possibility's of the SD-card slot

[Kristalghost]

oke I'm new to the mac world, in fact I'm about to buy my first mbp hopefully after my exams, and I was wondering what are possibility's of the SD-card slot?
Ive read somewhere on the forum that you could boot from an SD card, if so (sorry I'm rather clueless) boot what, is the speed doable, etc...
Are there any other ideas to use the SD-card slot to it maximum potential?

thanks in advance,
Kristalghost

 

[Freyqq]

they were suggesting prob that you could boot linux off an sd card. I doubt it would work anyways b\c of efi and apple proprietaryness..

anyhow, most will prob stick an sd card in there and use it for backups or extra space. Or, you could use it to read sd cards from a digital camera.

 

[MegawattMedia]

I work in the professional film/television industry, and my colleagues all use MacBook Pros, and I just ordered the latest model.

We were talking about the switch to the SD slot from EC. The consensus was that we preferred the EC slot because of the flexibility it provides.

However, SD cards are becoming more prominent in professional video equipment. Here is an example:

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL101860

 

[Kristalghost]

hmm intressting, does anybody know anything more of the max speed of those SD-cards?
would it for example be fast enough to run programs from? or maybe video's?

Edit: is it possible to boot vista from here and so prevent partitioning, only found out that mac OS X can be booted from here but would love to prevent a possible partitioning if possible

Edit2: oke ive been looking around for a good SD card and found one thats pretty expensive (80€ but with USB reader so might be cheaper) but is fast or so it claims:
# Extreme Performance:
* Capacity up to 8 GB
* Minimum 20 MB/sec. sequential read/write speeds
* 8 GB SDHC card includes a bonus MicroMate Reader
* Speed performance rating: Class 6 (based on SD 2.0 specification)
could this be big/fast enough for booting for example XP/vista?

 

[AdamLikesMusic]

Yeah, I'd like to have XP or Vista booted on a SD card, but for some reason, it seems too good to be true. (I have legit copies of both, but am weary of partitioning my hard drive for either of them)

 

[Semiopaque]

The more important thing than card speed, at this point for me, would be how fast it can actually read the cards (haven't seen any info on that yet). Even if you get an awesome card, something that could read/write at 30/s if the reader can't deal with that speed it won't matter much how good your card is. Also there do appear to be some difference in speed in Class 6 cards too.

I've heard some rumors it supports SDIO but, again, a rumor in a couple of places so take that with a grain of salt. If it does, it could potentially add some more expansion options besides storage, though.

You could also use it for Vista ReadyBoost if you're running that OS. Some people seem to love it. Not sure I totally agree as it hasn't appeared to have made a big difference when I've tried it, but it might depend on the user's needs.

 

[Neon1234]

30MB/s isn't really fast enough.
But with an ExpressCard, Like this one, you can get 115MB/s read and 65MB/s

 

[Michael CM1]

First of all, it seems to me that the SD slot has one primary purpose: to transfer digital pictures. If your camera doesn't use SD (oh shutup Sony owners), then you have the USB cable option. On a side note, I kinda laughed at one drawback in a review: the SD card doesn't go all the way into the slot. It sticks out about 5mm and this was somehow noticed. I think even Steve Jobs would've said "so what?"

I honestly don't know that SD cards do much else aside from sorta work in my Nintendo Wii along the same lines. They can store games, but you can't play them from the card. WIth 512MB internal memory and just a few games available online, that sucks. For the "boot from SD" crowd, why not buy a $20 USB flash drive? 400Mbps should be fast enough if a CD or floppy could do it.

 

[Ploki]

or with an express card slot, an expresscard SSD for booting.
sorry, just teasing.

 

[DoFoT9]

30MB/s isn't really fast enough.
But with an ExpressCard, Like this one, you can get 115MB/s read and 65MB/s

not at all, its quite bad. good form factor though if your willing

 

[Semiopaque]

30MB/s isn't really fast enough.
But with an ExpressCard, Like this one, you can get 115MB/s read and 65MB/s

No doubt that's a great choice...if you have the slot, but we're talking about the SD slot. But....if you want fast-ness on the expresscard, why skimp, just go for the Sonnet Tempo Sata Pro.