with strict CF, highest I have seen is 256gb.


Personally I have a bunch of microSD cards so i would just grab this adapter ... https://www.amazon.com/QUMOX-COMPACT-MEMORY-READER-ADAPTER/dp/B019RD86NI and throw in 2 128gb cards. A true CF will give you better raw performance numbers wise, But with it being an old VIA thin client, even microSD is going to be faster then whatever was in there stock. Samsung EVO Class 10+ are pretty inexpensive, 2 128s and the adapter be under 50 usd.

Samsung 128gb for 15.99 lol

If 128 total be enough, even cheaper... at 10.49 each, still think 128s are the sweet spot price wise.

I believe these CompactFlash adapters interleave, not sure, could just be a JBOD. I would suggest using 2 of the same card, or just 1. Personally I would use 2.

There are dual microSD to MemoryStick Pro Duo adapters or w/e format the PSP used, Have one in my old PSP wherever it is. And I have seen dual of that to CF adapters. Just another idea be an Ipod adapter. Those use CF microdrives , but with the ribbon cable. https://www.iflash.xyz/store/iflash-quad/
An adapter like that with the ribbon to CF adapter would work as well, and give you 4 card slots.

All depends how nutty you wanna get, or your budget. =)


On a side note, makes me want to start a project now. A passive laptop 2.5 IDE to CompactFlash adapter. I have never seen one. Could be interresting with an 2.5 IDE to SATA adapter, for use of SATA SSDs. Given you have to power it another way. Just curious if it would work. I'm strange like that. Sorry for all the edits, using my phone. :p
 
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I did manage to find an online manual, for the motherboard itself and the CF slot is tied to the secondary IDE channel and it is bootable so I may go the SD to CF route since I too have lots of SD cards. Dont worry about edits as I tend to look at my posts later and end up doing an edit or twelve myself.
 
Isn't there a long-term issue with running Windows on CF or SD cards? I'm a bit out of touch with XP (I spend most of my time in DOS), but the constant writing that Windows does, e.g. to swap files, wears out these 'drives' much sooner, right? Maybe you can disable the swap file under Windows XP, though this would have other ramifications.
Other folks, feel free to weigh in and correct me.
 
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