SYBA SD-ADA40001 SATA II To Compact Flash Adapter

Pros: Device works as intended. It even came with small double sided tape to secure it to the case or whatever you want to secure it to. Also was detected right away by FreeBSD 7.2...I'm using it in my FreeNAS box.

Cons: Would have been nice if the CF card didn't stick out the back, but thats really minor that it really doesn't warrant a -1 egg.

Overall Review: The device have two LEDs, a yellow and a red one. They are constantly on 24/7. But since the adapter is in the case (with no side window), I don't see it. Might want to consider it though.

Pros: THIS IS A TIP FOR BOOTING CF CARDS, NOT A REVIEW OF THIS ITEM. If you want Windows to see a CF card as a FIXED DISK, you either need cards designed to be seen as a fixed disk, or to use Sandisk cards and use their fixed disk utility atcfwchg.com or ndcfwchg.com. Google is your friend on this subject. Of course you can use Linux and not have a problem in the first place. Note that if you load grub to some CF cards which will not otherwise boot, they will boot. There are grub-loading utilities such as those included with FalconFour's awesome live CD which will do the job from CD. I loaded FalconFours multiboot CD to CF in the SYBA IDE adapter and got an instant multiboot system for my "test" PC. Use the grubutils included in the torrent download. Also note that Gparted and parted on Linux do a better job with CF cards than Disk Manager run from liveCD. I booted into RIP Linux from the FalconFour CD for that purpose. Have fun!

Cons: None yet.

Overall Review: I have the IDE version of this adapter and like it, so I'll buy this adapter too. Plastic case they share is plenty robust for the job.

Pros: If it would work, it's a great idea.

Cons: 1) Mine didn't work. It wasn't DOA, but it wouldn't boot off of my CF card, which had booted in other devices. No amount of playing with BIOS settings or jumpers would make this adapter work. So I'm RMA-ing it and hoping the next one works. 2) The bracket for attaching to the rear of the case is so poorly designed that if your case has any metal dividers between the PCI bays, they will overlap the hole in the bracket and you won't be able to push the card through the hole into the adapter. Way to go on that one, guys.

Overall Review: If this wasn't basically the only viable option for a CF-to-SATA adapter in this price range, I'd be getting something else. I hope the next one works.

Pros: Appears to be identical sata adapter behavior to the SYBA 2.5" drive version. Takes up much less space and allows easy access to CF card. Much better value since less material and no usb connector. Leds show power, CF, activity.

Cons: CF card protrudes more than I'd like, but it works. Led's not externally visible when mounted in a slot bay.

Overall Review: Sata connector appears to be stronger material (less brittle) than the 2.5" drive version since it is not housing material. Haven't verified that exactly, but none of them broke off like the 2.5" drive version. This makes an excellent boot drive for any sort of appliance like a router, storage server, etc. Typically I can boot from power on in like eight seconds with a 230x CF card.

Pros: Works as advertised. Draws less power that any hard drive. Easy to setup (no drivers) Works great on linux (using Fedora 12 and CentOS) Can be mounted in many versitile ways (think 1U micro server with limited space)

Cons: Uses Compact Flash (CF) cards- they are actually the best for a balance of speed/capacity/performance but I prefer to use Secure Digital (SD)

Overall Review: I've used these cards (ordering my second one now) and others like them to create embedded servers. NAS devices, an Asterisk server and my latest project is two identical KVM virtualization servers. They are all working just great and do a great job of lowering power costs and taking old and new hardware and making into something you can really use.

Pros: Just like a hard drive. No problems in the OS recognizing them along with 8GB compact flash.

Cons: None

Overall Review: I used these adapters with 8GB compact flash disks. I setup 1 compact flash with Ubuntu and cloned 11 more kiosk machines. By doing it this way I could be from a parts to a fully functional, user ready computer in less than 20 minutes. Great time saver doing it this way.

Pros: Very fast.

Cons: Had a hard time getting this thing to boot with older Hardware. It did work with PCI raid cards however in a older machine it would not play fair with all my drives installed at the same time. Also could not boot Windows 7 Embedded from this adapter in a newer AMD AM2 Athlon x2 6000+ board, use IDE adapter works fine. FreeNAS boot with this adapter with no issues.

Overall Review: Access times are very low and speed seems to be great. FreeNAS which is base on FreeBSD boots in under 10 Seconds. And it's cousin (IDE version) Boots Windows 7 Embedded in under 10 seconds

Pros: Works with SATA II 3gb/s - Installed in a HTPC with windows XP on 2X 5gig Seagate CF in RAID 0 - windows starts in about a min or less - worked right from the start - HTPC is very quite and low heat inside case - cant hear it running unless i put my ear on case. i have both drives installed in one 3.5 bay stacked together with double side tape in a mATX case. lots of room to work

Cons: Only accepts floppy type power plug - sata power plug would be good to have.

Overall Review: installed on a GIGABYTE GA-MA78GPM-UD2H with AMD Phenom 9950 Agena 2.6GHz - - I didnt need much HDD storage due to HTPC is networked to my NAS Media drive - i only needed fast running OS === i also tried this with mythtv and a few other linux based OS"s and they ran great also. Great product - buy it