quick question about AKAI and CF card

I guess I assumed the point of a CF card was to load samples onto the akai and be able to cut up the sample and assign it to a pad, just like that. Now that i'm looking around the forum, I'm beginning to think that maybe it's just to save projects. Could someone please let me know what is the purpose of a CF card?

or would I have to run my mbox thru the akai so I can sample manually?

You can save your mpc work in the cf card. or load it.

Samples
Sequences
Programs