What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

Hi,

I am looking to pick up a 16GB MicroSD card. (32GB are just too pricey right now. I am debating between Class 2, 4, or 6. From what I have read class 6 exceeds the maximum read/write speed of many spartphones. Is there any point in getting Class 4 or 6? Will there be a noticable improvement? I intend to install NitDroid on this card so I am looking to get optimal performance.

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

this is a good question that i have been tryin tot get answered for a while now
another maemo user told me that a class 6 card gives a decent speed boost for nitdroid ?
dj steve uses class 6 cards himself so there must be a reason?

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

It would definitely be wise to buy a class 4 or 6 card as, better i/o better performance. hard disk/storage is the bottle neck most of the times.

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

Class 6, if using the microsd for swap.

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

as higher class number as you can find.
Class 10 Is good

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

I'm using a class 6 SanDisk with no issues. same card I put in my N97 when I swap sim. Can't wait for 32gb to get cheap and available, tho

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

For OS use, even class 6 cards slow down to class 0.1, so it's probably a good idea to get the fastest there is.

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

Is there any 'scientific' way of testing the read/write speed (you know... "there is an app for that...")? If YES, maybe people could post their results here and we could make informed decisions?

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

I've read articles on Class2 and 4 cards outperforming Class 6s, depending on the manufacturer/model/batch.

These 'classes' just define the bottom limit of the card's performance and just a single metric at that (sustained sequential transfer speed) which matters more for image transfers.

Unfortunately for us, we care more about random access time and random read speed, neither of which are rated.

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

lovely. this complicates my purchase. i'm gonna look for benchmarks

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

If it is just for storage and you not writing much don't worry buy cheep.

If you copy date on a off as I do class 6 and above. I have found that not all class 6's are equal. The brand name is usual faster and natural more expensive. So if you subscribe to the notion that time is money you want the higher class.

I suggest reading the reviews on amazon someone inevitably has done a direct comparison between apples and "apples"

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

I hope ypu will repott your findings, so we can profit from your labours:)

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

I would recommend class 10 if u gonna isntall Nitdriod and maybe dualboot MeeGo in the future ;)

for 70cad i was able to find Kingston 16gb class 10 card , so far it works flawlessly and it is fast comapred to my old class 6 card and has lifetime warranty :)

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

Ignore the class rating. Higher classes (espcially class 6) on microSDHC tend to be less reliable, leading to corrupt transfers, or shortenend life. Also, Class 6 (or higher) is generally something you need for high end cameras or HD camcorders due to the transfer rate.

For media playback, Class 2 is more than adequate. When transferring files, if you're using a card reader, you'll notice a difference between class 2 and class 6.

In summary, avoid the class 6 cards. They're overpriced, less stable, and are intended for professional recording. You'll get no benefit from using one over a class 2 in a PMP.

Source: http://icanhaz.com/speeds

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

RafaLL92, I really do not understand how to do "professional recording" on a "less stable" storage. Does a professional will take the risk to lose 4 hours shooting ?

Concerning swap usage, I agree a flash memory lifetime will be shorten compared to standard storage. I comes from its internal behavior: copy/paste block content as it is not able to replace a single 1 bit to 0, and it is only able reset a full block to 0. There is also a block rotation thanks to address mapping: a free block is reset to 0, content is copied (bits 1 are set) and so on at next block write access.

As a consequence even if you think you only use a part of your microSD as swap, in fact all internal blocks of flash memory are used and that means the whole card life time shortens.

Re: What MicroSD Speed to purchase?
 

i read on engadget the other day, on an article about windows phone 7, that manufacturers tweak the higher class sd cards for sequential speed, but it sometimes (often?) affected the random access speed negatively.
unfortunately, windows phone 7 operating system is too new for a decent list of compatible (high random access speed) cards to be available officially. you might want to try here or try googling yourself.

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