DIY SSD

For those who want the advantages of a SSD but don’t have the cash, there is a cheaper solution if you have some DIY know-how. Sans Digital’s CR2T CompactFlash card enclosure comes in the same form factor and fits a standard 2.5″ SATA hard drive just fine. Since it is able to hold up to two CF cards in RAID 1 or nRAID configurations, you will be able to carry around approximately 64GB worth of data. Considering a 32GB CF card retails for $150 and the enclosure costs $99, the total cost stands at $400 or so, which is around half the price of a 64GB SSD. The only drawback would be the relatively slow speed of just 40MB/s, which is more than twice as slow as a SATA SSD.