[HH] Alternatives to SSDs for laptops?

[Bill Bogstad]

I'm looking for some suggestions on ways to get the benefits of an SSD
without doing  a full disk replacement in a laptop.  I have two
configuration that I would like to improve.   Both have Core 2 Duo
CPUs with maxed ram (2-4 Gig) which is reasonable for their typical
usage.

One of them has a really slow (4200 RPM) 1.8" PATA drive and generally
runs Windows.  I have had no luck in finding reasonably priced SSDs
for that form factor so I'm looking for alternatives.   My first try
was to make use of the built-in SD slot with Microsoft's ReadyBoost
software.   It does work (and helps).   Unfortunately, it seems like
the SD card is via an incredibly slow interface (USB? maybe) and no
matter what SD card I put into it, it does something like 5 MByte/sec.
on reads.

The other machine has a large (640 gig) SATA drive which is 90% full,
runs Linux, and for economic reasons isn't going to be replaced with a
SATA SSD (and no SD card slot).

Both machines, however, have CardBus slots.   Given that CardBus is
essentially a 32bit PCI bus connection, that means theoretically up to
132 Mbytes/sec.   Can anybody suggest a CardBus solution to access
flash-based storage?   (Perhaps a SD or CompactFlash adapter?)

I've looked around and haven't been able to find anything.   I have
found a PCMCIA adapter which lets you plug CompactFlash cards into a
CardBus slot.   This works because CompactFlash is 16 bit PCMCIA
compatible with a simple adapter.   My testing seems to indicate that
this is much too slow to be of any practical use.

I'm hoping for a CardBus adapter card in the $30-$60 dollar range into
which I can plug my own storage (SD or CompactFlash).

Suggestions?

Thanks,
Bill Bogstad