I am about to buy a iPAQ 2210 and thought it's probably a good idea to get a 128Mb memory card for it.

I might be asking a silly question here but what is the difference between a "Compact Flash" card and a "Secure Digital" card?

The secure digital ones seem to be the more expensive, are they a different size or speed or something?

Any help/info welcome

Oh and probably going to get both from www.eurosimm.co.uk anyone used them? Got the iPAQ 2210 for £233 inc VAT. seems to be good price.

 

Secure digital have encryption facilities for stored data - but not from the off. You have to set them up.

Compact flash is more generic and cheaper e.g. cameras, PDAs, MP3 players etc.

 

Ah ok thanks. So I don’t really need a secure digital one then unless I want to encrypt my data, which I don’t want to do.

 

AFAIK SD also cards have faster access speeds than CF and the cheaper MMC cards. SD cards also have a little write protect tab which means you can't accidentally erase data.

 

Aren't CF and SD cards implicitly different form factors, too? i.e. the CF cards being the 'microdrive'/type-2 shape and the SD cards being the ones similar in size/shape to mobile phone SIM cards? Or, does "CF" and "SD" refer only to the media type/standard and not the form factor of the packaging?

 

Ooh now you’re getting a bit technical

I was wondering if they are different sizes/form factors as I have an Epson RX500 printer which has built in card readers and is labelled SD & CF and the slots are physically different sizes???

Do these iPAQ’s have two different slots for memory cards then??

 

Er yeah teh SD cards are sim card size, the CF cards are a lot bigger.

Think the 2210 has both slots though doesnt it?
I have a 1940 an dits only got an sd slot

 

The equivalent cards to SD are MMC - same but without encryption capabilities.

 

Oh well think il go for a SD card then as they only a few quid more plus if they are smaller too then thats gotta be a bonus!!

 

I'm an iPaq user, and I read that SD cards are slower than CF cards, but to be honest I don't think it'll make much difference for the average user.

I would suggest going for a larger card, whichever one you choose - you'll soon fill it up, especially if you stick mp3 or wma files on it. If funds allow, go for both, the 2210 can take both simultaneously.

Don't know about the site you mentioned, but www.expansys.com will do a 256Mb SD card for about £60. You can get the same off Ebay for £50. Worth looking at.

T