About to buy a new SD Card . . .

clem · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:57 pm Post subject: About to buy a new SD Card . . .

Hi Folks,

I'm about to replace my trusty (or should that be rusty) 256MB SanDisk SD card with a 512MB one.

I've spent sometime looking through the forums and managed to narrow it down to 3:

1) Integral (re-badged Japan Panasonic) from valueflash
2) Simpletech (Japan) from clove
3) SanDisk Ultra II (China/Taiwan) from ebay

On the face of it the Integral seems the best bet value wise but I can't find any info on transfer speeds. Does anyone know how fast these cards are? I belive both 2) and 3) run at 9MB -10MB which will be restricted to the SD interface on my IPAQ 4150 (whatever that speed is?).

The SanDisk is the cheapest of the lot but I've had 'issues' with mine and would prefer an alternative make.

Any ideas are much appreciated.

Thanks
Clem

DavidW · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 7:29 pm Post subject:

I share your opinion that the Sandisk card is best avoided.

The Integral - are you absolutely sure that the 512MB Integral is Panasonic? Jon's list at http://sdprob.aximsite.com/theproblemlist.htm gives the impression that Integral cards can be either Sandisk or a Japanese type.

It's possible that ValueFlash would be able to guarantee what type they'd supply, but I have my doubts that they would (though you could ask!). The only Integral 512MB card listed is a Japanese code, but the other sizes are clearly both types with, if anything, Sandisk codes predominating (though this could be because people aren't reporting working cards!).

The safe option is SimpleTech from Clove (are there any other UK sources of SimpleTech cards now?), but it's far from cheap.

David

clem · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 8:12 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the quick reply David!

Yeh I asked valueflash if the Integral cards are Japanese Panasonic and they said they are.
So I guess it comes down to the speed issue (discounting SanDisk) - Integral are £50 cheaper but I could really do with finding out how much slower (if at all) than the SimpleTech they are.

Easier said than done at the moment.

DavidW · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:48 pm Post subject:

The chances are that the SimpleTech card will also be Panasonic.

Ask ValueFlash to confirm in writing (well, email) that the card will be Panasonic before ordering - that way you should be able to return the card if you finish up with Sandisk. When you get it, post the codes on the back - I know what Panasonic codes should look like. If your card turns out to be Panasonic, I may well be ordering one for myself!

David

clem · Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:04 am Post subject:

Hi David,

Good news! They did confirm it by email:

I don't want to post the reply verbatim cos I haven't asked permission but a summary of what I have gathered (from no vendor imparticular) is:

"Most SD cards are produced by Toshiba, Infineon and Pansonic, but the majority are the first 2 cos they are cheaper.

Integral 512MB are Pansonic - smaller sizes are Infineon which aren't that great but are cost effective.

The Pansonic cards are very good; for SD cards anyway."

The cheapest place I've found so far for these allegedly re-badged panasonics is valueflash - I used this forum, dealtime, pricerunner and kelkoo).

I hope this post helps anyone reading make an informed decision before they make an SD card purchase cos I know how infuraiting it is to spend hours trying to load a map onto the card and then find it takes minutes (rather than seconds) to calculate a 1 hour + route!

Off topic but TTNAV 3 is an excellent piece of software and the Traffic option may save me spending 2,500 pounds on my next Beemer Smile

Clem

clem · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 6:59 pm Post subject:

Ok, got the card and it's even better than I'd hoped -

Made in Japan

BK3ED0010XX

No errors when copying the 101MB GB TTNAV 3 map

Default route calculation time using TTNAV 3.01

40 seconds!!

Bargain!

clem · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 7:07 pm Post subject:

sorry should have said...

Land's End to John O' Groats Default settings calculation time

Using an IPAQ 4150 FAT16 16kb clusters

Also, the address City lookup time is now almost instantaneous !?

DavidW · Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 8:14 am Post subject:

Is there a D000 code anywhere as well, or is that the entire markings? If such a code is absent (and particularly if the codes there are are printed landscape on the card), I believe (though am not absolutely sure) that it's more likely to be a Toshiba card than Panasonic. It doesn't actually matter - both Toshiba and Panasonic are excellent.

My old 256MB Lexar card has the same type of code that you mention, and is a great performer.

I'm sorely tempted to do the same as you just did! I'd be grateful, actually, if you could either post (or email me - my address is correct if you press the Email button) as much detail as you can of the correspondence between you and ValueFlash - especially the email address.

David

clem · Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 4:16 pm Post subject:

Yep it is printed portrait and the first characters are D000

DavidW · Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 8:29 pm Post subject:

Portrait and D000 means that, to the best of my knowledge, the card is Panasonic.

David

grahamwalker · Regular Visitor Joined: 15/11/2002 21:38:06 Posts: 83

I've just replaced my trusty Integral 256mb SD card with a Lexar 32x 256mb SD card.

Both are formatted as FAT (not the faster FAT32) as that's all my iPAQ 3850 can cope with.

Using the standard TomTom Navigator benchmark, the time taken to plan a route from Lands End to John O'Groats reduced from 10m 5s to 4m 45s. An excellent improvement! :D :D

DavidW · Posted: Wed May 05, 2004 5:52 pm Post subject:

I'm a little surprised your 3850 can't cope with FAT 32 - Pocket PC 2002 usually can. However, FAT 32 is often slower than FAT (16) - not faster.

That's a colossal improvement in performance anyway - I hope you feel it was well worth doing. I guess your 256MB Integral is a Sandisk card.

The 3850 will never match the calculation speed of more modern Pocket PCs - not only does it have a slower processor than the 3900 series and most modern Pocket PCs (206MHz SA1110 as opposed to 400MHz XScale), but it also has a particularly slow SD slot. However, it does work - and usually you're not planning 800 mile routes.

David

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