It's probably actually better for performance in most cases.
What degrades performance is using 2 devices on the same channel at the same time.
So with this setup you'll get a small hit when installing things to c:\
but playing games (Which I'm amusing you'll be doing majority of the time) d:\ and the cd drive wont be fighting for time on the secondary channel

I'm using both kind of Adapters, IDE->CF with a braket and IDE->SD like it is linked on the first page of this thread (or as you can see on my picture below). But as you already stated, the prices for CF cards are rising, while the prices for SD cards are quiet low these days. So I bought more of the IDE-SD adapters for my retro-rigs. But as they were only loose PCBs I already had a short-circuit because I wasn't sure where to put this thing... and while moving the runing PC around it fell on the floor of the computercase... stopped working obviously 😉
So I made a small housing with my 3D printer, so that I could lay it anywhere into the case without the danger of another short circuit. But now I still have to have the case open or have to open it for switching the SD cards. So I've designed a 3.5" housing for this thing. I'll have to print a first example this night and test if all measurements are good, but if it is, I'll upload it to thingiverse so that you can print it out for yourself if you want to use this kind of IDE->SD adapters in your rig.

That looks nice!

For one of my systems I did it in a different way. I have the SD to IDE adapter variant with a female IDE connector, this plugs into the motherboard directly. Then I go to the front of the PC with an SD card extension cable as pictured.
Most of these SD cables are of lesser quality though, but at the time there was one seller that offered a better, more flexible cable.

maverick21 wrote:

I'm using both kind of Adapters, IDE->CF with a braket and IDE->SD like it is linked on the first page of this thread (or as you can see on my picture below). But as you already stated, the prices for CF cards are rising, while the prices for SD cards are quiet low these days. So I bought more of the IDE-SD adapters for my retro-rigs. But as they were only loose PCBs I already had a short-circuit because I wasn't sure where to put this thing... and while moving the runing PC around it fell on the floor of the computercase... stopped working obviously 😉
So I made a small housing with my 3D printer, so that I could lay it anywhere into the case without the danger of another short circuit. But now I still have to have the case open or have to open it for switching the SD cards. So I've designed a 3.5" housing for this thing. I'll have to print a first example this night and test if all measurements are good, but if it is, I'll upload it to thingiverse so that you can print it out for yourself if you want to use this kind of IDE->SD adapters in your rig.

You. Sir. Might be the savior we need. I have been looking for a solution like this for so long, but I do not have the modelling experience. I will gladly tip you on Thingiverse for this. Young Skywalker, we will watch your career with great interest.

twilliamc wrote:

You. Sir. Might be the savior we need. I have been looking for a solution like this for so long, but I do not have the modelling experience. I will gladly tip you on Thingiverse for this. Young Skywalker, we will watch your career with great interest.

I'm honored, but my designing skills are only rudimentary. I hope I can help some of you. First prototype was printed last night. I think I had some missreadings in the measuring. The pcb fits, the thickness of the front-plate is good for the push/pull mechanism of the sd card, but the thing is about 1cm to wide... so it's another night of printing for another run.

tegrady wrote:

I think I read somewhere that these CF to IDE adapters can only be used if they are the only device on the cable.

This is not true. It's probably depends on what kind of an adapter one uses in his/her systems, but my own backplate and Startech 3.5" bay type CF-IDE adapters works happily with other devices (as masters with slave CD-ROMs mostly) in the same channel.

I never tried two CF adapters in the same channel, though.

First thing is ready and build in. There might be some problems in very small computer cases. For those cases I might add another version where the pcb is mounted a few millimeters lower to provide more space for cables.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3232293

Try to print it, I would appreciate any kind of message if it works or if anything could be improved.

I've had another device on the same cable as my ide2cf card reader. It worked with my modell, but my ide2sd card reader seems to like beeing alone 😉

cu
Thomas