Help Nook Color microSDHC speed class question

[niphoet]

I very recently got a NC, and I've tried running both Froyo and Gingerbread from the microSDHC card. I'm using a Class 4 card, and I noticed that both seemed to lag quite a bit. Do you guys think I'd see a difference if I used a Class 6 or Class 10 card? Thanks!

--Adam

 

[bluewhite79]

I very recently got a NC, and I've tried running both Froyo and Gingerbread from the microSDHC card. I'm using a Class 4 card, and I noticed that both seemed to lag quite a bit. Do you guys think I'd see a difference if I used a Class 6 or Class 10 card? Thanks!

--Adam

all the other sites say to use class 6 or 10, i believe. My nc is only rooted, running stock android 2.1

but, when honeycomb finally comes around, i'll be running from a class 6 or 10.

 

[Merlin1]

Im using a class 4 for froyo and it lags pretty bad. Then on the other hand im running honeycomb from a class 2 and its pretty smooth. I find this odd myself but i would get a higher calss if possible. I just grabed some cards on sale at the store after i bought my nook just to have them to use.

 

[nj02vette]

Just picked up several 8 and 16GB class 10 cards. Not all brands and classes are equal, so do your diligence. A Sandisk Extreme III class 10 card is actually way better than class 10 specs, while a Transcend class 10 card is closer to real world class 6. MFRs are free to mark them based on their own testing, which may not live up to real world performance.

Still, I was able to get all the cards for a song. Damn is memory cheap!!!

Remember the days when I paid $500 for 8MB of memory.
(yes, that was megabytes).

Or even worse, $200 to upgrade a computer from 512k to 640k!!!

 

[bluewhite79]

Just picked up several 8 and 16GB class 10 cards. Not all brands and classes are equal, so do your diligence. A Sandisk Extreme III class 10 card is actually way better than class 10 specs, while a Transcend class 10 card is closer to real world class 6. MFRs are free to mark them based on their own testing, which may not live up to real world performance.

Still, I was able to get all the cards for a song. Damn is memory cheap!!!

Remember the days when I paid $500 for 8MB of memory.
(yes, that was megabytes).

Or even worse, $200 to upgrade a computer from 512k to 640k!!!

Where did you buy them? I've been looking for a good 16gb class 6 or 10 mSD. newegg, amazon, ebay....None have all that great of prices and a lot of the manufacturers aren't all that great. KingMax any good?

 

[nj02vette]

Where did you buy them? I've been looking for a good 16gb class 6 or 10 mSD. newegg, amazon, ebay....None have all that great of prices and a lot of the manufacturers aren't all that great. KingMax any good?

Picked up a few PNY class 10 20mbps write (class 10 is supposed to be 10mbps write) from Amazon for $23. That was a few weeks ago.

 

[Merlin1]

Just picked up several 8 and 16GB class 10 cards. Not all brands and classes are equal, so do your diligence. A Sandisk Extreme III class 10 card is actually way better than class 10 specs, while a Transcend class 10 card is closer to real world class 6. MFRs are free to mark them based on their own testing, which may not live up to real world performance.

Still, I was able to get all the cards for a song. Damn is memory cheap!!!

Remember the days when I paid $500 for 8MB of memory.
(yes, that was megabytes).

Or even worse, $200 to upgrade a computer from 512k to 640k!!!

The class 4 is a Toshiba and the class 2 is a Kodak i figured the Toshiba would be better but i guess not. Im gonna stick to Sandisk and try a PNY since they are easy to find and are pretty cheap.

 

[joebarthib]

Hello

nj02vette, could you give me the exact reference of these cards? Did you measure the 20mbps performance, or see it in a review?
Thank you

Picked up a few PNY class 10 20mbps write (class 10 is supposed to be 10mbps write) from Amazon for $23. That was a few weeks ago.

 

[nj02vette]

Hello

nj02vette, could you give me the exact reference of these cards? Did you measure the 20mbps performance, or see it in a review?
Thank you

Using IOmeter you can get the performance information. I remember doing a test and finding that it's sustained read/write performance was very close to it's advertised ratings of 20mbps.

However, the new thing to supposedly look for is small block read/writes. Instead of sequential data, look at how the card handles writing several small files. Apparently, this is much more important. I haven't tested it out for myself. And some Class 10 cards do poorer in small block tests.

 

[koopakid08]

Don't use a class 6 or 10. Use a class 4 sandisk. Read this thread.

 

[joebarthib]

Thank you very much for this precious information, I didn't know about this at all! But are you sure 4 kB random writes are representative of what android performs the most, 4 kB seems to me really small files, shouldn't we instead consider slightly bigger files?
The following article tested many sd cards and some micro sd ones, for camera usage. They notably tested 100kB files writes: Comparatif : les cartes MicroSD, SD, SDHC et SDXC
Sorry it's in French, but google translate could help?
We see that high class cards don't behave too bad on 100kB file writes.
But if 4 kB writes are more representative of what android does then this article is useless ;-)

 

[Podivin]

Thank you very much for this precious information, I didn't know about this at all! But are you sure 4 kB random writes are representative of what android performs the most, 4 kB seems to me really small files, shouldn't we instead consider slightly bigger files?

The simplest way to answer this question is to browse the files on your SD card to see what their general size is. That will not only answer the question of what android does in general, but of what you do with android.
In my opinion whatever files you download are not really part of the equation because that is basically a one-time things. It's the files that android generates just in it's daily housekeeping that would be of the most use. I expect many of these files are created and then deleted, so you don't have a chance to look at them. But I expect you'll find that there are many files that are used as reference, and that they are small files.

 

[nj02vette]

Don't use a class 6 or 10. Use a class 4 sandisk. Read this thread.

I'd like to see a much larger sample size before I dismiss any other cards. Sandisk has always made quality cards, so I'm not necessarily surprised by the results there, but I'd like to see how it stacks up against other quality cards as well.

If I didn't already have too much going on in life I'd probably try it myself.

 

[koopakid08]

I'd like to see a much larger sample size before I dismiss any other cards. Sandisk has always made quality cards, so I'm not necessarily surprised by the results there, but I'd like to see how it stacks up against other quality cards as well.

If I didn't already have too much going on in life I'd probably try it myself.

Here's a chart of different Sd cards and they're speeds.

And the thread about how sandisk trumps other cards.

Read through these.

 

[colchiro]

I was just looking for that link.

Here's a better chart: xda-developers - View Single Post - SD Strange-results - or - How I learned to love CM7 on SD

 

[nj02vette]

Here's a chart of different Sd cards and they're speeds.

And the thread about how sandisk trumps other cards.

Read through these.

I've already read through those.

If you notice, almost all the cards listed, as well as the ones in Colchiro's list are class 4. There are a couple of class 10 cards tested, but the brands and sample sizes are too small to make a meaninful comparison.

As of now, I just don't buy that all class 10 cards are crap rhetoric. It may be true, but I want a little more information. As of now, it's not that important to me since I don't run much off of SD card, but in the future I'll probably do some more investigation.

 

[koopakid08]

I've already read through those.

If you notice, almost all the cards listed, as well as the ones in Colchiro's list are class 4. There are a couple of class 10 cards tested, but the brands and sample sizes are too small to make a meaninful comparison.

As of now, I just don't buy that all class 10 cards are crap rhetoric. It may be true, but I want a little more information. As of now, it's not that important to me since I don't run much off of SD card, but in the future I'll probably do some more investigation.

Try running android off a class ten and tell me about how it goes. Trust me it made me want to cry it was laggy with a bunch of FC's and system freezes. maybe there is a class 10 out there somewhere that can manage it but there is no evidence of that. If you can find one I would love to know about it.