Sticky for SD Cards - Nook Color General

Could we get a sticky thread where people can post what Micro SDCard they are using and how well it works? It would seem really useful to see which cards work well with the Nook Color and which ones to avoid.
Posts should have: Manufacturer, Capacity, Class, and Model. In addition, list what you have run from it and how it performed.
I'll start off. I currently am using a Toshiba 8GB Class 4 Micro SDHC Card, Model C08G. NookieFroyo will run from it but it is slow and makes for a very laggy experience.

I ran Froyo on a regular 2GB microSD, not sdhc, and it was smooth. I don't know why ppl think having higher class microSD will make Froyo run smoother. If you have lag, turn the screen off and on again might fix it. Another thing is that if you have a lot of startup apps on boot will slow your NC.
Sent from my NC using Tapatalk

succulent said:
I ran Froyo on a regular 2GB microSD, not sdhc, and it was smooth. I don't know why ppl think having higher class microSD will make Froyo run smoother. If you have lag, turn the screen off and on again might fix it. Another thing is that if you have a lot of startup apps on boot will slow your NC.
Sent from my NC using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you post what card you used, preferably the specific model? That card could be anything, from class 2 to class 6.
SDHC doesn't mean it's high speed, SDHC means "Secure Digital High Capacity". Standard SDCards are up to 2GB (some may be listed at 4GB, but alot of readers have problems with those as the block size is larger then 512 bytes). Anything larger is classified at SDHC
Class is the speed that the card should Read/Write at. A class 2 card should write at a minimum of 2MB's per second (read speeds are typically higher), a class 10 card should write at a minimum of 10MB's per second.
A higher class card should perform better then a lower class. However not all cards are the same, and card readers vary, which is why I'd like to see this a sticky.

I agree!
I am a newbie/nookie and am wanting to know what micro sd card to purchase to root my nook color. i will be so grateful if anyone posts here about the one they used to effectively root their nook color...
thanks

Well I can't post links yet
Item # N82E16820208453 on Newegg
The transcend seems to be a favorite for it's speed.

Related

Can the HD2 benefit from class 6 SD? Or is it a bottleneck >Class 2?

I ordered a class 6 16gb card to replace the slow-ass class 2 8GB card I had in my HD2.
First of all I couldnt find the format sd tool in my energy rom (1st July) so I had to format the card using vista while the HD2 was connected in disk drive mode. THAT TOOK OVER 1 HOUR.
(Is there a cab file to install the "Format SD Card" tool for the newer energyroms?)
Anyways after formatting (Fat 32, 16KB cluster), I started to copy my 1.4GB sd backup file to the card using the same method as above (disk drive mode)....
My maximum write speed was 2.7MB/sec. Average 2MB/sec.
Class 2 speeds????
After restoring the backup, which took forever, I ran spb benchmark on the card and was gutted to get slightly lower results than the old class 2 I was replacing.
Can the HD2 make use of anything faster than a class 2 card?
Has anyone here tested a class 6 or even 4 card and found good write speeds (~6MB/sec, or ~4MB/sec)?
Does it sound like I have bought a lemon (class 2 labelled as class 6)?
I have spoken to the seller and he is adamant that they ARE genuine class 6. Reckons he tested some of the batch in TrueHD cameras which will not accept <Class6. Seems genuine and some of his feedback states that the cards are Genuine class 6. Which leads me to think that the bottleneck could be the HD2... Does that sound likely?
I'm waiting for a microsd USB reader to arrive so I can test the card outside of the HD2, but Until I can do that... can anyone tell me if a class 6 is wasted in a HD2?
The strange thing is that when browsing photos/wallpapers etc, the thumbnails ARE loading maybe 3x quicker than my old class 2. So I'm pretty confused about this one.
Can anyone shed any light here? Feel free to post benchmark results/screenshots etc.
Thanks in advance.
can anyone PLEASE answer this ^^^?
Is there any point having a class 6 card in the HD2 instead of a class 2 or 4 card?
there is a thread in the accessories section have a gander in there, I no this is Q&A's but lots of talk about mem cards in the accessories section mate
Cheers mate, I'll take a look.
I will move this thread there. I also recently bought a Class 6 card and and have seen a huge improvement in media reading and over all performence.
I get 4-5MB/s both for reads writes with my 16GB class 6 card in disk drive mode.
Thanks zelendel and kilrah.
kilrah said:
I get 4-5MB/s both for reads writes with my 16GB class 6 card in disk drive mode.
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Click to collapse
That is exactly the kind of data I'm looking to compare.
Whith my 'class 6' Im getting just under 3MB/S WRITE and under 6MB/S READ when using the HD2 in disk drive mode.
If I use the card in a USB 2.0 reader I can get around 5.5MB/S Write and ~11-13MB/S read.
Based on this alone would you say my card is a class 6 or not. I'm beginning to think it may be a class 4 re-labelled.
Picture browsing etc is faster with my class 6 but all benchmarks indicate it is identical speed to my genuine Kingston Class 2.
What do you guys reckon, Should I send this card back for a refund???
Well if you're getting 5.5 and over 11MB per second with a card reader then we can safely assume it's class 6. The bottleneck is something to do with the phone, rom, cable or simply the phone doesn't like this particular card etc...
EDIT: Test your class 2 card with the memory card reader and see if you get similar results.
ez2remember said:
Well if you're getting 5.5 and over 11MB per second with a card reader then we can safely assume it's class 6. The bottleneck is something to do with the phone, rom, cable or simply the phone doesn't like this particular card etc...
EDIT: Test your class 2 card with the memory card reader and see if you get similar results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for helping me clear things up.
Comparing the 'class 6' and the 'class 2' transfer speeds is where I really get confused here.
Transferring a ~700MB .Avi to and from SD using a reader:
Kingston Class 2 8GB:
Read 12.5MB/s
Write 5.4MB/s
Unbranded Class 6 16GB:
Read 12.5MB/s
Write 6MB/s
So, from this, would you say its safe to assume:
1. The class 2 card is a good one, performing at almost class 6 speeds.
2. The class 6 card is 'Genuine' and shouldnt be returned.
3. There is a bottleneck when using the HD2 as a card reader/disk drive. I should be getting more than 2.5mb/s write speeds in this mode.
4? Does 12.5MB/sec sound close to USB 1.1 speeds? could my reader or even USB port (Vista laptop) be another bottleneck?
Once again thank you for helping me make sense of all this.
At least I now know that the 16gb card doesnt really need to be returned.
Can you give me your oppinions on the above?
Well class 2 means you should be getting a minimum 2MB/s speeds and class 6 means you should be getting a minimum 6MB/s.
Seems like you have a very good class 2 card.
More info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital
Your class 6 is performing to spec.
Personally I would never buy an unbranded card but that's me. A branded card may perform better than there class rating e.g. Your Kingston brand I've always used Sandisk personally...
I've just managed to drum up enough funds to get myself a HD2 and now looking to upgrade my HCSD card to 16GB. To get the "right" class I tried to find the spec on the SD interface but I cannot find anything and the best data I can find is that I shouldn't waste my money on unbranded devices, I would always buy a SANDISK device for something I relied on! For data and communication!
People seem to get appropriate speeds for the class of device they have, if they are branded and sometimes if unbranded. However, there doesn't seem to be anything better than class 6 results debated or given. Is it a VERY rash assumption that the fastest the HD2 interface can go is Class 6?
Chris
Does this mean its not worth getting 32gb cos its a class2
& theat would make the phone slower cos lot more stuff on it
& will take more loading time & play Videos lagy ?
anyone useing 32gb ?
Thanks
My experience was positive with higher class micro SD.
At first, I used 8GB micro SD bundled with my HD2 and didn't notice improved loading speed. Later, I changed it with higher class one, same 8GB, with same manufacturer, Sandisk. Higher class one has name "Ultra" on it. Now with changed SD, loading became WAY faster. "Wow" I realized the higher speed of CPU of HD2.
My 2 pennies.
NEVER EVER buy unbranded memory cards!
Keep an eye on Sandisk cards only and even prefer them to Transcend and Kingston.

microSD Card classes

Hi guys. I was wondering if there are any issues making bootable SD cards for honeycomb or froyo and etc.
I am thinking of buying an micro sd card for the nook color.
which one of you guys would recommend?
16GB class10? 8GB class10?
I have seen all mostly using 8gb or 4gb at most. is there any issue using 16gb class10? please advice. thanks!
should be fine.
waiteck said:
Hi guys. I was wondering if there are any issues making bootable SD cards for honeycomb or froyo and etc.
I am thinking of buying an micro sd card for the nook color.
which one of you guys would recommend?
16GB class10? 8GB class10?
I have seen all mostly using 8gb or 4gb at most. is there any issue using 16gb class10? please advice. thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If they are same class then you should get about the same speed off either and all your looking at is size... if you want 8gb of space get the 8gb if you want 16gb of space get that one instead.....
I would not recommend using anything lower than a Class 6 card however.
I've run HC on a 8gb class 4 card for a while. No real problems. Maybe lags a little time to time, but that may also just be the rom.
i see... initially i thought there were issues with class10 16gb cards.
thanks all for the input!
I purchased two 8GB Class 10 cards. I use one for storage and the other for Honeycomb and it runs great.
Can the Nook actually even use the speed of a class 10? I know many phones can only fully use 4 or 6, with the only benefit of 10 being faster transfer while connected directly to PC. Class 2 is just slow on everything, of course .
waiteck said:
i see... initially i thought there were issues with class10 16gb cards.
thanks all for the input!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried class 10 and class 4 16gb cards because I really wanted the space. I had all sorts of problems running on the class 10 once v04 honeycomb came out and the class 4 would run froyo and HC but it was so slow it couldn't be used. Some people seem to be using them but when I relaced it with a 8gb class 10 Patriot card, it runs great.
As to whether the nook can use a class 10, I don't know. I certainly know it MUCH faster with a class 10 than a class 4. I also bought a class 6 AData card but I have not tried it as a speed comparison. I was just tired of running back to the store to return them and test another so I bought two and started with the fastest one.
16gb might work with future versions but for now, I am sticking with 8gb cards.
I recommend the Patriot 8gb Class 10. The model I bought was the LX Signature Series: PSF8GMCSDHC10
therealguppy said:
If they are same class then you should get about the same speed off either and all your looking at is size... if you want 8gb of space get the 8gb if you want 16gb of space get that one instead.....
I would not recommend using anything lower than a Class 6 card however.
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Click to collapse
Not necessarily. Class only implies a guaranteed minimum WRITE throughput, e.g. class 4 = 4MB/s, class 6 = 6MB/s, etc. that a particular class of card is capable of supporting. There is no guarantee that the tablet, camera, etc. is actually capable of achieving/sustaining that throughput rate though.
Read throughput can be anything, but are usually close to write speed, and another factor not as important most of the time with tablets is the latency of r/w accesses.
In the pre-SDHC days Japanese made(Toshiba - only Japanese maker) uSDs were the best in terms of speed and latency, followed by most Taiwan(various) made cards. Chinese(various) made cards were the worst by FAR. Also the pre-SDHC uSDs had varying r/w throughput and latency depending upon how "full" they were with the same general rule as above applying as to where manufactured. Presumably this is not the case with SDHC as the class implies that regardless of how full a card is that it WILL maintain that minimum write throughput.
8 v. 16: From the pricing that I've seen 2 8GB cards are cheaper than a single 16GB -> 8GB a better deal IMO. e.g. class 6 8GB are <$15 while 16GB class 10 are >$35 at least on newegg...
Another factor to consider is that you likely don't need a class 10 card unless you happen to have a very high performance/high resolution digital video recorder... i.e. class 2 is likely even good enough for most tablet video and other applications, but since class 6 cards can be had at reasonable prices(online, b&m are profiteeringly insane in their markups) those would probably be the best choice.
[EDIT]
I'll let you know about class 4 4GB uSDs as a local b&M unbelievably has an approximately reasonable price on PNY(probably Taiwan) class 4 4GB uSDs, $10 which is cheap enough to pitch them if they're junk or use them for applications that don't require high throughput.
(On a side note most class 4 and class 6 uSDs work great with Nintendo DSes, which I'd suspect are MUCH more sensitive to throughput and access latencies... or so I've read...)
[/EDIT]
I see Stevr had posted which Patriot he had success with in Post #8 of this thread, and in the HC Preview v4 thread there have been a few negative posts about certain cards not livinig up to their class ratings... so I have to ask...
Is there a single thread recommending or comparing the various MicroSD cards, how they've worked for Froyo or HC booting/running off them? (i.e. a central posting of "this one works great..." or "this one is too slow"?)
EDIT: I found this talking about cards for Froyo from SD -> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=946896 which has some makers, size and class.. no specific model numbers.
KidJoe said:
I see Stevr had posted which Patriot he had success with in Post #8 of this thread, and in the HC Preview v4 thread there have been a few negative posts about certain cards not livinig up to their class ratings... so I have to ask...
Is there a single thread recommending or comparing the various MicroSD cards, how they've worked for Froyo or HC booting/running off them? (i.e. a central posting of "this one works great..." or "this one is too slow"?)
EDIT: I found this talking about cards for Froyo from SD -> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=946896 which has some makers, size and class.. no specific model numbers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
seems like alot of 16gb class 10 are having issues with running froyo off memory cards.
might get a 8gb class 10 instead. and a spare 16gb class 10.

[Q] About SD Card

Hello
I got my Legend about 2 months ago, and I have a big problem with storage space...
What is the biggest sized SD card the Legend can use?
What is the type of SD card (micro, mini, etc...)
What is SD card class?
Thank you very much
microSD compliant with SD2.0 Standard (aka microSDHC)
The biggest size available currently is 32GB.
I don't know if even more is possible with microSDHC or if bigger cards will only be possible with SD3.0 (aka SDXC) but that question is not relevant as you can't buy any greater then 32GB yet.
The Class of the SDCard is a measurement for guaranteed minimum speed in random read/write.
The Class does not provide any information about real-world speed or max speed.
For your mobile phone the class is a pretty useless criterion as you don't need any guaranteed minimum speeds but good overall speeds ESPECIALLY sequential.
The guaranteed minimum speed is important for HD Video Cameras for example where you write data all the time at a given speed (resolution).
thanks.
but I DO need class with high speed because I want to use Data2Ext...
Don't pick uSD card based on class !! class tels you MB/s for sequential write only... you need a card that is overall fast, I had 16GB class 10 Kingston and data2ext was just horrible!
Now I'm with class 4 Sandisk mobile ultra and it is in fact faster in every test I ran...
So read reviews before you buy
ye but that is exactly why im asking...
well then, I recommend sandisk mobile ultra as I have it and it is OK, there are probably faster cards...just see the small files read / write speeds in reviews those are of greatest importance
i purchased a kingston 8GB class 4 which crapped out. android kept reported sdcard unexpectedly removed. tried all sorts (formatting in windows, android, quick, long, etc).
RMA replacement did exactly the same, so i'm guessing kingston class 4's are best avoided.
If I recall correctly I have a 16GB microSDHC Class 4 card. After applying data2ext with this card, my Quadrant scores hit around 1500, which is crazy.
This is where I found my card: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-16G...P06K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298984123&sr=8-1
I personally recommend this card.
witch is better class 4 or class 6?
r69001 said:
Hello
I got my Legend about 2 months ago, and I have a big problem with storage space...
What is the biggest sized SD card the Legend can use?
What is the type of SD card (micro, mini, etc...)
What is SD card class?
Thank you very much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you by any chance go to HTC's website to read about the phone? It has the full specs listed..
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
dangal said:
witch is better class 4 or class 6?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
class 6 is better , but class 10 is even better
I've got a Sandisk Ultra Mobile 16gb SDHC which works fine in the Legend. Make sure you format it with the phone to stop it being dismounted, well known issue and the fix

[Q] 32GB class 10 or class 6?

if i buy a class 10 card will the HD2 actually be able to read/write at those speeds as opposed to a class 6 or is there some internal limitation. i will buy a good quality card and test the speed when i have it.
i know that on a pc it will be faster but thats not what i want to know.
i intend to run android on sd and want the quickest card the hd2 will actually make use of.
I understand any above x 6 is wasted, use the search function suprisingly it works
Depending on what you're using the card for, you might be better getting class 2 or 4... especially if you go with Sandisk, which I recommend. Higher class cards have higher sequential write speeds, which is good for digital cameras or transferring large files, but they usually sacrifice their access times and random read, write and access speed. That's why more class 2 and 4 cards are compatible with WP7 devices than class 6 and 10, and also many have had issues with freeze-ups and performance issues when running android off a class 6 or 10 card when a class 2 or 4 performed better.
Higher class cards does not mean better in all situations, which a lot of people don't seem to know. Generally for phone use, class 2 and 4 are better. Class 6 and 10 are designed more for digital cameras or file storage. If you're going to be running apps or OS's off the card, or anything that needs to access many small bits of info quickly, Go with a high quality class 2 or 4 Sandisk.
Class ratings on cards are very misleading to people and people put too much importance in them... they only rate sequential write speed. It doesn't tell you anything else about the card, even though the other things are more important accept if you're using it for digital cameras. A new rating system needs to be made, especially since smartphones are so popular now and microSD cards are used more for cell phones than digital cameras now.
@zarathustrax: ok, thanks for the insight.
i will just get a good name card.
johnerz said:
I understand any above x 6 is wasted, use the search function suprisingly it works
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, point taken,thats why i mentioned the specific way i would be using it. i actually did search but didnt find the answer for my question.
class 6 cards are not better works than class 2 or 4 cards?????
is class 6 not faster than 4
Someone managed to LEO T8585 WinMo show 32GB on microSD card?
i bought one but LEO displays cotinuosly 16GB without reset, then soft reset, then i make hard reset. I just wanna say WTF?
and custom rom is: HD2O v.19, rom is stable and wery good and i think its not rom issue.
thanks in advance.
I'm using a class 10 32gb card.
Not noticing any speed advantage over my class 4 16gb card, except for freezes because the 32gb card is not supported...
Thus you're better off using a slower, compatible card, as long as you want to use wp7
Some 32GB cards will only offer 29Gb of space. So do not only pay attention on the speed, the actual capacity will differ as well.
Some os's use 1024 * 1024 * 1024 as GB others use 1000 * 1000 * 1000, hence the difference with 32GB and 29GB (29.8GB). So no worries

[Q] SDHC 32 gig class 6

Just got NC for early Father's Day! I luv ma fam!
Everything I been finding here talks about 2,4, or 8 gigs SD cards.
NC says it can use up to 32gig.
Anyone tried this? I figure SDHC 32 G class 6 would work.
MrGeek said:
Just got NC for early Father's Day! I luv ma fam!
Everything I been finding here talks about 2,4, or 8 gigs SD cards.
NC says it can use up to 32gig.
Anyone tried this? I figure SDHC 32 G class 6 would work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything I've read states the higher capacity cards don't do well running ROMs. Like you I'm new to the nook so I"m sure someone else with more experience will chime in.
I have a 32 gig card installed right now. Works just fine as a data card.
If you want to run custom ROMS off the card, make sure its a sandisk. That flapping sound about larger sized card being bad for Roms is a buncha crap in my opinion (and I have the benchmarks on this card to prove it), but the BRAND of card makes a huge difference when running Roms. Avoid transcend and PNY like the plague.
That said, if you just want the card for data, then yes, the NC can handle them just fine.
skwalas said:
I have a 32 gig card installed right now. Works just fine as a data card.
If you want to run custom ROMS off the card, make sure its a sandisk. That flapping sound about larger sized card being bad for Roms is a buncha crap in my opinion (and I have the benchmarks on this card to prove it), but the BRAND of card makes a huge difference when running Roms. Avoid transcend and PNY like the plague.
That said, if you just want the card for data, then yes, the NC can handle them just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What size Sandisk card do you recommend for running custom ROMs? I've read 8 but I really would like to run a 16.
With a sandisk, I can't see any reason why a 16 or even 32 gig card would give you trouble on roms.
Using the card to run your "operating system" seems to require a higher small-block read/write speed than most cards have. Two things seem to affect it: 1) brand (sandisk is currently the only way to go), and 2)it seems that higher classed cards sacrifice the small block performance a bit. This makes sense to me, since the classification related to large block sequential read/writes (iirc), so some trade-iffs are always expected.
See this thread for useful things.
And I think most people are buying the smaller card mostly because of price, and partly due to a herd mentality on threads like the above.
Sandisk 16gb is just fine for running the Rom off the sd card; that is my current setup.
LBN1 said:
Sandisk 16gb is just fine for running the Rom off the sd card; that is my current setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What class? I'm having a hard time finding class 4.
skwalas said:
I have a 32 gig card installed right now. Works just fine as a data card.
If you want to run custom ROMS off the card, make sure its a sandisk. That flapping sound about larger sized card being bad for Roms is a buncha crap in my opinion (and I have the benchmarks on this card to prove it), but the BRAND of card makes a huge difference when running Roms. Avoid transcend and PNY like the plague.
That said, if you just want the card for data, then yes, the NC can handle them just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny how all the Transcend cards in all 3 Nooks in my house are brilliant. I've used Transcend for years and have never had a problem, be it in my cameras to my phones.
Nburnes said:
Funny how all the Transcend cards in all 3 Nooks in my house are brilliant. I've used Transcend for years and have never had a problem, be it in my cameras to my phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was referring to the specific instance of using transcend for running cm7 for example. I understand transcend and patriot are decent when used for data, and I have PNY cards in our cameras, so they seem to work fine for data.
I have a wintec SDCH 16g class 4 and it works fine, but I only use it for data.
I've been looking into this, and here's what it boils down to:
Most MicroSD cards are set up for data transfer aimed at large files, such as video or high resolution pictures. The majority of the market these cards are manufactured for are digital camcorders, cameras, and smart phones with cameras.
They've gotten great at streaming media to and from the cards, and using them as storage mediums.
Running an operating system from the card requires a whole lot of small data transfers, which is not a specification that manufacterers pay much attention to. Most people would never notice improvement in this area of the manufacturing process, so the companies don't waste money on it.
Different manufacturers have different ideas of what their product should be capable of.
SanDisk is the brand that has consistently tested better for small data transfer then other card makers.
Running programs/operating systems from a MicroSD card is a new animal, something that hasn't really been done before now, and the tablet market is still in it's infancy.
I'm sure this issue will be addressed by the hardware makers of memory cards over the next year or so, but for now we are stuck with the task of trying to figure out what works for our purpose given what's available on the market right now.
All this being said, out of a handful of cards I own, my 16 gig SanDisk class 2 MicroSD card is my highest performing card - more then twice as fast as even 4 out of 5 of the 8 gig SanDisk cards I have.
Here is the link to the software we are using to test the cards: Crystal Disk Mark
Post 5 in this thread has a link that takes you to the one that has become our communal benchmark thread, and has a lot of info on this topic.
I would surmise that a 32 gig SanDisk brand card would probably be pretty good given that:
-Sandisk 8 gig cards (in class 2 and 4) are the general recommendation
-SanDisk 16 gig cards consistently test to a higher performance level then the 8 gig cards.
If this is the beginning of a pattern, and the larger capacity SanDisk cards are inherently manufactered to a higher small data standard, then theoretically the 32 gig card would be better.
But, this is only a theory. A 32 gig card is more then just a couple of bucks, and I don't think we have enough benchmarks on them yet to say one way or another.
Even with the SanDisk 8 gig cards, there is a wide range of what you could end up with on small data transfer speed. It's kind of pot luck. Even the slowest ones are many orders of magnitude faster then most other manufacturers, though.
This would be a good thread for people who do have 32 gig cards of any brand to chime in on, so we could keep the discussion about the largest supported capacity card on the Nook seperate from the other threads on this topic.
I saw a thread a week or so ago regarding testing class 4 cards and which were better. I just ordered a NC the other day. Anyone know the thread?
Blue6IX said:
I've been looking into this, and here's what it boils down to:
Most MicroSD cards are set up for data transfer aimed at large files, such as video or high resolution pictures. The majority of the market these cards are manufactured for are digital camcorders, cameras, and smart phones with cameras.
They've gotten great at streaming media to and from the cards, and using them as storage mediums.
Running an operating system from the card requires a whole lot of small data transfers, which is not a specification that manufacterers pay much attention to. Most people would never notice improvement in this area of the manufacturing process, so the companies don't waste money on it.
Different manufacturers have different ideas of what their product should be capable of.
SanDisk is the brand that has consistently tested better for small data transfer then other card makers.
Running programs/operating systems from a MicroSD card is a new animal, something that hasn't really been done before now, and the tablet market is still in it's infancy.
I'm sure this issue will be addressed by the hardware makers of memory cards over the next year or so, but for now we are stuck with the task of trying to figure out what works for our purpose given what's available on the market right now.
All this being said, out of a handful of cards I own, my 16 gig SanDisk class 2 MicroSD card is my highest performing card - more then twice as fast as even 4 out of 5 of the 8 gig SanDisk cards I have.
Here is the link to the software we are using to test the cards: Crystal Disk Mark
Post 5 in this thread has a link that takes you to the one that has become our communal benchmark thread, and has a lot of info on this topic.
I would surmise that a 32 gig SanDisk brand card would probably be pretty good given that:
-Sandisk 8 gig cards (in class 2 and 4) are the general recommendation
-SanDisk 16 gig cards consistently test to a higher performance level then the 8 gig cards.
If this is the beginning of a pattern, and the larger capacity SanDisk cards are inherently manufactered to a higher small data standard, then theoretically the 32 gig card would be better.
But, this is only a theory. A 32 gig card is more then just a couple of bucks, and I don't think we have enough benchmarks on them yet to say one way or another.
Even with the SanDisk 8 gig cards, there is a wide range of what you could end up with on small data transfer speed. It's kind of pot luck. Even the slowest ones are many orders of magnitude faster then most other manufacturers, though.
This would be a good thread for people who do have 32 gig cards of any brand to chime in on, so we could keep the discussion about the largest supported capacity card on the Nook seperate from the other threads on this topic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for a very informative post. As I mentioned earlier I'm new to the NC and your post has helped me considerably.
androidmonkey said:
I saw a thread a week or so ago regarding testing class 4 cards and which were better. I just ordered a NC the other day. Anyone know the thread?
Click to expand...
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You might mean my thread on comparing speed results between different readers using the benchmark software.
It's more a look at the testing software and methods of doing so then the actual cards themselves.
The more people who post benchmark results in the thread skwalas linked to back in post 5, the better of an idea we'll have of what works for us.
The amount of information we've collected so far in such a short time is astonishing - this is a great community.
harpo1 said:
What class? I'm having a hard time finding class 4.
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Sandisk 16gb, Class 4; Got it from Radio Shack a month or so ago on sale for like $25.
32 Gig
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004G7D0IW
Bought this one about a month ago. Transferred my 16G class 2 from Radio Shack to the 32G then expanded the partition. I run CM7 off the SD. Works GREAT!. I run movies, apps from the card with tons of room.
Thanks for all the replies! They been very helpful!
However...
Here is the link to the software we are using to test the cards: Crystal Disk Mark
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I tried downloading that and it got flagged as malware by Microsoft Security Essentials.
Rocking a 32 Lexar Class 10 here. Just download SD Tools from the market and its running 11 MB/s write and 25 MB/s read.
lucas993 said:
Rocking a 32 Lexar Class 10 here. Just download SD Tools from the market and its running 11 MB/s write and 25 MB/s read.
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IIRC, Lexar splits their Class X cards into two more classifications, a regular and an Ultra class. Which one was yours?
Also, Radio Shack currently has 8gb Sandisk C4 cards for sale at 14.99. Perfect for playing with an SD install. With Crystal mark and a cheapie USB reader I got 2.5mb/s read, 1.5 mb/s write (both of the small block ones). I believe these are the important ones for an SD card based ROM?
I suspect the main reason there's not much info out there on 32GB cards is that people are less willing to drop $50-80 on something that may not work (IF they're trying to run a custom ROM from the card). If you're not trying to set up a custom ROM install on the SD, get any card you want--you may appreciate that higher sequential read/write in the higher class cards when you're moving multiple GB of movies or music to and from the card.
From everything I've read, the size of the card makes no difference whatsoever. The only reason people harp on the 8GB and 16GB Sandisk cards is because those specific models (both class 2 and 4 in those sizes) have been tested many times and return both reliably high small-block random writes and positive anecdotal reports for running ROMs. The size, manufacturer and class are irrelevant in and of themselves: they just let us identify specific models identified as most consistently working well.
Also, CrystalDiskMark is not malware: just do a custom install and choose not to install whatever is bundled with it (do this always for all software, I'd say). It's whatever program they use to suggest other software that triggers the false positives in security programs.

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