Memory question


punkrockserfer

punkrockserfer

Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
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Hey everyone. I find myself in a bit of a dilemma. I plan to use the pandora's two sdhc slots to the max (32GB in each) but I KNOW for a fact I will need more than that. My psx iso's take up more than the approx. 60GB I'll have from them. So I am searching for other ways to have massive amounts of memory without draining the pandora's battery completely. I initially thought of a portable hard drive. One like this looks tasty:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822161050

Then I began to think that (although smaller) perhaps a USB flash drive would be better suited for the Pandora. One such as this:

http://www.flash-memory-store.com/64gb- ... drive.html

I was curious which way you guys think I should go for this and also what form of memory you guys are planning on harnessing.

Again, sorry if this has been asked too many times, but a search on this forum found that while the idea of portable hard drives and flash drives has been discussed, there doesn't seem to be an overall decision on which is the best way to go.

Thanks in advance.

p&|a p&|a p&|a p&|a p&|a p&|a p&|a
 
mkinzler said:
How many games you play at once?
Click to expand...


lol. Not as many as I keep on the card but often times I will find myself away from home (usually on the train) and I will have the incredible urge to play xxxx game from xxxx system and it's a pain in the ass to have to swap games in and out to match my fleeting desires. I end up spending more time moving files than actually playing them. It would be absolutely badass to have them all available at any time. :)
 
Portable hard drives won't work unless you have a powered hub. I'd say USB flash drives or extra SDHC cards would be the way to go (maybe putting your current games on the SDHC cards, then the less-played ones on USB drives so they can easily be switched out?).
 
Sounds like price is less of an issue then portability/ease of use. With those two guiding thoughts I would say a USB drive like the one you linked to would be a good deal, especially since I hate swapping out SD cards and such (while with the USB drive you simply unplug and cap it).

Add to that the portable hard drive would drain more battery life (though likely cheaper and more storage) as well as bulkier.

Still, maybe some more SD cards would work best. They are more portable then the others and probably would take up the least battery life.
 
Hey, for the portable harddrive draining battery issue, would an iPod 6G connect to the Pandora through usb?

I asking because my cousin just broke her 160GB iPod's screen, but the drive still works (i checked using the computer when I accessed it throught My Computer). Since the iPod has like 40hrs of battery life when not displaying the screen wouldn't it be the perfect portable hard drive?
 
Hey thanks for all the advice and responses guys. I think I will likely go with the USB stick as it has 64 GB built in. Add that to the two 32 GB SDHC cards I will have and thats a massive amount of memory. In order to have all of my games, comics & books, I'll really only need about 80GB. That should leave me with a decent amount of extra space for homebrew apps, music, and movies. Again thanks for your help guys.

It's really interesting to compare a smaller dev community like the pandora and GP32 have to normal gaming forums. Everyone here seems so much more patient and helpful (I have yet to see a troll! :eek: ) and it really makes me anxious for how this community will further develop once we get our hands on this powerful little device. :D

321325342: That's an interesting suggestion and one that I don't see any flaw in really. As long as the iPod can be connected through USB (not firewire) and can be easily accessed and browsed (I'm not really sure as I don't use iPods) then you should have a nifty (and not to mention portable) little hard drive. :)
 
321325342 said:
Hey, for the portable harddrive draining battery issue, would an iPod 6G connect to the Pandora through usb?

I asking because my cousin just broke her 160GB iPod's screen, but the drive still works (i checked using the computer when I accessed it throught My Computer). Since the iPod has like 40hrs of battery life when not displaying the screen wouldn't it be the perfect portable hard drive?
Click to expand...
Unless you can somehow turn off charging via USB on the iPod, I don't think that will work well. My MP3 player (iRiver H10 5GB) doesn't work with non-powered USB ports because of this very reason.
 
Capn_Fish said:
321325342 said:
Hey, for the portable harddrive draining battery issue, would an iPod 6G connect to the Pandora through usb?

I asking because my cousin just broke her 160GB iPod's screen, but the drive still works (i checked using the computer when I accessed it throught My Computer). Since the iPod has like 40hrs of battery life when not displaying the screen wouldn't it be the perfect portable hard drive?
Click to expand...
Unless you can somehow turn off charging via USB on the iPod, I don't think that will work well. My MP3 player (iRiver H10 5GB) doesn't work with non-powered USB ports because of this very reason.
Click to expand...

The Pandora has fully powered USB ports
 
fischju said:
Capn_Fish said:
321325342 said:
Hey, for the portable harddrive draining battery issue, would an iPod 6G connect to the Pandora through usb?

I asking because my cousin just broke her 160GB iPod's screen, but the drive still works (i checked using the computer when I accessed it throught My Computer). Since the iPod has like 40hrs of battery life when not displaying the screen wouldn't it be the perfect portable hard drive?
Click to expand...
Unless you can somehow turn off charging via USB on the iPod, I don't think that will work well. My MP3 player (iRiver H10 5GB) doesn't work with non-powered USB ports because of this very reason.
Click to expand...

The Pandora has fully powered USB ports
Click to expand...

USB only delivers 500Ma of power, during spin up 2.5" enclosures can draw up to and (sometimes) over 1A. This is why most of them come with those weird dual connector USB cable. On PC's this isn't a big deal. But, the Pandora may have issues with it. If you must have an external Hard disk for mass storage, you will most likely want to look for 1.8" drives, since they have a much lower power draw.
 
fischju said:
The Pandora has fully powered USB ports
Click to expand...
Which actually creates another problem. In theory, an Ipod seems like a great external HD because it has its own battery, thus allowing your Pandora to run longer. In practice, the Ipod will always try to charge its own battery using juice from the Pandora, thus reducing the battery life. There may be a way to disable charging on the Ipod while still allowing it to act as an external HD, but I am not aware of it.
 
I wonder if the iPod will allow USB connections if its not getting power from USB... if so you could just mutilate its USB cable and cut the power wires
kinda screwy way to do it though, and you'd need a way to recharge it at some point...
 
i thought the sdhc's only went up to 32gb <_< or are you talking about usb sticks :huh:
 
mkinzler said:
The actual standard only supports 32gb but the next version coming soon specifies 64gb
Click to expand...
I thought that was a soft limit, no? I'm thinking that 64+ GB "SDHC" cards may exist and work fine, just not be totally within the spec.

I may be misinformed, though, and have very little knowledge on how drivers/specs work, so take this with a grain of salt.
 
SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity, SD 2.0) is an extension of the SD standard that appeared in June 2006.[16] SDHC allows standard-compliant capacities in excess of 2 GB. SDHC cards are often formatted with the FAT32 file system.[17] It uses the same form factor as SD, but the SD 2.0 standard in SDHC uses a different memory addressing method (sector addressing vs byte addressing), thus theoretically reaching a maximum capacity of up to 2 TB (2048 GB). However the SD Card association have artificially defined the maximum limit of SDHC capacity to 32 GB.[citation needed] SDHC cards only work in SDHC compatible devices, but standard SD cards work in both SD and SDHC devices. The SDHC trademark is licensed to ensure compatibility.[18]


edit, from wiki
 
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