I've been using cheap slow CF cards for ever and a day, and I'm more than happy with them, save for one caveat for every 200 situations I've ever found myself in.

Being primarily a slow style photographer(where I usually do landscapes or still stuff or whatever) the need for speed has never crossed my mindset. Up until recently, I think I've ever only come across a speed issue with my CF cards only on two occasions where shooting multiple frames in raw mode has hit a buffer issue of some kind.
About a month ago, my brother bought himself a gokart which is a hoot to play with, but I've become more interested in capturing images of it and others flying around a track, and that means lot of this 8fps 100 capture burst shooting style, and my $20 8gig CF card is hopelessly inadequate for that purpose, so I bought another.. faster card.
Problem is that I hate wasting money(say $200) on something that is capable of achieving an end goal with say a 100% performance ratio, when spending $70 can get you over 90% of that performance. Getting the best out of everything is not a high priority for me.. value for money is(always has been).

So I found a $70 90Mb/s CF card and at 8Gig, is about 1/3 of the price of the real McCoy(Sandisk extreme) stuff.
Speed is now not an issue.
Where the old card was flat out at 6fps for about 10-13 exposures, the new card is now good for at least up to nearly 24(I lost count), and once it hits that buffer, the card writing time clears far more quickly even tho there are more files to write to card than with the slower card.. yippee!!! anyone would think to themselves(as you would)

except the damned card is not readable by my CF card reading slot on the PC case. I specifically purchased a drive bay based card reader, with USB slots and eSATA slots just for the practicality of it, and now this new extreme CF card is not supported
I have to connect the D300 via USB cable to the PC to use the MassStore ability of the camera to read the card!

So I now need:

1. a good quality CF card reader, and I see Sandisk make something of interest.
(does anyone have any experience with them?)
2. a new drive bay based connector doodad
(does anyone know of any decent ones)
I currently have this AeroCool brand CoolPanelIII drive bay device, and I see they have a few newer versions available. Does any have any experience or alternatives.
I am weary of the AeroCool device tho, as in the Cool PanelIII page on their website, they list the Sandisk extreme II as a supported device. I'm thinking that this new card, even tho it's not a Sandisk extreme II is emulating that type of card, so should be supported.(no new drivers for update either!)
There's most likely a differnce between an ExtremeII and a Extreme Pro tho, and this is why it can't be read

the Cool Panel does support SDHC, which I've confirmed via the SD and micro SD slots, but if I connect the new CF card, Windows(7) freezes up on me, and clears once the card is disconnected.
Card is perfectly readable via the camera tho.. so it's not a card issue, it's a reader issue.

I'd be very appreciative if anyone knows of any other options as well

BTW card is a ripper. I could have(should have) got the $100 16Gig version tho, now that I know it's close to as quick as they say it is.

For anyone else interested in a fast card, it's a Patriot LX series Quad channel 600x UDMA6 90MB/s rated card, at MSY for about $70.

great value considering it's 'equivalent' to a Sandisk Extreme Pro, and the 16G version sold for about $100($99 ) or so, and the Sandisk 16G ells for about $240 or more

ATM, I'm thinking the Sandisk ImageMate may be the best option.