What's better? CF or PC card wifi card?

Which one is better, and what specific model (compatible with HPC/Pro [WinCE 2.11])?

Does CF use less battery life?

Thanks

-512

CF has a lower power consumption footprint

http://www.hpcfactor.com/hcl/

However pcmcia cards are usually less expensive.

Further, you can keep permanently a CF in his slot as storage memory, and swap the pcmcia cards you might have (ethernet, wi-fi, adapters for CFs/SD/etc memories, SCSI cards, ...)

well you can put the cf card in a pcmcia adapter so...

What cmonex said

Of course, but pcmcia peripheral cards are more common & less expensive than their CF counterparts.

oh, i will gladly pay a couple of $$ to have a cf if that's easier on the battery. also i can put it in any hpc that has at least a cf slot. (i have a few that doesn't have a pcmcia slot)

I guess the question is this: if your HPC has both a CF and PC Card slot, which is easier on the battery? Running a gig CF card in the CF slot/wifi in the PC Card slot or vice versa?

The former is certainly cheaper, but may cost in battery time. I genuflect to the experts here.

Jake

You are right (even if all my HPCs do have a pcmcia slot, but my collection is certainly muuuuch smaller than yours ): a couple of $$, or of €€, don't matter at all.
The problem here in Italy is that the difference in price is a factor of 2-3.
I prefer to buy and keep charged another battery!

well, here a CF wifi costs 40-50$ (mine was 35$ last year, would be worth 30$ now with all the currency rates changing) and a pcmcia wifi costs 40$ or almost... so?
ok, these are the prices for used cards, cf wifis are 50-70$ new and 16 bit pcmcia wifis cant be really bought, and if yes they are 40-50$
so it's strangely unproportional in your country

btw the HP jornada 780 in your profile, is that a 680 or 720?

It is.

If we consider new cards, a CF/SD (cable or Wi-fi) ethernet card costs on-line about € 100-150, as shown for example here on eprice.it (I hope this doesn't break any forum rule, it is just an example of an on-line shop well known for having fairly low prices, at least in Italy).
A pcmcia (cardbus of course) Wi-Fi card costs about € 20-30 (check here). Roughly the same for a pcmcia cable ethernet card.

I know that most of these cards don't work on our hpc's, it is just an example of what can be found easily and new.

Another example: the common Sandisk 128 MB CF Wireless Card sold today on eBay USA at less than $ 25 new, costs here in large electronics stores more than € 100.

Used stuff is a different story, you can find cards at very low prices (and pay a lot of money in proportion for shipping & handling ) but I think comparisons are much more difficult in these cases due to price variability.




Wow, you are much more careful than me to these details! It is a 680, just a typing error (corrected, now).

I doubt there is anyone here that has purchased only one device. Most of us buy and sell, and buy again. If I have a choice, CF is my preferred form simply because it is so popular across the various platforms. You can use it in a HPC, in a laptop, in a pocketpc, etc. However, if I'm budget conscious, then I'm going to buy what I can afford now and not worry about the future. And for HPC users, cheap is equivalent to pcmcia.

Rich

If I could start over again I'd wait for deals and buy all CF wifi.

They use less power, of course, and work in everything I own (except my modern piddles and they're spoken for) and am likely to own. IMO pcmcia/cardbus is dying off in small computers and might one day disappear.

I hope CF stays around for a long time though, what with the CF wifi and flash cards I own. Of course, a super-modern hpc would likely have G wifi onboard and use mini or micro SD nullifying everything I own

However, there is great pcmcia stuff available. I think highly of my WPC11 v2.5 and Belkin F5d6020. They work every time.

So would you suggest the Sandisk wifi +128 mb? I was looking at it and none of the drivers on Sandisk's website suggested WinCE compatability but if it's doable, I'd definetly hit it asap.

Speaking now in terms of flash memory and storage, instead of wi-fi, which is less power hungry - CF or PCMCIA ATA Flash cards?