Compact Flash fast enough for cache?

By Jason404 | January 17th, 2009 | 9:42 am

I have IBM ThinkPad X-series laptops.  I have CF a slot on my X31, and a SD slot on my X40.

I think they are connected through the same interface that is used for the PCMCIA slot, as if I disable the PCMCIA slots in Device Manager, the DF/SD slots stop working.

I think that using these slots for eBoostr cache could be an ideal way of speeding them up.

Will flash memory in these slots be fast enough to be used with eBoostr?  What size cards would you recommend?

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4 Responses to “Compact Flash fast enough for cache?”

  1. Stevvie
    Jan 17, 2009

    I have successfully used a 2gig,4gig CF cards through a USB card reader and an SD card through a USB reader. Weather it’s fast enough depends on both the speed of the cards and the CF card interface. The only real thing that can be said is to try it.


  2. Jason404
    Jan 18, 2009

    Stevvie, the USB 2.0 interface is a lot slower than the speed of HDDs, so I cannot see how doing what you are doing does anything but slow the computer down. You’re better off with using the pagefile on the hard drive.

    I’ve just ordered a SanDisk Extreme 2GB High Speed CF card. I’ll do some benchmarks to see how well it works. This could be a great way to speed up this laptop.


  3. Jason404
    Jan 18, 2009

    Er, ignore my previous comment, as I suppose that is how most people are using eBoostr.

    But surely CF cards accessed directly through PCMCIA would be faster?

    I’m also going to upgrade the RAM in my X31 from 1.25GB to the maximum 2GB, and make the eBoostr DRAM cache a lot bigger.


  4. Andrey Zarudnev
    Jan 19, 2009

    Thanks, Jason404. Please keep us informed with your test results.



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