SD cards, speed, etc. - General Topics

Greetings all.
After much thought, I opted for a Magician (yet to arrive). The next step is purchase as large an SD card that my pocket can afford, and it is here that some advice would be appreciated. A 1GB card can be purchased here in England for around £55 upwards. All well and good. However, how do these budget cards measure up in terms of speed?
A second thought which struck me was that the same card could double up to be used in my digital camera. Doubtless many of you also own a digital camera. I had already bought a 256MB card for the camera, but was always perplexed by the amount of time it took the camera to be ready for another shot (in highest quality mode). It is only now that I belatedly realise that the delay must have been due to a slow write speed.
So there you have it: I would prefer a high speed write card (4 megapixel photos) which can also be used to play mp3s on the Magician. Are there any prime 1GB candidates that spring to mind? I have yet to find a good website offering comparisons of a wide range of SD cards...

look at the program pocket mechianics it let you benchmark your system and compare to other pda's and or with many SD cards
doubt it's uptodate though
and at least for the xda2 and many other pda's it's the interface which is bottleneck not the sd cards
sd card speed seem to matter the most when you are using usb2 sd card readers

I'll take a look at pocket mechanics to benchmark my existing card. What about for choosing a new and, as yet, unacquired card? Are there any recommendations?

I have heard good things about the SanDisk Ultra II range. Unfortunately, the 2GB version cannot be bought for less than ~£180 here in England. Are these cheaper in the States?

Related

SanDisk announcement

I am not sure if this has been posted before but here goes:
I found this posting on a South African website this evening:
"SanDisk has begun sampling 6 and 8GB microSD High Capacity (microSDHC) flash memory cards to major phone manufacturers and mobile network operators (MNOs) for testing and evaluation.
The cards are said to be suitable for the growing number of feature-rich multimedia handsets that bring together phones, music players, hand-held computers, digital cameras and more. An 8GB microSDHC card can store more than 2000 digital songs, or more than 5000 high-resolution pictures, or up to five hours of high-quality MPEG 4 video, SanDisk says.
Retail release of the cards and availability to phone manufacturers and network operators are planned for later this year. Pricing has not yet been determined.
“With these cards, any mobile phone with a compatible microSDHC slot will have just as much storage as the largest capacity iPhone,” says Jeff Kost, vice-president and GM of the Mobile Consumer Solutions division at SanDisk. “What is more, removable cards make it easy to share the content you create with friends, 'sideload’ files from a computer, and add more storage simply by purchasing more cards.”
SDHC is the designation for any SD or SD-based card that is larger than 2GB and adheres to the SD 2.00 specification required for cards and hosts to support 4GB to 32GB capacities. The specification was developed by the SD Association, an industry standards board, which has also created three classes to define minimum sustained data transfer speed. These cards adhere to the SD Speed Class 4 Rating"
The future looks rosy!
Thanks for that. I want 8GB now!
I want 32GB now...
This is good news especially with the fact that the iPhone can go up to 8GB and you know it will get higher and higher with time. I want SD to release these ASAP but I also want them to get it right.
Hopefully my phone will have no problems reading a 32GB card!
jsthomson said:
I want 32GB now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So do I, I'm just being realistic: if they released 32GB now I'd have to sell my TV!
Really, I want 1TB, in fact, I want it to be synced with an online secure unlimited free storage with a super-fast wireless connection anywhere in the world, and a holographic screen, and...uh never mind.

MicroSD for Froyo - general consensus?

Hello,
Now that Froyo more or less came out and apps will start having Apps2SD function, it's time for a MicroSD upgrade.
What I want is on-phone performance - that running heavy 3D games on SD would perform as smoothly as if it was on internal memory. Is there a general consensus on what brand/class would suffice, and what is overkill? I have no concern over data cable transfer speed, as I'm pretty sure the phone will limit the speed much before the SD card does.
I'm looking at this Sandisk 16gb MicroSDHC Class 2 for $35 after shipping:
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Flash...ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1275145563&sr=1-1
Anyone know if this would suffice?
Past threads have always went on tangents about good brand vs knock offs, how class is important vs. a marketing ploy, etc etc. Has a general consensus been reached in the xda community over what is sufficient but not overkill for onboard performance? Perhaps people who have already ran App2SD and use games and videos a lot have some input.
Thanks
I have a Top Ram 16 Gig class 6 and I think I paid about the same as you looking to pay for a class2. I also have a class2 that I have had for over a year. I used to use it in my blackberry. It still works and it is made by one of the cheap manufacturers.
Argh, I'm suffering from chronic SD corruption. So I'm in the market for a new chip. Think I'll spring for a 32gb this time. What's the latest on one that's both compatible and fast? And cheap too, that would be nice, links appreciated.
Considering that due to the amount of RAM the N1 has your main apps will be loaded already so card speed is not a significant factor, unless you use lots of different apps on a regular basis.
A faster card is beneficial mostly for the time i takes when I am loading up new music and possibly vids if you use it for that
This is the first 32gb MicroSD card I have seen "In Stock" Pretty expensive for a class 2 though.
http://www.buy.com/prod/sandisk-sds...crosdhc-32-gb-retail/q/loc/101/215191110.html
!!
Im not sure the nexus 1 can handle a 32GB card , wow that's a lot lol, but you can get one for like $30 on ebay... http://bit.ly/9J7u2S
You can get a 16gb class 10 for about $90.00.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036V5DGG...e=asn&creative=380341&creativeASIN=B0036V5DGG
frankzua77 said:
Im not sure the nexus 1 can handle a 32GB card , wow that's a lot lol, but you can get one for like $30 on ebay... http://bit.ly/9J7u2S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Micro SDHC is a standard that supports up to 32gb. Of course it can handle it just fine.
I run a 16gb Class 6 in mine, works fine
bewar ebay, there a lot of folks selling fake cards. They even read as what they were sold as but then fill up mighty quick............
The class is not needed I don't think
I have a class six and have been running games on it from sd for 3 months cant tell a bit of difference. I run linpack from sd and it works fine too!
the only real 32gb card is found here., http://www.sandisk.com/products/mobile-memory-products/sandisk-microsdhc
frankzua77 said:
Im not sure the nexus 1 can handle a 32GB card , wow that's a lot lol, but you can get one for like $30 on ebay... http://bit.ly/9J7u2S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no f-ing way that is real for $30
GldRush98 said:
Micro SDHC is a standard that supports up to 32gb. Of course it can handle it just fine.
I run a 16gb Class 6 in mine, works fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running a 32gb Sandisk Class 2 in my Nexus as of last Friday. No problems (apart from a looooong time to refresh the media library after resyncing my music).
You can not get a genuine 32GB Micro SD card for US$40.
A good class 2 card (2MB/s) will offer you the same performance as any other class in your phone.
The limitation is not the speed of the card.
Buy a brand name card with the capacity you require and be done with the complexity.
djmcnz said:
You can not get a genuine 32GB Micro SD card for US$40.
A good class 2 card (2MB/s) will offer you the same performance as any other class in your phone.
The limitation is not the speed of the card.
Buy a brand name card with the capacity you require and be done with the complexity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know too much about transfer rates but basically what you're saying is that a a brand name class 2 card will be just as good as say a class 6? I'm in the market for a new SD card as well, and the class 6 cards are much more expensive. I'm wondering if they're worth it.
jasrups said:
I don't know too much about transfer rates but basically what you're saying is that a a brand name class 2 card will be just as good as say a class 6? I'm in the market for a new SD card as well, and the class 6 cards are much more expensive. I'm wondering if they're worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, in a phone they're not worth it at all and people who say so are either selling snake oil or are embarrassed because they've paid for one and are foolish for doing so.
The best I can do just at the moment is this:
wikipedia said:
In applications that require sustained write throughput, such as video recording, the device may not perform satisfactorily if the SD card's class rating falls below a particular speed. For example, a camcorder that is designed to record to class 6 media may suffer dropouts or corrupted video on slower media.
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Click to collapse
The Nexus, like probably every other phone out there, is a) not typically used for high rate sustained write activities and b) is designed to write to class 2 media to begin with.
If you have a large, highly fragmented sd card higher speeds will help. This of course is easy to avoid in the first place.
Get a higher capacity, class 2, brand name card for the same money and you're away laughing.
NB - If somebody waves a magic wand and all of a sudden the Nexus can record video at 1080p at a high enough bitrate then perhaps my advice would be invalidated... but don't hold your breath for that to happen...
djmcnz said:
No, in a phone they're not worth it at all and people who say so are either selling snake oil or are embarrassed because they've paid for one and are foolish for doing so.
The best I can do just at the moment is this:
The Nexus, like probably every other phone out there, is a) not typically used for high rate sustained write activities and b) is designed to write to class 2 media to begin with.
If you have a large, highly fragmented sd card higher speeds will help. This of course is easy to avoid in the first place.
Get a higher capacity, class 2, brand name card for the same money and you're away laughing.
NB - If somebody waves a magic want and all of a sudden the Nexus can record video at 1080p at a high enough bitrate then perhaps my advice would be invalidated... but don't hold your breath for that to happen...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info man! I was obviously misinformed, you just saved me a bunch of money
so just curious. now that CM 5.0.8 comes with 720p recording, would a class 2 still suffice?
I am also searching the web recently to look for a cost-effective high vol microSD. My finding is: don't 100% trust the "class" specified by mfr. I used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test two 8G microSD that I have: Transcend 8G Class 6 and Sandisk 8G Class 4.
<Transcend Class6> Write: 6-10MB/s Read: 16MB/s
<Sandisk Class 4> Write: 14MB/s Read: 20MB/s
From similar test results on the web, it seems that Sandisk uses to under-state the performance of their card. Finally I get a Sandisk 16G Class 2 for my N1, and here is the test result with the same setting:
<Sandisk 16G Class2> Write: 7MB/s Read: 20MB/s
Although Sandisk only specifies it as class 2, it actually performs like a class 6.
I suspect the importance of the speed of the SD card too, coz I think the write speed into ROM, should be way slower than 6-7MB/s (correct me if I am wrong ^_^)... If the speed of v2.1 w/o app2sd is acceptable to you, then v2.2 with 6-7M write speed card should be logically fine with you.
fshek said:
I am also searching the web recently to look for a cost-effective high vol microSD. My finding is: don't 100% trust the "class" specified by mfr. I used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test two 8G microSD that I have: Transcend 8G Class 6 and Sandisk 8G Class 4.
<Transcend Class6> Write: 6-10MB/s Read: 16MB/s
<Sandisk Class 4> Write: 14MB/s Read: 20MB/s
From similar test results on the web, it seems that Sandisk uses to under-state the performance of their card. Finally I get a Sandisk 16G Class 2 for my N1, and here is the test result with the same setting:
<Sandisk 16G Class2> Write: 7MB/s Read: 20MB/s
Although Sandisk only specifies it as class 2, it actually performs like a class 6.
I suspect the importance of the speed of the SD card too, coz I think the write speed into ROM, should be way slower than 6-7MB/s (correct me if I am wrong ^_^)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
huh that's interesting. i just might pick that up from amazon then..
I Dont think fragmentation makes any difference to write speed, these are not mechanical devices like hard disks.
Also defragging is pointless and shortens the life of the card by increasing the number of writes.

Sandisk 32GB MicroSD Class 2, how fast is this card?

My local retailer already has stocks for the 32GB Sandisk MicroSD Class 2 card, I know sandisk under rates their cards but Im wondering if anyone has this specific microSD card can tell me how fast it read/writes if its inside the phone..
If possible post some benchmark numbers and the name of the benchmark, no actual screenshot needed, I just want a basis of comparison so my current 16GB class6 Team brand. I really need the space more than the speed though.
Haven't checked the speeds, but I can watch 720p video from my Sandisk Class 2 card, can't think of a use-case scenario where you need to read quicker than that. If you're writing large quantities of data to the phone very often the write speed may be an issue, but I suspect many people are like me and the only time they do that is when they first load their music collection onto the card.
NZtechfreak said:
Haven't checked the speeds, but I can watch 720p video from my Sandisk Class 2 card, can't think of a use-case scenario where you need to read quicker than that. If you're writing large quantities of data to the phone very often the write speed may be an issue, but I suspect many people are like me and the only time they do that is when they first load their music collection onto the card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, first load of music/movies into the card.
Please also remember that there is no standard way of measuring MicroSD speeds at the moment and the present system only really relates to the write speed. For playing content they will all be the same it is when recording HD video that the faster cards come into their own. I have also heard that all class 2 are actually class 4.
I just got the card now and the read speeds as tested by crystal disk is twice as fast as my Class 6 16GB the write speed is only slower at sequential w/c is 4.6MB compared to the 5.xx mb that my class 6 did but all the other write speeds are more than 2x faster!
$88 well spent!!
Yes its still $88 here and its the cheapest you can get!
For more information refer this link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroSD

[Q] How to check micro sd card speed capability on a phone beforehand

I am going to buy myself a 64GB micro sd card. I guess I will go with sandisk. But as there are certain sd types there come certain speeds. Such as UHS-ll, UHS-I ,and microSDXC. Now I want to make sure that my phone (SM-G3858) Galaxy Beam 2 is able to do r/w at certain speed levels. But how can I determine that? How can I check if the sd card slot takes UHS-I? I can do a micro sd card speed check when I already bought the sd card (with some apps). But is there any way to check the speed compability BEFORE you even buy the sd card?
I did 3 speeds test on my kingston 18GB MicroSDHC/SDHC Class 10 and the sd benchmark tests were ranging from (max): Read 401,31MB/s Write 10,45MB/s (400 seemed a lot to me, but thats what it said) So that would mean my phone supports at least UHS-l?
I was thinking to buy either the Sandisk Extreme at 45r/45w, the Sandisk Ultra Plus at 40r/lower write or the Sandisk Ultra at 30r/lower write. Or should I go with another brand? Any help is appreciated
thanks
:good:
EDIT: After searching for several hours to find the best 64GB micro sd card I decided to go for the Samsung Evo 64GB. It has full 5 star reviews on amazon and the price was way better than the Sandisk extreme plus. (I paid 37 euros including shipping) This is the best review I found:
"This is a very fast card, particularly suited to not only transferring files quickly but also running as a phone or tablet card for applications as well.
In phones and tablets one of the most important things is not just the transfer speed but also the IOPs that the card can deliver. Many class 10 cards have great transfer speeds but terrible and I mean terrible IOPs, often a 5 year old card easily out performs them in IOPs.
This card delivers in both areas, fast class 10 transfer speeds 23mb read, 15mb write but also 482 write IOPs and 1668 read IOPs.
That's IOP speeds that are slower than an SSD but way faster than a hard disk. Bare in mind that some class 10 cards give 4 write IOPs and you can see why I'm impressed. The only card I have seen outperform it in IOPs it the SanDisk Extreme Pro and they are seriously expensive and not available in 64gb. Testing against the third SanDisk I have, a 32gb ultra, is almost funny as the ultra only gives 15 write IOPs under the same conditions, making this card 30 times faster.
What does this mean for normal use, well it translates into an excellent general purpose card, that even if it doesn't have the official fastest transfer speeds will actually perform much better in the real world. Which is why its getting such rave reviews on here for speed (so long as you get a genuine one!)
This was tested in my Dell Venue 8 tablet using the built in card reader. For the techies (if you've got this far then I assume you are)I am actually using it to run Server 2012 virtual machines in VMWare workstation and the performance is surprisingly good, I would even call it snappy!
Full Crystalmark disk scores below.
Sequential read 23.66mbs write 16.03 mbps
512kb random read 23.25mbs write 15.67 mbps
4k random read 6.40mbps write 1.850 mbps
4k random qd32 6.65mbs write 1.92 mbps
Parameters 5 iterations 1000mb sample size.
Tested on the 64gb Samsung Evo microsdhc."
So anyways..At one point I´ll wait until the price of the Sandisk 128 GB Ultra plus card drops, then check for benchmarks and try out that one. Enjoy the info, im off
Sandisk is having quality issues with 64Gb cards, with many consumers reporting dead cards in a few months.
The Samsung you have choosen is awesome, along with transcend which are rock solid.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...transcend_64gb_microsd-_-20-208-927-_-Product
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et3gTrPUwC4

Which microSD card for Honor 6?

Hello,
I apologize if this question has already been made but I have a little concerns regarding this matter.
I recently bought the Honor 6 online and I'll receive it soon. I'd like some advice for buying a microSD card that meets my needs.
I'd like to buy a 64gb card that is fast enough (mainly for music and also apps), so I'd avoid cheap cards (unless you assure they're more than ok).
I've made some researches and I'm a bit confused about few points.
What do I really need to check in a card? Is it true that for mobiles the most important thing to see in a sd card are the random Read/Write (512K) speeds? Or else I need to check its sequential speed?
According to a lot of speed tests, SanDisk Extreme Pro is one of the fastest sd cards out there but I also read that SanDisk cards have a quite high failure rate after few months of use (true or not?). Being expensive I've no idea if it would be worth or not.
There are also Samsung Pro+, Transcend 633x, Lexar 1033x etc.. They are quite expensive in Europe and I've totally no idea if my future Honor 6 will be able to benefit to all their fast speed.
I've read this review http://www.anandtech.com/show/8425/huawei-honor-6-review/9 and I'm a bit concerned what the reviewer wrote about the Honor 6, I quote the exact text:
"The Honor 6 offers also a microSD card slot in case you want to expand your storage. The OS offers full exFat compatibility and I had no issues with my Samsung Pro 64GB card. I was however disappointed to see that the HiSilicon chip suffers from the same limitation that plagues other SoCs for no good reason: the DWMMC controller in charge of the SD-card is limited to SDR50 speeds, meaning that you won't be able to exceed ~35mB/s transfer speeds on your microSD, no matter how fast it actually is. It still baffles me that OEMs refuse to address this even almost 2 years after the first UHS-1 cards have been made widely available. "
Is this actually true?
Which microSD you recommend me?
ziovelvet said:
Hello,
IWhich microSD you recommend me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clearly UHS-1 card is the best balance between performance and cost. According to your research.
.

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