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Customer Reviews
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| PHOTOFAST CR-9000 2.5 |
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Description |
| The CR9000 Flash Disk uses SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) memory cards in a 2.5" SATA HDD form-factor to act as a solid state2.5" SATA HDD. Its advantages include lightness, compactness, better transfer rates and shock resistance compared to conventional hard disks, lower power consumption, less noise during operation and better tolerance for temperature changes.
The CR9000 offers practically unlimited scalability depending on the SDHC capacity. As SDHC is relatively inexpensive compared to the solid state drives now on the market, it offers a very competitive solution in terms of price, speed and capacity. For industrial computers and military computers that must operate for long periods of time in special working environments, the CR9000 can replace conventional
HDDs for better reliability and meet more types of usage requirements. |
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Features |
- Standard 2.5" SATA HDD interface. Offers a fast and low-cost replacement to expensive solid state drives
- Solid state drives' advantages such as zero noise and low power consumption
- Stable and reliable performance. better read/write access performance, shock resistance and operating temperature range than conventional HDD
- SupRAID 0. Supports SATA 1.5/3Gbps interface in host. Supports all operating systems. No drivers or software required.
- Provides 6 expansion and each slot can support 4/8/16/32GB SDHC card.(not support SD)
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Review by Video |
 No video reviews found for this product.
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Reviewed by Customers |
 Cheaper alternative to higher priced SSDs with performance to boot |
| Review Date: March 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer's Name: AmuroFan, Philadelphia, PA |
On price:
You can currently buy this from Amazon (Japan) for 3,380 yen (~ $35.00 USD). Do yourself a favor and research the prices *before* buying it from (any) seller that's selling it upwards of $100 USD.
On SDHC cards:
If you buy the CR-9000 and put a (single) Class 6 SDHC card (lowest rating of 6MB/s (equivalent of 40x)) in it then of course it's going to perform slower than a typical hard drive. There's a reason that *six* SDHC slots are provided inside the device; the cards are set up as RAID 0 (data is written *across* all the cards at the *same* time). The more cards you add the faster this device becomes. If you put six (of those same cards in it) you can expect the equivalent of 240x (36MB/s). If, however you use Class 6 SDHC cards with higher ratings (e.g. 133x, 150x - both of which use SLC chips and NOT MLC) then the device really starts to shine and is capable of up to a maximum of 130MB/s (read) and 85MB/s (write).
On RAID 0:
Since the data is striped, each card you add needs to be the same size (either 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB). It's highly recommended buying the same brand and (speed) rating of (whatever capacity) card you plan on using. If even one card is damaged (however unlikely that may be) than *all* data is lost. (This is disadvantage of RAID 0 and should not immediately put you off to the CR-9000) You probably have the same chance of getting a defective SDHC as you would having a defective chip in a contemporary SSD solution.
On physical construction:
Solid steel casing (red with white silkscreen) that is held together with 3 screws. The main board is easily removed and has 3 SDHC slots on top and the other 3 underneath. Lighter (with six cards) than traditional mechanical drive. With the right shielding you can even forgo using the steel case altogether (in a notebook scenario) to reduce the weight even further.
Other info:
According to the box the CR-9000 ships in there is apparently an IDE version. It would be perfect for older systems with an ATA-7 interface.
Final thoughts:
If you're thinking of purchasing the CR-9000 you should also factor in the price of buying six *quality* SDHC (SLC, Class 6 *high rating*) cards. It *is* possible to get fast speeds out of this for under $200. (6 SDHC @$25 + $35 for unit + tax/shipping)
Good:
- OS independent.
- No moving parts, lighter & cooler than traditional SATA drive.
- Fast speeds possible using (SLC) SDHC cards
- SDHC cards are replaceable whereas a traditional SSD would require purchasing a new unit if one of the internal chips failed.
Bad:
- Top speeds can't be reached with (the cheaper) MLC SDHC cards
- Total capacity limited to 192GB (may not be enough for some)
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It is rather nifty, but don't be fooled into believing it can replace any contemporary hard drive since the fastest it can R/W
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| Review Date: February 14, 2009 |
| Reviewer's Name: Anonymous, United States |
It is rather nifty, but don't be fooled into believing it can replace any contemporary hard drive since the fastest it can R/W is 40x or 6megabytes per second. The fastest Class 6 SDHC cards only read at 40x / 6 megabytes per second regardless of how fast the the PhotoFast adapter can connect to the SATA bus.
A standard hard drive, even the slowest ATA drives can read / write at an equivalent speed of 300x or 45megabytes per second.
If you just have a lot of SDHC cards and less than enough USB / adapter ports then you can consider this adapter card and be prepared for data access speeds that are slower than most SATA hard drives in use today. |
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