Where To Buy A Cheap 32Gb Sd Card?


Do you use an x86-based Mac, or a PowerPC-based one?

If the former, H2Testw works under WINE, so you should be able to nab the trial version of CrossOver Mac (which is pretty much a commercial relative of WINE, with an added GUI). CrossOver is pretty self-explanatory, and I'm pretty certain that you should be able to run H2Testw through that flawlessly, if you're on an x86 Mac.

If you're using a PowerPC-based one (ah, how I miss how cool those ran), I'm afraid I can only suggest that you borrow the use of a friend's x86 box (be it Mac, Linux, or Windows) and run the test there.

(Also, regarding your "wait let me finish"... :lol: Whilst I'm primarily a Linux user, one of my machines is a Mac, as I require it for some stuff. I don't see why one's choice of computing apparatus should be a point of contention. :p)
 
DaMummy said:
yeah me, $90 for 32gb sdhc sandisk ultra 15mb/sec read
Click to expand...
I'm trying to decide between that 32GB Class 4 Sandisk Ultra or the 32GB Class 10 Patriot LX. Sandisk is probably the most reliable name, but I'm a little worried by the fact that it is only a Class 4 card. I have bought Patriot products before and have been happy with them, but I have also read quite a few negative reviews on their Class 10 card. Can anyone sway me one way or another as to which of the two will perform better on the Pandora?
 
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Sargon said:
DaMummy said:
yeah me, $90 for 32gb sdhc sandisk ultra 15mb/sec read
Click to expand...
I'm trying to decide between that 32GB Class 4 Sandisk Ultra or the 32GB Class 10 Patriot LX. Sandisk is probably the most reliable name, but I'm a little worried by the fact that it is only a Class 4 card. I have bought Patriot products before and have been happy with them, but I have also read quite a few negative reviews on their Class 10 card. Can anyone sway me one way or another as to which of the two will perform better on the Pandora?
Click to expand...

Reported read/write speeds by one or more reputable reviewers trump class speeds without such benchmarks, IMO.
 
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Sargon said:
I'm trying to decide between that 32GB Class 4 Sandisk Ultra or the 32GB Class 10 Patriot LX. Sandisk is probably the most reliable name, but I'm a little worried by the fact that it is only a Class 4 card. I have bought Patriot products before and have been happy with them, but I have also read quite a few negative reviews on their Class 10 card. Can anyone sway me one way or another as to which of the two will perform better on the Pandora?
Click to expand...
Nope, but I'll note that the class marking says more about when the model was made than how fast it is. It's a minimum rating for long linear writes, nothing more. The Sandisk card is manufacturer rated up to 15MB/s read. Patriot's product specs actually specify that it's Class 6, while making the sustained 10MB/s write claim that ought to mean class 10.
Either will likely work just fine with the Pandora, but there's too little info about both your expected usage and their performance to advise one way or another. Check reviews that actually measure the cards.
 
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Prometheus said:
Do you use an x86-based Mac, or a PowerPC-based one?

If the former, H2Testw works under WINE, so you should be able to nab the trial version of CrossOver Mac (which is pretty much a commercial relative of WINE, with an added GUI). CrossOver is pretty self-explanatory, and I'm pretty certain that you should be able to run H2Testw through that flawlessly, if you're on an x86 Mac.

If you're using a PowerPC-based one (ah, how I miss how cool those ran), I'm afraid I can only suggest that you borrow the use of a friend's x86 box (be it Mac, Linux, or Windows) and run the test there.

(Also, regarding your "wait let me finish"... :lol: Whilst I'm primarily a Linux user, one of my machines is a Mac, as I require it for some stuff. I don't see why one's choice of computing apparatus should be a point of contention. :p )
Click to expand...

well, just got it started running on windows 7 (bootcamp). glad you like the joke :)
 
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bit of a gravedig here, sorry but it wasn't worth a new thread imo. Now that another mini batch of Pandoras are about to go out, a thread like this could be helpful.

I might get this card, it's the cheapest I've seen a 32GB Class 10 sell for.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211474

ADATA 32GB Class 10 SD Card
read: 18-20 MB/sec
write: 13-16 MB/sec
$67.99
Free Shipping
 
ADATA? I may be mistaken here, but I've heard a lot of bad things about their cards - including on this very forum, if I'm remembering right...
 
it was this thread infact, but I've had good luck with the ones I've bought

edit: if you check the feed back on similar A-Data sd cards you'll see a lot get 4 eggs out of 5, some with over 200 reviewers. although there do seem to be a few rotten eggs mixed in there too. I guess it would be best to wait till this thing is out there long enough to see how it holds up and what kind of reviews it gets.
 
My very first SD for my GP2X was an Adata from newegg, and it ran like a champ the whole time I had it. The actual casing started coming apart from me moving it between my sd reader and my 2x, so I taped it up, and it never once gave me a problem.

It was one of Neweggs best rated cards at that time, but I have noticed a lot more problems in the reviews, and peoples overall opinions of Adata, but all of my experiances have personally been great.

Chris
 
When buying flash memory, of course we all think about places like Newegg, Micro Center, and Tiger Direct. But don't overlook the digital camera retailers. Digital SLR cameras and digital videocameras really stress flash memory, so large reputable dealers are going to only be selling product that doesn't get returned much.

I have had good luck with both Adorama (http://www.adorama.com) and B&H Photo/Video/Audio (http://www.bhphotovideo.com). I have no financial interest in any of these guys, other than being a customer.
 
Do NOT buy an A-DATA card. I had two of them, randomly dying and I am not the only one:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/54950-do-not-use-cheap-sd-cards-solved
http://www.amazon.com/DATA-Class-Flash-Memory-16GSDHC6/product-reviews/B0010LPBRK/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
http://www.amazon.com/Data-Class-Flash-Memory-16GSDHC10/product-reviews/B002MEGATM/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending


If you value your time and data, maybe 20 bucks more does not sound so much.

Class 10 might be overkill if you want it for the Pandora. From what I know the Pandora's SD functionality currently does not max out Class 6 speedwise.
 
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Spirit said:
From what I know the Pandora's SD functionality currently does not max out Class 6 speedwise.
Click to expand...
It surely does: some benchmarks have shown the Pandora hitting speeds of 16MB/s; a class 6 is only "guaranteed" 6MB/s write speed, a class 10 "guarantees" 10MB/s write speed.
A class 10 is overkill because you don't need that guarantee. If the speed fluctuates between 6 and 16MB/s, you probably won't really notice too much. Class 10 is for things that can't afford a random drop in speed, like HD video recorders; even if the average is around 16MB/s
(or faster), if it drops below 10 for even a second it can't write fast enough and will have to start dropping frames. The Pandora isn't that time critical. You can get high quality class 6 (and even class 4) cards that will behave just as well as a class 10 in the Pandora most of the time, just that sometimes for a few seconds of continuous writing it may dip to 6MB (or 4MB).
 
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i still have a few 32gb sandisk ultra's 15mb/sec that i bought a while ago from newegg for my pandora and some other stuff, but i just never used 3 of them and dont know when i will, so if anyones interested in US, $80 plus s/h
edit: on a side note, ive had 3 4gb microsdhc cards from adata so far, and all of them have worked to perfection on my phones and ds flashcarts, but i have heard rumors of bad batches from adata from time to time, especially the larger sized ones 16gb+
 
WizardStan said:
Spirit said:
From what I know the Pandora's SD functionality currently does not max out Class 6 speedwise.
Click to expand...
It surely does: some benchmarks have shown the Pandora hitting speeds of 16MB/s; a class 6 is only "guaranteed" 6MB/s write speed, a class 10 "guarantees" 10MB/s write speed.
A class 10 is overkill because you don't need that guarantee. If the speed fluctuates between 6 and 16MB/s, you probably won't really notice too much. Class 10 is for things that can't afford a random drop in speed, like HD video recorders; even if the average is around 16MB/s
(or faster), if it drops below 10 for even a second it can't write fast enough and will have to start dropping frames. The Pandora isn't that time critical. You can get high quality class 6 (and even class 4) cards that will behave just as well as a class 10 in the Pandora most of the time, just that sometimes for a few seconds of continuous writing it may dip to 6MB (or 4MB).
Click to expand...

As you evidently know far more than i do about SD cards, could i ask if my 2 generic Play.com 32G (class 4) cards would be OK for Pandora? or would you recommend a better class/brand.
 
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I can't speak for Play.com's 32GB cards, but their 16GB Class 4s work fantastically in the Pandora. I use a pair of those as separate music and video cards.
 
Prometheus said:
I can't speak for Play.com's 32GB cards, but their 16GB Class 4s work fantastically in the Pandora. I use a pair of those as separate music and video cards.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that - seems reasonable to assume they would be ok then.
 
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I might buy a cheap (£10) class 10 8gb SDHC and use some of it as swapspace/OS. For storage I'll be happy with class 4 or 6 16gb/8gb cards (though might get a 32gb class 10 for puting lots of video's on without having to wait an eternity).

I'm curious, does anyone know how old hard drive read/write speeds compare with SDHC, I'm talking 1990-1995 era HDD's. I remember defragging my incredibly massive 420mb HDD on my amiga 1200 (was a hacked in PC one) and it took days. My friend had a more modest 40mb HDD in his A600 and it only took hours.

EDIT: I forgot to close brackets (things like that really annoy me.
 
I can't find anything as far back as 1995, but if you look at this chart, at the very bottom, the slowest hard drive in the list, the 100GB WD1000BB was released in 2001. It got 36MB/s average read/write transfer speed; an SDHC has a maximum possible speed (according to the spec) of only 25MB/s. So a 9 year old hard drive under regular conditions beats today's SDHC cards under the best possible conditions by almost 50%. :p
If we do some crazy graphing and assume hard drive speeds basically double ever 4.5 years (which they don't, but we'll pretend they do for simple comparison sake), then in 1995 you would have been looking at about 13MB/s average, comparable to what we are seeing on the Pandora, and 9MB/s in 1992. This last paragraph is made of a lot of bad assumptions and shouldn't be believed at all.

Incidentally, a defrag is one of those worst case scenarios that is basically guaranteed to take much longer than the average. Using defrag times is a very poor benchmark.
 
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