USB flash drives x many = SSD?

[cyberfish]

I think some USB hubs designed for high-powered devices have DC in ports.

Well, I am assuming your laptop from 1999 doesn't have USB 2.0 either... and I don't know about you but I am not a big fan of 1.5mb/s harddrives .

They have 32G usb flash drives at alternate.de for just 92 EUR.

I can get 8G drive for $20 (~= 13 EUR), so 4 would cost 52 EUR + the cost of two hubs (or be limited to 60mb/s). I imagine the speed of 4 of those Corsair Voyagers in RAID-0 to be a lot faster than the 32G drive, too. But it's more hussle to setup of course.

[mkruk]

I think some USB hubs designed for high-powered devices have DC in ports.

Well, I am assuming your laptop from 1999 doesn't have USB 2.0 either... and I don't know about you but I am not a big fan of 1.5mb/s harddrives .


I can get 8G drive for $20 (~= 13 EUR), so 4 would cost 52 EUR + the cost of two hubs (or be limited to 60mb/s). I imagine the speed of 4 of those Corsair Voyagers in RAID-0 to be a lot faster than the 32G drive, too. But it's more hussle to setup of course.

Yes, you're right.. that's a problem I haven't even thought about yet...
But I still like the idea of coupling two usb flash drives and case them in acrylic

Yep, more smaller drives are still cheaper than one big drive. But It could be considered an alternative to SSDs. You can even use an adaptor to plug the drive to an ide or sata port (I guess those things exist). This might be actually slower than a real SSD, but its only a fourth of the price.

[cyberfish]

Yeah acrylic casing would be nice .

You can even use an adaptor to plug the drive to an ide or sata port (I guess those things exist).

I searched hard last night. Apparently they don't exist.

I thought it would be faster than a real SSD .

[mkruk]

Yeah acrylic casing would be nice .


I searched hard last night. Apparently they don't exist.

I thought it would be faster than a real SSD .

Damn, I confused that. Theres no adaptor from USB to IDE/S-ATA, but vice versa.
But since there are card-readers for the IDE port which have an USB port, it should be possible to build an adaptor yourself, or modify a card-reader

Anyway, I guess in the next few days I'll build that casing for two usb drives... If it's done, I will definitely post some pictures

[cyberfish]

Wow. Looking forward to see it .

[mkruk]

all right, I've bought two usb flash drives and got an raid0 running on them. Now I just need to know how to build an usb hub :x

Well, I already found schematics with google, but building those will probably get a little tricky

If anyone knows an easier solution (or some place to get a really, really small usb hub), please let me know
Even advices on building the hub will be appreciated :>

[cyberfish]

wow that is fast.

Building the hub I can't help unfortunately...

but isn't it possible to get a regular hub and remove the casing?

something like this -
http://a-power.com/product-38
(sorry I don't know any place to get it in Germany )

I doubt you will be able to make anything smaller than that?

[mkruk]

thanks, that brought me to the idea to look at amazon
They even have smaller usb hubs:
http://www.amazon.de/Trust-HU-4440p-.../dp/B000FS12IG

This one is perfect. It's small and has a small cable. And removing its casing, the hub will be even smaller

All right, according to Amazon, the Hub will be dispatched in 1 or 2 days. DHL shipping inside germany usually takes one day, so I guess the appliance (and photos of it) will be ready not later than beginning of the next week

[cyberfish]

wonderful I will be waiting for the photos.

[Houser]

Isn't one of the biggest issue with a SSD drive that it can only be written so many times for data is lost. Also Isn't SSD have an issue that if the data gets screwed it is really much harder to recovery than a regular platter hd?

[mkruk]

it's indead a great disadvantage in compare with platter HDDs that they can only be written for a specific amount of time, but I guess that problem could be avoided if you use other, less-corosive materials like gold for the cells. Though this might also cause issues because gold isn't ferromagnetic as fas as I'm concerned.

@cyberfish: I'm sorry I didn't have much progress building the acrylic casing. Turns out, I kind of lack the tools for proper treatment of the acrylic. Cutting 4mm strong acrylic with a wood-saw is kind of.. not working
But I'll look for some thinner acrylic because I can treat that better. and maybe some device I can mount the acrylic on without scratching it. I don't want scratches on my appliance, that'd look bad.
Still, I had some progress: The usb hub and the flash drives are laying next to me and the raid0 is working. Okay, I admit that's not much progress because creating the raid0 is probably taking one minute.

Even if the appliance is not in it's casing, I'll be taking some pictures of it - as soon as my mother is back from the vacation (she took the camera with her).