AximX50/51 Hardware/SD/CF questions

Minlas · 10-07-05, 02:19 PM

Hey aximsite guys/gals if you have been following my thread here:
http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=99313
You know I am planning to use my AximX50v as a standalone DIVX / XVID (out to Tv and out to Vga) etc player and overall media
center. Right now I am a 2GB Lexar 80X Cf and a 1GB Lexar 32X SD. I have had no problems with either of these cards and I am simply looking to get larger cards and as a few of my buddies also have Axims will probably sell these two to them. I have been out of the SD Cf card market for a bit and any questions you can answer I deeply appreciate.

1. Does the A05 rom upgrade upgrade impact all X50vs SD speed or only certain hardware revisions?
2. Have you noticed the X speed of your cards makes any difference in use besides in benchmarks?
3. What is the largest Cf card you have got to work with your Axim and what was its brand/model?
4. What is the largest SD card you have got to work with your Axim and what was its brand/model?
5. What is the best deals or what prices would you aim for for a 4GB+ Cf card?
6. What is the best deals or what prices would you aim for for a 2GB+ Sd card?
7. What are your preferred brands and the logic behind that prefrence?

0gopogo · 10-10-05, 10:52 PM

Lots of good questions.

1. I'm interested, but i don't know.
2. Yes, big time - in a card reader. No, not really - in the x50v.
3. CF: 1GB 70x XDigital Media, MD: 6GB Hitachi
4. 4GB 150x Transcend
5. 4GB CFs are between $220 and $450 - sometimes less with coupons/rebates. The only 4GB card I would currently be interested in is the 4GB SanDisk Extreme III ($420), because it is so incredibly fast in a compliant card reader.
6. 1GB SDs can be had for $50 +- 5. The Ridata 66x is not bad. I do not expect to buy any more 1GB SD cards. I will wait for better 4GBs to be released. If I really needed a 1GB card I'd go with the 1GB Ridata 150x because the Ridata 2GB 150x is such a great card.
7. SD Ridata 150x
The 2GB is almost on-par with 1GB EIII speed-wise, but much cheaper.
SD SanDisk Extreme III
Absolute speed champ in compliant card readers.
CF SanDisk Extreme III
Speed champ in compliant card reader (if it is anything like the SD version).
SD SanDisk Ultra II
Reliable - have used one for 18 months in card reader, PDA, camera. Only the EIII is faster in a conventional (SD1.0) card reader. However, SD1.1 card readers are out now, so I will not buy another UII. Instead, see SD Ridata 150x above.

The biggest affordable CF card has a capacity of 8GB and costs > $650.
The biggest affordable SD cards have a capacity of 4GB and cost ~ $270.

A 6GB MicroDrive uses a bit more power than a flash card but that won't be a problem because you'll have mains. It is much more affordable than any flash card, though.

A 6GB MicroDrive will be slower to copy the video files to than a high speed CF/SD card, but more than fast enough to play the video. The 6GB version is still around $240. That price will fall when the new 8GB version will be available in quantities. Larger drives have been announced.

If the main app is DivX playback I'd keep the SD card for daily PDA storage and swap the Lexar for one or two 6GB MDs.

Hiatus · 10-11-05, 12:02 AM

i can answer you a few
2. the slowest SD/CF will be faster than the Axim Slot can handle, so no advantage using on the Axim alone.
3,4 you should able to get the largest you can get to work with the Axim, microdrive is a different story, usually retail works and OEM are being locked so won't work on the axim.
7. I like SanDisk, i have 1GB Sandisk CF and SD, but their SD cards seemed to have problem with Axim two years ago, I personally don't have problem with them

Menneisyys · 10-11-05, 07:48 AM

You may also want to read http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?p=811679 on optimizing storage card speed.

Minlas · 10-11-05, 02:29 PM

Thanks for the input guys. I meant 2GB on number 6 which it now reflects. I guess I may wait for better quality SD at 4GB So right now I am looking at:

2GB SD
Price: 127.91 RiDATA 150x High Speed 2GB Secure Digital (SD) Card Model SDCR2G-SILV

4GB CF
Price: $209.95 Kingston Elite 4GB CF
Price on this one is pretty nice but I wonder if if has got some of the Kingston issues Menneisyys noticed with other Kingston cards. I know choirguy had some pretty nice benchmarks in his pdf(www.choirguy.com/memory.pdf) for the Elite 2GB model. A little cheaper than the 6GB MD 0gopogo mentioned and probably a lot faster and easier on power though you do give up 2GB.

Of course the whole FAT 16 vs FAT 32 issue had got me gun shy for the 4GB CF/SD models. As even the fast RiDATA 150x High Speed 2GB SD to a bad bump in write speeds from FAT16 to FAT 32. I think it was around half speed in both the Write 1MB (MB/s) and Write 10kB x 100 (MB/s) using FAT32.
Check out 0gopogo's Excel sheet on this thread
http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=99097
Menneisyys I had hypothesized the weird benchmark results a lot of people were getting was a FAT16 vs 32 issue over in that same thread and it is good to see I haven't lost my mind heh.

0gopogo · 10-11-05, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by Menneisyys

You may also want to read http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?p=811679 on optimizing storage card speed.

Thanks for the link - and of course the article - it's now bookmarked!

0gopogo · 10-11-05, 09:38 PM

Aargh, don't know how I could forget about cluster size.

A 2GB card must use a cluster size of no less that 32k when formatted with FAT16. The default cluster size for FAT32 is 4k. So it is really not too surprising that FAT16 performs better with many/most >= 2GB cards.

To x-check I ran the Ridata 150x 2GB formatted with FAT32 and 16k clusters through HDBench and Spb Benchmark just now.

The FAT32 results are clearly better now in both card reader and Axim than the ones I got for 4k clusters. See the other thread for details.

I don't seem to be able to format FAT32 with 32k clusters for a fair FAT16/FAT32 comparison. format.exe gives an error message saying that the cluster size is too large for the file system

. SKTools does not work at all.

IMO the 2GB Ridata 150x SD is a really nice card; can't comment on the 4GB CF Kingston because I bever had one. The price is right - there even was a time when you could get it for $190 after @ newegg.com. And it should give you better write speeds in a card reader than the MicroDrive.