Who would buy a solid-state drive for their DAP/R?

[adam917]

I probably could see buying one to turn my H140 into a pure flash device whilst still keeping all that Rockbox niceness, if the price was right.

Who else here would buy, once the price is right?

Advantages: no moving parts (so you can finally jog with the device), less power consumption, potentially faster drive access speed (no waiting for spin-up), potentially higher capacity if no more HDDs that would work in our units (micro-ATA) are released.

Dis-advantages: Price.

[Step666]

That's clearly a 'wait and see' situation - not knowing what prices SSDs are going to be, saying a definite yes is rather short-sighted.

[mixin]

Price is definitely the key factor here. Think i read somewhere that Sandisk are gonna be selling a 2.5" 32GB SSD for $350, which is crazy pricing.

It's gonna be a good year/year and a half, before i'd ever consider buying one, and I don't even know what player i'll have by then!

[adam917]

Originally Posted by mixin

Price is definitely the key factor here. Think i read somewhere that Sandisk are gonna be selling a 2.5" 32GB SSD for $350, which is crazy pricing.

It's gonna be a good year/year and a half, before i'd ever consider buying one, and I don't even know what player i'll have by then!

If by 'crazy', you mean HIGH, well most of these drives cost at least double that price for the capacity.

I'm so obsessed with Rockbox's many features...

[Dommo]

I noticed about 4 months ago that microdrives and CompactFlash cards are compatible, and the other day I found a site where someone put a 16gb one in their iPod mini, search for '16gb cf ipod mini' on Google.

So, I heard that the H10 has a microdrive, and wondered if this modification would work with an H10. You can get lower capacity ones for about £30 according to that website (IIRC). I'd find a link but I'm on a phone so I can't go on two sites, doh.

If someone knows of a topic discussing this that I missed, let me know (not that I have an H10). Cheers.

[Step666]

Yes, the 5 and 6GB versions of the H10 use a 1.0" micro-HDD (that's a CF-sized HDD, a microdrive).
Theoretically you should be able to throw a CF card in there instead.

Problem is, that doesn't help anyone with the 20GB version or any of the decent HDD-based DAPs iRiver made.

[Dommo]

That may be so, but I'd say this could be very good, an H10 with:

16gb storage (more as the technology advances)
with an easily replaceable battery
rockbox (if it's fully compatible yet?)
small size in general
colour screen
etc etc

[Step666]

You're forgetting though that the H10 lacks a lot of the hardware features that attract people to the older players - eg lines-in and -out.
Whilst it may be easier to get an SSD for, I'm sure there's a few people would rather wait and get one for the DAP they already own and love.

[adam917]

Originally Posted by Step666

You're forgetting though that the H10 lacks a lot of the hardware features that attract people to the older players - eg lines-in and -out.
Whilst it may be easier to get an SSD for, I'm sure there's a few people would rather wait and get one for the DAP they already own and love.

Got that right. As an _audio_ device, the H100-series has everything I really need and more & more all the time thanks to Rockbox & its frequent updates. I never thought I could be listening to SPCs, NSFs, & SIDs on the same DAR device I could do some live recording in the taper's section of band performances (even though it will be only in 16/44.1 (though I can record in WavPack format in real-time).

H100- & H300-series forever!

[caramelsoul]

In my opinion, i would say that the headphone out on my H10 is much better than the headphone out on my H140. I cant really comment on the headphone out on my H320 because, well, i havent ever plugged my IEMs into it.

[Step666]

But the point still stands that people who use and appreciate the features such as the lines-in and -out regularly would not wish to switch to a H10 just because you can easily switch it to solid-state.
Nor, for that matter, would people who don't like the touch-strip navigation.

[CSMRtencharacters]

Originally Posted by adam917

I probably could see buying one to turn my H140 into a pure flash device whilst still keeping all that Rockbox niceness, if the price was right.

Who else here would buy, once the price is right?

Advantages: no moving parts (so you can finally jog with the device), less power consumption, potentially faster drive access speed (no waiting for spin-up), potentially higher capacity if no more HDDs that would work in our units (micro-ATA) are released.

Dis-advantages: Price.

Yes but probably only in a couple of years with at least 40Gb at a reasonable price. HD noise is annoying, even though it doesn't spin up that often.

[adam917]

Originally Posted by Step666

But the point still stands that people who use and appreciate the features such as the lines-in and -out regularly would not wish to switch to a H10 just because you can easily switch it to solid-state.
Nor, for that matter, would people who don't like the touch-strip navigation.

You should be able to switch the older ones to SSD as well, providing the drives being released this year will be in ATA-3 (micro-ATA/'Toshiba connector') format.

Here's one up for sale already (they say it ships in April, we'll see...), even though price is through the roof - http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/car...ct_match=exact

[Step666]

I know about the SSDs being available in a 1.8" form factor and I know they'd be suitable for the iHp-100s and H300s, the problem however is the price.
You can turn a 5 or 6 GB H10 into a flash-based player of similar capacity fairly reasonably whereas that link you posted is a £600 component.

The debate we were having was whether or not buying a H10 for the sole purpose of stripping out the HDD and sticking in a CF card would be a better proposition than having to re-mortgage your home to make you H340 solid-state.

[adam917]

Originally Posted by Step666

I know about the SSDs being available in a 1.8" form factor and I know they'd be suitable for the iHp-100s and H300s, the problem however is the price.
You can turn a 5 or 6 GB H10 into a flash-based player of similar capacity fairly reasonably whereas that link you posted is a £600 component.

The debate we were having was whether or not buying a H10 for the sole purpose of stripping out the HDD and sticking in a CF card would be a better proposition than having to re-mortgage your home to make you H340 solid-state.

Interesting. I could see going for that sooner than a 'real' SSD, as CF has reached 16 GiB and the price isn't beyond 500 USD. Is the CF card a direct fit?

[caramelsoul]

Didnt think it was a debate but it might turn into one.

But the point still stands that people who dont use and appreciate the features such as the lines-in and -out regularly might jump at the chance to own a flash player akin to the H10. Owning both the H10 and H320 i personally like the touchstrip better than the cumberson buttons on the H300 series. A lot of people on these forums like the touchstrip as well. But thats just my opinion....

[Step666]

I didn't say everyone would prefer one of the older players over a H10, did I?

Originally Posted by adam917

Is the CF card a direct fit?

I believe so.
The drives in the H10s are a 1" form factor, right? Well, IIRC, that's the same size as a CF card.

Though the only way to be sure is if someone with a CF card were to open up their H10 and have a look.

[Dommo]

I know it's a direct fit with iPoo minis, if that helps?

[Step666]

Some must've voted because this has been bumped...

Anyway, last I knew, someone had opened up their H10 and it's a ZIF-connector the drive has
If it had been IDE, then it'd've been the same as a CF card (well, I'm pretty certain it would've) but not if it's ZIF.

[andrewmel]

For me the deciding factor is capacity. I moved to a 60Gb iPod a while ago now as my H320 was full and the battery dying. Now I have only 9Gb free, and will soon want a larger capacity dap. So far the only option is an 80Gb iPod, I think, and there is no Rockbox for that yet.....

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