Newbie questions: 2215 storage card options

[Taha]

Hi All

Just joined the PPC club with the purchase of a iPaq 2215 a couple of days ago. I am really pleased with it so far and am slowly finding my way around -- am an old Palm V user and was pleasantly surprised to find that my Graffiti strokes work just fine! Like some other posters here I am miffed at the scuff marks on my under-a-week-old unit! :cry:

So, onto my newbie questions....apologies to the old hands in advance.....

I would like to purchase some cards (CF or SD) to expand the memory.

-- I am basically confused as to which type is better for which app. I envisage storing mostly data files (including MP3s) on my iPaq.

-- Can I install apps and/or data on both types of card? Which is better for apps and which for data?

-- Can anyone recommend brands to select and avoid? Saw -ve some comments on the SanDisk (sp?) brand elsewhere on the forums.

-- I found a site called eCost.com and they seem to have a bunch of different types and brands. Does anyone know a better site? -- I will do a comparison at Google's Froogle site before spending any $'s.

Thanks again in advance!

Taha

[spursdude]

-- I am basically confused as to which type is better for which app. I envisage storing mostly data files (including MP3s) on my iPaq.
MP3s and videos will most probably play smoothly off of CF or SD. You won't notice much of a performance difference while using the cards in your PPC... you might while transferring files btwn the PC and card, as CF is generally faster.

Can I install apps and/or data on both types of card? Which is better for apps and which for data?
It doesn't matter which type... applications will run fine off of either. Just make sure to not install any apps that run on startup onto your memory card... those should go on internal memory.

-- Can anyone recommend brands to select and avoid? Saw -ve some comments on the SanDisk (sp?) brand elsewhere on the forums.
I've heard a lot of bad things about SanDisk SD cards... those are the only things I've heard bad news about. You should be fine otherwise.... I have a SimpleTech 128MB CF card and have had no problems at all.

-- I found a site called eCost.com and they seem to have a bunch of different types and brands. Does anyone know a better site? -- I will do a comparison at Google's Froogle site before spending any $'s.
You can check out Amazon's prices on Viking CF cards... the prices are excellent. You can also check out the Pricegrabber link on the front-page of this site... that has a lot of good bargains.

Honestly, I don't think there's much of a performance difference that will matter for you... so if you don't use CF accessories, I would recommend CF just because it's cheaper and marginally faster.

[droppedd]

The SanDisk SD cards (particularly the 256+ MB ones) seem to have issues with specific handhelds (the Toshibas and Axims, in particular). I have a 2210 and i'm running it with a 256 MB SanDisk SD card (so far) with no problems (one which i actually bought from ecost).

I've heard you should avoid SanDisk CF cards as they're supposedly quite slow compared to other ones.

Also, i recommend getting yourself a CF/SD card reader for your computer, as I seem to get much faster file transfers directly to the card that way (for large groups of files and such).

Personally I got an SD card but am holding out on the CF until the new round of hard drive CF cards come out. When I can buy a 1 gig CF (preferably flash, not microdrive) for $100, then I will; till then I make do with a mere 256 megabytes. (mere 256 MB? my old m100 had 2 MB RAM, nonupgradeable :)).

[Skitals]

I would recommend using SD cards for memory. I say this because CF peripherals are cheaper and more readily available (I dont know if any sdio accessories came out yet?). This way you can use the CF slot for switching between a WiFi card, GPScard , CF camera card, etc... and always have your SD memory card in :)

[msdawe]

Skitals has good points about the major differences between CF and SD. Presently, SD is almost exclusively for memory cards. This is mostly because CF is a more mature interface. CF cards in general are cheaper than SD.

Personally, I'm waiting for the SDIO 802.11 card and then I'm going to use than and stick a 1GB or so CF in the slot. I've already read that an SDIO camera is being developed. It becomes more expensive, but I'm able to have 1GB or more if I use CF as my memory slot. SD currently seems to have a 512MB limit; and, those 512MB SD cards are prohibitively expensive for me.