Database Develop

Faster SD Card

Does it help more if I buy a new faster SD card (default card is a Class 2 card), or do optimizations such as this one: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=888379
I'll probably get a Class 6 card, as I haven't seen any Class 10 yet for micro SD.

Spaceman-Spiff said:
Does it help more if I buy a new faster SD card (default card is a Class 2 card), or do optimizations such as this one: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=888379
I'll probably get a Class 6 card, as I haven't seen any Class 10 yet for micro SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, faster SD cards do help quite a bit. I used a class 4 for a while and it was noticeably improved for apps2sd on eclair. I got a class 10 for Christmas and the improvement over class 4 was definitely noticeable but not as dramatic. I've read that there isn't much of an improvement between class 6 and class 10 due to hardware limitations inside the phone. For HD video recording I've seen recommendations for class 6+.
Khalpower's optimization script is amazing for eclair. I recommend the JIT, optimized build.prop, overclock and apps2sd. There is also a newer JIT, but I'm not sure if khal incorporated it into his script yet. I think we're still struggling to get the froyo builds to measure up to the optimized eclairs.

Not sure though, I find my XT720 is more compatible with class2 SD cards. I've got one 4GB Class2 Card, one 8GB class2 Card and one 8GB Class6 card which all made by SansDisk. all of these, the most compatible one is the 4GB class2 Card. Although the Class6 card is faster and perform better, there's an issue with stability, where the phone frequently cannot mount the card when the phone is booted.
pls tell your suggestions.

Spaceman-Spiff said:
Does it help more if I buy a new faster SD card (default card is a Class 2 card), or do optimizations such as this one: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=888379
I'll probably get a Class 6 card, as I haven't seen any Class 10 yet for micro SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are class 10 micro SD but the prices are outrageous at the moment.
class 6 16GB is the best bang for the buck right now
the 32GB are still stuck on class 4
looking forward to get some 32GB class 6 when they come out

Thanks for the comments. I think I'll get a 16GB class 6.
32GB microSD are also still pretty expensive (above $100).

Been using the Class 6 for a day now and I can feel speed improvements in loading apps or data from the sd card. I also cleared the factory settings to start fresh.

I've got a class 10 16 GB microSD card for 30 € in Germany, which is about 40 $. I think that's a fair price. I haven't used it yet, so I can't tell you if it is faster or not.

spyeye95 said:
I've got a class 10 16 GB microSD card for 30 € in Germany, which is about 40 $. I think that's a fair price. I haven't used it yet, so I can't tell you if it is faster or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the price cost doesn't match the quality...
it might be an imitation all original class 10 minimum price are over $100+ specially for the 16GB version
seems like they sold you a Class 4 16GB instead
run some test on it, and you'll find out

$36.99 at Newegg.

3rdstring said:
$36.99 at Newegg.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm always hessitant to buy something with that odd of a price/speed ratio. I was actually reading the reviews and found something VERY interesting. There was one person who was mentioning an app called SD Speed Boost that was described as being able to adjust the sd card cache, thus speeding up the read/write speed to the card. It was only a dollar, so I tried it.
WOW...
It has improved the speed of my system 10x. I was skeptical at first, but I realized that if I run SD Tools from the market to test the speed before and after, it shows a significant increase in read/write speed. Obviously, those of us who have apps and cache on our sd card are constantly hitting it and the card's performance will affect performance.
Does anyone else want to tackle this $1 app and confirm my findings? If this is the answer to our slowness problems, maybe the settings that this app changes can somehow be added to our ROMs for everyone to benefit!

reverendkjr said:
I'm always hessitant to buy something with that odd of a price/speed ratio. I was actually reading the reviews and found something VERY interesting. There was one person who was mentioning an app called SD Speed Boost that was described as being able to adjust the sd card cache, thus speeding up the read/write speed to the card. It was only a dollar, so I tried it.
WOW...
It has improved the speed of my system 10x. I was skeptical at first, but I realized that if I run SD Tools from the market to test the speed before and after, it shows a significant increase in read/write speed. Obviously, those of us who have apps and cache on our sd card are constantly hitting it and the card's performance will affect performance.
Does anyone else want to tackle this $1 app and confirm my findings? If this is the answer to our slowness problems, maybe the settings that this app changes can somehow be added to our ROMs for everyone to benefit!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this the app your'e referring to? My write speed stayed about the same @10.7MB/s but the read speed went from @16 to 23 with a 1MB cache. I don't have any apps on the sd card to verify that aspect of any performance boost but Media Gallery loaded pretty quick.
:Edit: A 2MB cache improved the read speed to 43MB/s

3rdstring said:
Is this the app your'e referring to? My write speed stayed about the same @10.7MB/s but the read speed went from @16 to 23 with a 1MB cache. I don't have any apps on the sd card to verify that aspect of any performance boost but Media Gallery loaded pretty quick.
:Edit: A 2MB cache improved the read speed to 43MB/s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this is the app i'm using. I've been "field testing" this all day, and I must say that I have never had this type of responsiveness and speed from this phone EVER. I am loving this $1 addition to my phone. I have a class 4 card that seems to be giving me 6mb write/33mb read and that is substantially better. I've tinkered with the different settings and found arount 3000 giving me the best numbers with my specific card. I can only imagine that a different class card would need different settings.

3rdstring said:
$36.99 at Newegg.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
newegg i'll trust, and patriot is a "ok" brand
they started producing high quality SD stuff in the last couple of years
but if you show me the same thing from eBay... no way in hell

reverendkjr said:
Yes, this is the app i'm using. I've been "field testing" this all day, and I must say that I have never had this type of responsiveness and speed from this phone EVER. I am loving this $1 addition to my phone. I have a class 4 card that seems to be giving me 6mb write/33mb read and that is substantially better. I've tinkered with the different settings and found arount 3000 giving me the best numbers with my specific card. I can only imagine that a different class card would need different settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'll try it out as well, it's only $1
SD Speed Boost, if it works it'll go into all my phones, as i have everything installed to SD anyways

hey just checking before i hit the pay button, is it this one?
SD Card Speed Booster
Jim Weiler
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.vaelek.sdspeedboost
reverendkjr said:
I'm always hessitant to buy something with that odd of a price/speed ratio. I was actually reading the reviews and found something VERY interesting. There was one person who was mentioning an app called SD Speed Boost that was described as being able to adjust the sd card cache, thus speeding up the read/write speed to the card. It was only a dollar, so I tried it.
WOW...
It has improved the speed of my system 10x. I was skeptical at first, but I realized that if I run SD Tools from the market to test the speed before and after, it shows a significant increase in read/write speed. Obviously, those of us who have apps and cache on our sd card are constantly hitting it and the card's performance will affect performance.
Does anyone else want to tackle this $1 app and confirm my findings? If this is the answer to our slowness problems, maybe the settings that this app changes can somehow be added to our ROMs for everyone to benefit!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

AllGamer said:
hey just checking before i hit the pay button, is it this one?
SD Card Speed Booster
Jim Weiler
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.vaelek.sdspeedboost
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's the one.

AllGamer said:
hey just checking before i hit the pay button, is it this one?
SD Card Speed Booster
Jim Weiler
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just installed.
OS: Dexter's 1.3 froyo with bugfix 2
SD Card: Adata 16GB Class 6
Speed Test
Average result from running 3x:
128KB cache: Read: 13.96MBps; Write: 6.63MBps
1024KB cache: Read: 22.40MBps (60% faster); Write: 6.93MBps
2048KB cache: Read: 36.67MBps (163% faster); Write: 6.90MBps
4096KB cache: Read: 33.67MBps (141% faster); Write: 6.90MBps
Interesting. The app seems to increase Read-speed only. I need to find an ideal cache size for optimal speed increase, so far it seems to be 2MB for me.
I'll rerun with my old Class 2 microSD card when I get home.

Spaceman-Spiff said:
Just installed.
OS: Dexter's 1.3 froyo with bugfix 2
SD Card: Adata 16GB Class 6
Speed Test
Average result from running 3x:
128KB cache: Read: 13.96MBps; Write: 6.63MBps
1024KB cache: Read: 22.40MBps (60% faster); Write: 6.93MBps
2048KB cache: Read: 36.67MBps (163% faster); Write: 6.90MBps
4096KB cache: Read: 33.67MBps (141% faster); Write: 6.90MBps
Interesting. The app seems to increase Read-speed only. I need to find an ideal cache size for optimal speed increase, so far it seems to be 2MB for me.
I'll rerun with my old Class 2 microSD card when I get home.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the app is just changing the value in /sys/devices/virtual/bdi/179:0/read_ahead_kb
The default value seems to be 128. You can set the value using e.g.
Code:
echo 2048 > /sys/devices/virtual/bdi/179:0/read_ahead_kb
I have a 16GB Kingston "class 10" (see also complaints about this card throughout XDA--I got it as a gift and I believe it was on sale for $40 at the time).
I've been testing read and write speeds with "SD tools" (free). SD tools writes and reads 190 MB and displays a dial as it goes so I can see that the initial write speed starts pretty high (10 MB/s) and then quickly falls significantly within a few seconds (probably after an on SD card buffer gets filled) eventually stabilizing at 3.3 MB/s. So, clearly this card is not really class 10 at all as it cannot sustain 10 MB/s except for what seems to be a 1 sec burst. As far as read and read_ahead_kb goes:
128 -- 14.1 MB/s read (avg of 3)
1024 -- 22.4 MB/s read (avg of 3)
2048 -- 43.2 MB/s read (avg of 3)
4096 -- 38.2 MB/s read (avg of 3)
Optimal also seems to be 2MB for me.

Mioze7Ae said:
Code:
echo 2048 > /sys/devices/virtual/bdi/179:0/read_ahead_kb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
man!... THANK YOU! i'll try changing that manually and see if there's any improvement

I was hoping that someone would figure out a way to just add this as a default into our ROMs. It was worth a dollar to get this conversation started.

Question about bootable SD.

Hey folks, I used Generic Nook-2GB-SDCard-CW3010-VGCM7InstallerAsALTinMultiBoot-v6.zip to load CM7..but I was wondering if I can load other SD bootable ROMs with this? I would like to try others if I can. The reason is Im having issue with CM7 being finiky on my NC, like lag opening, not being able to open Market. Any suggestions to these issues too? Thanks, really appreciate the help.

You would need to wipe the SDcard before you can try other ROMs.
Also mainly not the ROM causing the lag and unresponsive but rather the SDcard class/manufacture. What kind of SDcard are you using?

it is a PNY 4G class 4...i saw that the class 2 are much better.

jrvjr said:
it is a PNY 4G class 4...i saw that the class 2 are much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It isn't that class 2 is better than 4. Normally the opposite is suppose to be true.
The issue is the class ratings just tell you the sequential write speed of the drive. Which is nice for copying data to the drive, but isn't helpful in determining if the drive is good enough to run an OS off of.
As this thread shows...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1005633
The 4K write speed is really important if you are running a ROM from the SD card. And Sandisk does a LOT better at this than other SD cards.
So in this case a Sandisk C2 would likely be better than a PNY C4.

Ravynmagi said:
It isn't that class 2 is better than 4. Normally the opposite is suppose to be true.
The issue is the class ratings just tell you the sequential write speed of the drive. Which is nice for copying data to the drive, but isn't helpful in determining if the drive is good enough to run an OS off of.
As this thread shows...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1005633
The 4K write speed is really important if you are running a ROM from the SD card. And Sandisk does a LOT better at this than other SD cards.
So in this case a Sandisk C2 would likely be better than a PNY C4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with Ravynmagi - I am running CyanogenMod on my NC using a Sandisk C2, and it is very responsive. I have found others to be not quite as good.

SD card speed?

i upgraded to a new SD card and run antutu to see how fast it is but to my surprise this new class 10 card is not faster than my old class 2 card.
so is there like a hardware limit or why could that be?
both cards have about
6mb/s write and
15mb/s read.
anyone got some better results with a class 10 card?
Sent from my Optimus 2X using XDA App

Some brands are faster than others even if they are from a lower class.
For example, my Sandisk class 2 is faster than a Kingston class 4.
Which brand is your card???
Cheers!

el_charlie said:
Some brands are faster than others even if they are from a lower class.
For example, my Sandisk class 2 is faster than a Kingston class 4.
Which brand is your card???
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its a kingston class 10 vs sandisk class 2.
with a class 4 vs 2 i could underatand it but this is supposed to be a class 10 which should have about 10mb/s write speed according to wikipedia. that would almost be double the speed that i get...
Sent from my Optimus 2X using XDA App

Hi, with my 16GB Class 10 card I get these speeds;
Write 12.3 MB/s
Read 16.9 MB/s
My card is a no brand card I bought from eBay in March for £16.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16GB-CLAS...AsAccessories_MemoryCards&hash=item1c1f50b680
Anil

I have a Samsung Plus 16GB Class 10 and get:
According to SD Tools: 12.4MB/s write and 17.2 MB/s read.
According to AnTuTu: 11.3 MB/s write and 14.7 MB/s read.

16GB Sandisk Class 10 (Antutu 2.3.1, 2nd run.)
10.4 MB/s Read
10.0 MB/s Write
The card has 12.4 GB on it of real data before testing.
This is on GR3, which I don't think has any "SD-Card optimization". (Too lazy to check.)
Keep in mind that we don't know, at least I don't, how Antutu tests. If it's testing with a lot of independent reads/writes, the speed will invariably go down. (If copying a single large file from my computer, I get a much higher throughput.)
"Class 10" should only mean that your card is able to sustain 10MB/s of continuous writes, it doesn't say anything about access times/block erase speed (which can influence any benchmark.)

Hi TrymHansen, there is a free app called SD Tools which does nothing but test SD card speeds.
Edit:
FOR ANYBODY ELSE READING THIS THREAD:
The class rating of a card indicates the minimum speed the card will write at. Class 10 = 10 MB/s write speed. Read speeds are usually higher than write speeds.
Anil

Excuse me for being dense, but I don't get the point of your post. I explained in my post what Class 10 means, and then you post as if I asked what class 10 means.

TrymHansen said:
Excuse me for being dense, but I don't get the point of your post. I explained in my post what Class 10 means, and then you post as if I asked what class 10 means.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My post wasn't only for you. The first part about SD Tools pertains to you. And anyway your post is incorrect, the Class rating indicates the MINIMUM speed the card will write at. Which isn't the same as a sustained speed.
Anil

aksolanki said:
My post wasn't only for you. The first part about SD Tools pertains to you. And anyway your post is incorrect, the Class rating indicates the MINIMUM speed the card will write at. Which isn't the same as a sustained speed.
Anil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So even though Rusty already has measured his card with SD Tools:
Rusty! said:
I have a Samsung Plus 16GB Class 10 and get:
According to SD Tools: 12.4MB/s write and 17.2 MB/s read.
According to AnTuTu: 11.3 MB/s write and 14.7 MB/s read.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... you somehow assume I cannot possibly have read that, and strongly feel I should be singled out for a recommendation of an app EVERYBODY on XDA knows about. For that dedication I thank you.
My post is not incorrect. I'm saying exactly the same thing you did in the post following mine using different wording.
Anyway, I'm not about to start a flamewar with you. Thanks for the input, now lets go do something constructive.

TrymHansen said:
So even though Rusty already has measured his card with SD Tools:
... you somehow assume I cannot possibly have read that, and strongly feel I should be singled out for a recommendation of an app EVERYBODY on XDA knows about. For that dedication I thank you.
My post is not incorrect. I'm saying exactly the same thing you did in the post following mine using different wording.
Anyway, I'm not about to start a flamewar with you. Thanks for the input, now lets go do something constructive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi TryHansen, I'm not sure why you are taking this personally. But I offer my apologies if I offended you.
Anil

thanks a lot for your feedbacks. so i will return this ****ty card, if it has only half of the specified speed i guess i have something to complain about....
Sent from my Optimus 2X using XDA App

grognaz said:
thanks a lot for your feedbacks. so i will return this ****ty card, if it has only half of the specified speed i guess i have something to complain about....
Sent from my Optimus 2X using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi grognaz, from your stated speeds it would seem you have a class 6 SD card. My card has no brand on it but it reads and writes at the speeds stated by the eBay seller.
Good luck. Anil

grognaz said:
thanks a lot for your feedbacks. so i will return this ****ty card, if it has only half of the specified speed i guess i have something to complain about....
Sent from my Optimus 2X using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm the quality of Kingston SD cards. My 16GB "Class 10" gets the following in SD Tools:
Writing Speed: 7.2MM/s
Reading Speed 13.5MB/s
It's good enough for me as I was considering just getting a Class 6 as I don't exactly do much HD video recording, but if you need the speed - avoid this card!

I am using Sandisk 32gb class 4 card.
Antutu Benchmark
SD card write: 5.6 MB/S
SD card read: 8.9 MB/s

Your SD Cache size matters when u perform SD Speed test in your phone. If you are using CM7 ROM, the default is a mere 128kb cache.
Cache size of SD can be from 128kb to 4096kb and different sd cards will perform better/worst with different cache sizes.
Just thought it would be a good info to share.

why is it that im getting two diff figures when i test my card with antutu and sd tools?
sd tools - read 33MBs
write 6.1MBs
antutu read 10MBs
write 2.6MBs
something doesnt add up
sd read is 2046 default on miui rom
my card is a ridata 8gb class 10
which figure could be correct?

temasek said:
Your SD Cache size matters when u perform SD Speed test in your phone. If you are using CM7 ROM, the default is a mere 128kb cache.
Cache size of SD can be from 128kb to 4096kb and different sd cards will perform better/worst with different cache sizes.
Just thought it would be a good info to share.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is sort of true, but if it was a mere cache it would always be a good idea to set it as large as you can afford RAM-wize. This is not the case.
It is a read-ahead cache. In short that means that whenever a read is requested, it first checks the cache to see if the data is already there, if not it reads the amount of bytes specified no matter what.
Increasing the read-ahead cache will help when reading large files, since it leads to fewer (actual) io-commands being executed.
However, if you're reading a lot of small files it will hurt performance, since for every read issued it will read a lot of unnecessary data before it can go on to the next request.
(I also think this is at a block-level, which means that it merely reads the next blocks, not knowing if they actually belong to the file you're reading at the moment, but not sure about that.)

Hey guys..
Just format your sd cards to 32KB. This i did to my Optimus Black and saw big difference

yannisb99 said:
Hey guys..
Just format your sd cards to 32KB. This i did to my Optimus Black and saw big difference
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If use 8G↓ , then set cluster to 32K.
If use 16G↑, then set cluster to 64K.
Test it!

[Q] SD Card Upgrade

I'm looking forward into upgrading my SD Card, right now it's the default CLASS 2 with 2gb. I pretend to buy a 16gb class 10 one, from Adata.
But I need to know some things first. The only reasons that I want to upgrade is to get more space to install apps, place musics and maybe expand my RAM a little.
So, is it possible to expand my ram? I don't want performance upgrade, it's just that I tend to multitask a lot of programs and my memory runs out really fast.
If so, how much more memory I can allocate on my SD?
Same for apps.
How much big can my apps partition be?
I saw that the recommended limit is something around 1.2/1.3gb, but is there a safe way to expand a little bit further? Or would it make the phone too much unstable?
And also, is it really worth it to upgrade my SD to a CLASS 10 one with 16gb? Or is it just a waste of money?
Thanks for the support and excuse me if I'm asking on the wrong section/way. I found somethings about it but there was nothing too much concrete. :/
EDIT
I just flashed my X8 with the latest firmware and baseband, as pc companion didn't want to install the baseband ..15 nor the newest drivers. Also installed the CM7, dualtouch and all that crap. It already installs apps to the SD and I've noticed a small slowdown on app startup. Would a class 10 sd soft it out?

Up to 200MB on SWAP partition, up to 2GB on apps EXT3/4 (any1 have so many of them???) rest for music/videos etc.

I have made a guide for partitioning the SD with ext+swap (you need AlfsKernel+GDX)
Look my signature

Thanks. But just another question. Is it really necessary to have a Class 10 SD card, or would Class 2 (the default one) slow things down while using swap?
Edit:
Also, a class 10 sd card is way too much expensive for me. I found a 16gb one, class 4 but it's SDHC. Will my X8 read a SDHC?

Everything above (and including) 4GB is sdhc, so yes, it reads them fine. About speed, yes it's important, apps will load faster.. but never amazingly fast. The X8 is slow nowadays, don't expect awesome results. If you are used to class 2 speeds and you buy a class 10 card then yes, you will notice improvement.. Not that much with a class 4. Do you really need a 16GB card? Maybe a 8GB class 8 or 10 would be better if you don't need that much space.
About adding more ram, just forget it
Sent from my E15i using XDA App

I got almost 20gb of just music on my computer, full discography of bands and all. Basically, 90% of the sd will be dedicated to music then But maybe i buy a 8gb one, i just need to stop being lazy and copy only the musics that i want instead of CTRL+A, CTRL+C, CTRL+V it all. Thanks for the help by the way.

So class 6 sdcard is enough for x8?

Class 10 Micro SD Card

anyone using class 10 cards on their salsa?
does it help with performance?
any significant increase in speed?

#1. Class 10 SD card means the card is capable of transfering 10mb of data per second.
#2. Will it has noticable performance increase? Well, it depends on which divice you are using it with.
Talking about salsa, I think it wont be able to achieve a noticable difference in perfromance as compared to class 6 SD cards. Reason being, Salsa's overall configuration is not one of the highest. Being said that, it may not have high transfer rate while working with SD cards.
Salsa devs can add more info on transfer rate of salsa.
Check the SD standards official website to learn more about SD cards. Here is the link
https://www.sdcard.org/developers/faq/

monty80 said:
#1. Class 10 SD card means the card is capable of transfering 10mb of data per second.
#2. Will it has noticable performance increase? Well, it depends on which divice you are using it with.
Talking about salsa, I think it wont be able to achieve a noticable difference in perfromance as compared to class 6 SD cards. Reason being, Salsa's overall configuration is not one of the highest. Being said that, it may not have high transfer rate while working with SD cards.
Salsa devs can add more info on transfer rate of salsa.
Check the SD standards official website to learn more about SD cards. Here is the link
https://www.sdcard.org/developers/faq/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the information

Yep
It works... I got a 16GB Class 10 card. Much faster than other cards around. Even class 6 is good enough.

I don't think so, the speed of the divice will depend on the slowest process. It will only give higher speeds when using in usb storage.

kushagrajain said:
I don't think so, the speed of the divice will depend on the slowest process. It will only give higher speeds when using in usb storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not in this case, ive used several s cards of various speeds and classes, and each have there differences, hence why when we use them in this phone for a specific reason...a set on is best. ie class 6 or above for usage with ext3. and it does work