Also, you can use a SD-IDE adapter. They're not as cheap, but now SD cards are easier to find than CF ones.

I think that, although flash memory has his drawbacks, old hard disk are less reliable by far. also, 2Gb and 4Gb memory cards are cheap (obviously, a hard disk has lower cost by megabyte), but that size will be enough for most applications.

Have you tried using the type 2 Compact Flash hard drives? I get emails from a surplus place almost every day that sells 5gb ones for $2.99.

ux-3 wrote:

limited rewrite ability
not really stylish retro
far more expensive

I don't think that the limited rewrite ability plays any role. Just think about how often you really write to the CF card. The worst case I can think of, is using an application that requires more RAM than there is physically present and swapping starts. Though on the other hand, you wouldn't like to use this application.
Think of the USB rewrite test of the german magazine c't.
Conclusion was that they couldn't reach the rewrite limit, where the backup flash cells are used all up and real bad areas occur. (There are always more flash cells).

Its not stylish retro, you are right. For example I have a solution like that in my Slot Athlon PC that I use for data transfers to other systems. Still putting a CF solution in a 386DX-40 f.e. where you expect a hearable HDD sound, wouldn't be fitting at all. The 386DX-40 would be super-silent btw. 😉.

Oh anyone knows a good working CF to SCSI Adapter (SCSI2 at least would be fine)?

elianda wrote:

Its not stylish retro, you are right. For example I have a solution like that in my Slot Athlon PC that I use for data transfers to other systems. Still putting a CF solution in a 386DX-40 f.e. where you expect a hearable HDD sound, wouldn't be fitting at all. The 386DX-40 would be super-silent btw. 😉.

I have installed a CF in my 486DX-40. Aside from the fan of the PSU, there are no moving parts left. Nice.

But what about CD images?
Unless you can mount them over a network I'm still stuck with moving parts.

Set up another CF card just for images! 😁

Actually I think that notebook hard drives are a great option. They aren't expensive and the capacity is very nice. They are usually extremely quiet. PATA versions are still pretty easy to find. You only need a very cheap adapter to run a PATA 2.5" in a PC. And you also don't have any laggy write speed issues.

TheLazy1 wrote:

But what about CD images?
Unless you can mount them over a network I'm still stuck with moving parts.

On the 486, there aren't too many games with CD need. For CD-heavy games, a Plextor drive set to quiet mode should do the trick.