SD Card recommendations?

[Tetlee]

Hi all, having ordered a premium Pandora the other day I'm looking to order an SD card in preperation(no good receiving the Pandora and then ordering one :rolleyes: )


I understand the Pandora doesn't support over class 6, will there be much gain in performace between 4 and 6(most seem to be 4, then jump to 10)?


Anyway, any thoughts/opinions on these cards,


http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/16349886/Lexar-16GB-SD-SDHC-Memory-Card/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=16gb+sd+card&urlrefer=search


Will probably go for this one if decent being as it's the cheapest?


or there's this class 4 PNY which is perhaps a bit better than the first Lexar one I linked to


http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/10537723/PNY-16GB-Optima-High-Speed-SD-HC-Card-Endorsed-By-National-Geographic/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=16gb+sd+card&urlrefer=search


Worth the extra couple of quid over the Lexar?


PS: Want to order from play as have some credit there.

 

[Asiyura]

Prometheus is needed, switch on the P signal!

 

[Prometheus]

^ Hahaha... :lol: Alright, alright.


Just some quick tips: Avoid eBay, and be wary of third-party sellers selling via Play.com and Amazon and the like. This is because eBay is flooded with fakes (SD Cards and USB flash-drives with controller-chips hacked to report a false capacity to whatever operating system you hook them up to - their real capacities are always much less than what was advertised, and the flash-chips used are often ones that have been surreptitiously taken from the reject bin), and sometimes fakes crop up with third-party sellers as well (although in these specific cases, to my knowledge, it is often unknowingly).


Unfortunately, the links in your post are broken, Tetlee, so I can't even check them out. That said, as long as they're not from third-parties, either one would probably be fine. To share an anecdote of my own, though, I had a bad experience with a PNY card and wouldn't recommend that brand personally - the plastics that the casing was made of were of such poor quality that they broke apart after a few uses, and I'm very careful with things. That was a couple of years back, though, around the time when 16GB cards became reasonably priced, so this sort of thing might not happen anymore.


Also worth noting is that a few of us have run into issues with file-corruption with faster cards (Class 6 and Class 10, generally), for some reason. If my memory serves me correctly, the consensus on this is that this is likely to be an issue with the Pandora's SD driver - it's just something to be aware of. I don't believe that anyone using a Class 4 (or below) card has reported this issue, or if they have, I've missed it.

 

[Wootson]

In my opinion you should always stick with the trusted brands like Kingston, Transcend, Sandisk, Corsair and other A-brands. These no-name cards are usually made of really bad materials and tend to corrupt very often. And in case of buying something from eBay you could also end up with a card that doesn't even meet the specs. Sellers pretend to sell some 16GB card and instead it's just some "overclocked" card of 256MB or something. Probably not that bad, but I hope you get the point.


Sites like Play.com don't give you poop for your money, but I'd still stick with the high quality brands.


Personally I have two class 6 Transcend cards, which have lots of files on them and have not let me down in any way possible.

 

[neko]

PNY buys memory chips from different companies. Could be good, could be bad.


Lexar (Micron) manufactures their own memory chips, so the quality tends to be fairly consistent. However, I'm wary of their class 10 cards because the power consumption is high enough that it can cause the card to reset if the power supply isn't completely stable.


I've found SanDisk to be very reliable. They're generally very conservative with the specs (which is why most of their cards are class 4).

 

[Asiyura]

Thanks Prometheus, once more, you saved the day!

About Kingston SD cards, they don't make the memory neither controllers, they buy them to make their SD.


Sometimes, you can end with a not-so-good SD card.


Sandisk is a chip foundry, so most of the time, their hardware is pretty reliable.

 

[Tetlee]

Thanks for the opinions guys, very interesting. Fixed the broken links by the way now so you should be able to see the cards I was talking about in the original post.


http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/16349886/Lexar-16GB-SD-SDHC-Memory-Card/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=16gb+sd+card&urlrefer=search


http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/10537723/PNY-16GB-Optima-High-Speed-SD-HC-Card-Endorsed-By-National-Geographic/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=16gb+sd+card&urlrefer=search&add=10537723


I see amazon have a much better deal with a 16GB Sandisk at £14.50, but I've really overdone our creditcard now ordering the Pandora(really shouldn't have, but just couldn't resist having noticed they're finally available to purchase and have them sent within a week ), hence wanting to use my play.com credit.


Certainly no intention of purchasing from marketplace sellers or the likes of ebay, have made that mistake before and never again!

 

[Christoph.Krn]

I understand the Pandora doesn't support over class 6, will there be much gain in performace between 4 and 6(most seem to be 4, then jump to 10)?

Read considerations regarding SD card lifespan, speed, and reliability and this thread about problems with some kinds of SD cards.