4gb,6gb and 8gb test update.

[kms]

This thread is produced for people who may have interest in purchasing the 4GB micro SDHC memory Card, with info and a simple test that I have conducted with the latest 4 GB, 6GB and 8GB micro SDHC memory cards.

So far there are only four brands available on the market, but may be more, these are the Toshiba, kingston, Adata and Sandisk. So before you go out and buy yourself one of these, you must take into consideration of the following points.

-Micro SDHC is not compatible with all device that supports Micro SD,

-Micro SDHC/Full size SDHC are only in there early stage of the market,
And 4 GB is the smallest size available going up to 32 GB, Although larger sizes may not even make their way onto the market.

-Some people have issues with these cards, saying they are thicker than normal Micro SD, and having problems removing them from their devices, although none of the problems has arisen yet for me.

-The prices of these cards are quite expensive, anything from USD 47 to USD 140, depending where you buy them from.

-Due to high prices not many places stock these cards when they were first released, but now they are more popular and are much easier to find. The Adata, Sandisk and kingstons are much easier to find, but the Toshiba brands are mainly sold in Asian, and harder to find in US and the UK.

-Unlike normal Micro SD/SD cards, where manufacturer label individual card for their speed as 25X, 45X, 60X, 66X, 150X, high speed, ultra high speed, turbo and super etc.
This is very confusing for people in search for a fast memory card and can be very misleading, for SDHC the speed is divided into three classes.

Class 2 = 2MB/s
Class 4 = 4MB/s
Class 6 = 6MB/s

The Classes are referred to the minimum write speed, as for the read speed, this will depend on the manufacture.

please note that even if you buy a class 2 memory card, this does not mean it is worse than a class 6, this is where most people get confused, it just a guaranteed minumum write speed set out by that manufacture to promote sales.


-The only devices that I know which supports the 4 GB SDHC is:-

Nokia N95 mobile phone
Nokia 6110 Navigator mobile phone
Nokia 6500 classic slider mobile phone
Motorola Z8 mobile phone
HTC Touch window mobile 6 PDA
HTC Touch Enhanced version
HTC Touch Dual
HTC P3600I
HTC Tytn II and all the variations

Flash carts

Cyclops Cyclos DS Evolution Flash Carts
M3 DS Real
M3 DS one SDHC
Ewin TTDS
Neo flash R6 Gold/silver
Edge
N5
Top Toy DSTT
Acekard RPG

There are others, these are the only one I know.

SINCE WE ARE IN A FLASH CART FORUM, I HAVE JUST ADDED THIS SECTION FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE NEW TO FLASH CARTS, IF YOU INTEND TO BUY A MICRO SDHC MEMORY CARD 4GB OR ABOVE, FOR THE CYCLOPS DS EVOLUTION OR ANOTHER BRAND LIKE SUPERCARD DS ONE, TTDS, 5DS, EDGE, NEO R6, M3 DS REAL AND M3 DS ONE SDHC, YOU WILL NEED TO LOOK AT THE TEST RESULTS SECTION RANDOM ACCESS TIME.

ANY CARD THAT HAS A RANDOM ACCESS TIME LESS THAN 0.6-0.7 WILL RUN PROBLEMATIC ROMS LIKE CASTLEVANIA FINE WITHOUT ANY FREEZE, FOR OTHER ROMS, THERE SHOULDN'T BE ANY PROBLEMS. FROM THE TEST AND COMMENTS FROM PPL ON THIS FORUM, ADATA IS THE ONLY CARD THAT YOU CAN BUY, AND RUNS ALL ROMS WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM (THE KINGMAX MAY JUST GET AWAY WITH IT WITH A RAT 0.8), THIS ALSO HAS NO RELATED ISSUES OF WHERE THE CARD WAS MANUFACTURED LIKE MADE IN CHINA, MADE IN JAPAN OR MADE IN TAIWAN, AS THE CASE WITH MICRO SD CARDS 1GB AND 2 GB WHERE YOU MUST ONLY BUY A MADE IN JAPAN VERSION FROM BRANDS LIKE KINGSTON, EAGLETEC, TOSHIBA, NOKIA, AND SOME REBRANDED COUNTER PART THAT HAS THE MODEL NUMBER PRINTED C01G JAPAN (1GB) AND C02G JAPAN (2GB).

Here is a simple test using the program HD Tach to test the speed of these cards.


To conduct this test, the following were used:-

PC using p4 3.00GHZ CPU, 80GB HD with 512MB Ram, with only five programs installed.
6GB and 8GB tested on my Pentium III Dual 1.266GHZ cpu, 120GB HD with 768MB Ram.

HD Tach windows program

Micro reader (memory card reader made by Adata, one of the fastest readers on the market for Micro SD)

Kingston/Toshiba 4 GB class 4 SDHC micro SD made in Japan
Sandisk 4 GB class 2 SDHC micro SD made in China/Taiwan
Adata 4GB class 6 SDHC micro SD made in taiwan

*Updated 6-12-2007

*Added

Adata 4GB class 6 made in Taiwan Version 2 (Second released batch has different layout of the PCB)
Sandisk 6GB class 4 made in china (test has been done on a lower spec PC, so if a better spec PC is used, results may be better)

*Updated 7-12-2007
*Added

Sandisk 8GB class 4 made in china (test has been done on a lower spec PC, so if a better spec PC is used, results may be better)

*Updated 2-1-2008
*Added

Kingmax 4GB class 4 Made in Taiwan

*Updated 18-3-208
*Added

Transcent 4GB class 6 Made in Taiwan

*Added

Sandisk MOBILE ULTRA 8GB Class 6 Made in China

*Added

Adata 8GB class 4 Made in Taiwan


Test Results


Sequential Read Speed

Toshiba 20MB/s
Sandisk 10.8MB/s
Adata 20MB/s
Adata V2 20.1MB/s
Sandisk 6GB 19.4MB/s
Sandisk 8GB 19.5MB/s
Kingmax 4GB 16MB/s
Transcend 4GB 15.6MB/s
Sandisk MU 8GB 20MB/s
Adata 8GB 20MB/s


Burst Speed

Toshiba 20.6MB/s
Sandisk 10.8MB/s
Adata 20.4MB/s
Adata V2 20.4MB/s
Sandisk 6GB 19.9MB/s
Sandisk 8GB 20.1MB/s
Kingmax 4GB 15.9MB/s
Transcend 4GB 15.9MB/s
Sandisk MU 8GB 20.2MB/s
Adata 8GB 20.2MB/s



Random Access

Toshiba 0.9ms
Sandisk 1.1ms
Adata 0.7ms
Adata V2 0.7ms
Sandisk 6GB 1.6ms
Sandisk 8GB 1.7ms
Kingmax 4GB 0.8ms
Transcend 4GB 0.9ms
Sandisk MU 8GB 1.6ms
Adata 8GB 1.6ms



Average Read Speed

Toshiba 19.8MB/s
Sandisk 10.7MB/s
Adata 19.8MB/s
Adata V2 19.7MB/s
Sandisk 6GB 19.3MB/s
Sandisk 8GB 19.5MB/s
Kingmax 4GB 15.5MB/s
Transcend 4GB 15.4MB/s
Sandisk MU 8GB 19.9MB/s
Adata 8GB 19.9MB/s


Write Speed in Seconds with 129MB (131MB for 6GB and 8GB Micro SDHC) of Data transfer from PC to Card using Cut and Paste.

Toshiba 26-27s
Sandisk 28-29s
Adata 15-16s
Adata V2 16-17s
Sandisk 6GB 13s
Sandisk 8GB 12-13s
Kingmax 4GB 16-17s
Transcend 4GB 20s
Sandisk MU 8GB 9s
Adata 8GB 9s



Actual write speed in MB/s

Toshiba Approximate 5MB/s (32X)
Sandisk 4GB Approximate 4.3MB/s (28X)
Adata Approximate 8.6MB/s (56X)
Adata V2 Approximate 8.2MB/s (52X)
Sandisk 6GB Approximate 10.1MB/s (70X)
Sandisk 8GB Approximate 10.2MB/s (70X)
Kingmax 4GB Approximate 8.2MB/s (52X)
Transcend 4GB Approximate 7.9Mb/s (50x)
Sandisk mobile ultra 8GB approximate 15MB/s (100x)
Adata 8GB approximate 15MB/s (100x)



Actual usable memory size of cards before format in GB.

Toshiba 3.74GB
Sandisk 3.79GB
Adata 3.81GB
Adata V2 3.74GB
Sandisk 6GB 5.68GB
Sandisk 8GB 7.60GB
Kingmax 4GB 3.74GB
Transcend 4GB 3.74GB
Sandisk MU 8GB 7.60GB
Adata 8GB 7.60GB



All info and data from this test was collected and produced by me, so if anyone has questions regarding the accuracy of the contents, I will not be held responsible for any errors that you may encounter from it.

Due to differences of the card reader and PC specs used, other ppl will get different results whether it's better or worse, but figures will be very similar.

FYI: The Red and Black micro SDHC reader in the photo is called the mobile mate micro reader by sandisk, it can reader and write both micro sd and sony M2, and is supplied as a package with the 8GB Micro SDHC, and read/write at full speed, although the test did not use it.


kms