SD Card Speed

geoff.sim · 08-19-05, 08:01 AM

Has anyone tested different speed SD cards to find out whether it is worth buying fast cards?

Failing that, can anyone tell me the theoretical speed of the SD card port on the X30h?

I want to buy a 1MB card, but would like to know what speed to look for.

Geoff.

stonehenge8 · 08-19-05, 08:12 AM

This is my opinion based on experiment. I have a 66x and a bog-standard non-high speed SD card. Both 1gb.

Once the card is in your Axim it makes no difference. The best test of this is playing video and even the normal card is up to the task of streaming 30fps high quality video and the 66x gives no quality or speed gain.

The difference comes in transfering files in the first place(via a USB 2 card reader) where the 66x card is obviously slightly faster, but not really enough to make it worth the additional price.

The only point in prefering high speed cards for me is for my digital camera - the slower card will not record video at high frame rates and delays the shutter time slightly.

One thing I would add though is that if you are looking for a memory card to store and play video a SD card is definately faster than a CF card within the Axim's hardware set-up. (I mean even a high speed CF card is slower than a normal SD card).

pmcizhere · 08-20-05, 04:15 AM

Just make sure you don't overcrowd the SD card...Too many folders/a lot of used space will slow installs and other things to a crawl...Man, I need a 2/4 GB SD Card...:(

MrKlaatu · 08-20-05, 04:26 AM

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SD/CF Card Speeds make no difference if you're only gonna use them in your Axim.

BUT...if you will use them in a Card Reader and/or a Digital Camera, as well.........it is well worth the extra expense.
High speed Cards are made for WRITE Speed amplification.

Absolutely necessary for DigiCams and Card Readers! :approve:
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photonx30 · 08-24-05, 03:26 PM

The techies at OnCourse Navigator think speed makes a difference. They recommend the fastest SD or CF card you can find for best performance of their GPS software.

geoff.sim · 09-06-05, 06:04 AM

What I was trying to get at was
"Where is the bottleneck and what is the max throughput of this bottleneck?"

Just like hard disk controllers, I assume the hardware used in the X30 will have a max transfer rate (ala ATA100/ATA133 etc), so a 66x card may not be much use.

I suppose I will need to get hold of some cards and test them
(actually, I think this has already been done).

Geoff.

Adrian Knack · 09-06-05, 06:13 AM

It is about 1.2mb/s read and write is about 0.8mb/s (maybe less) if I remember correctly from when we did the tests on the X50s a while back. The X30 was similar specs.

The bottleneck is the read/write speed of the Axim not the card - higher speed cards make no difference. I don't know why the guys at OnCourse Navigator say otherwise - I can only quote what I know from our tests. If you feel like doing a seach there is a thead about it in the Storage card section started by Choirguy.

Cheers

aznns · 09-06-05, 11:12 PM

i have sandisk extreme 512mb and extreme III 1GB for my Nikon D70
i'm going to order a sandisk ultra 1GB SD for the x30 soon....
just got my axim x30 today, still charging for the 8-hour.. gonna charge it until tomorrow morning..

geoff.sim · 09-07-05, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by Adrian Knack

It is about 1.2mb/s read and write is about 0.8mb/s (maybe less) if I remember correctly from when we did the tests on the X50s a while back. The X30 was similar specs.

Thanks, that was what I wanted.

geoff.sim · 09-14-05, 05:17 AM

There must be something wrong with my Viking (Toshiba) 1GB SD Card as I am only getting 0.01MB/s speed. Read is good at about 1.17MB/s. Card is formatted for FAT32 and 4K clusters.
Any suggestions?

(I am using Pocket Mechanic for formatting and testing).

Geoff.

Addition: Further to this post, it seems that I am actually getting about 230kb/s write speed.