SD Cards - what's the difference?

Faust · Regular Visitor Joined: May 02, 2005 Posts: 210

Can anyone explain what the differences are in the myriad of SD cards on the market - not the file size but the differences in types e.g. Ultra II, Extreme etc. etc. and which is best suited to SatNav devices.

Oldboy · Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 11:39 pm Post subject:

Generally the Ultra, Extreme, High Speed, means it's capable of that bit extra speed in read/write operations.

My current one is classed as x80. A lot of people get x133. It reduces just one of the bottlenecks in the Data chain, and hopefully gives less problems, in our case, with PND's.
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Richard

TT 910 V7.903: Europe Map v1045
TT Via 135 App 12.075: Europe Map v1120

Border_Collie · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 1:53 pm Post subject:

Look in the specifications of your device to see the fastest speed it can read and write and match that.

The x80 and x133 ratings are a bit confusing as the actual read write speed on the x80 is around 10x and on the x133 about 16x.

If you have a device capable of read/write at x133 and you use a 4x read/write card, the card will slow things down slightly. If however you use a faster card than the x133, usually more expensive, you've paid for something which your device can't take full advantage of. Having said that, you may later upgrade your device to one which is capable of a faster read/write, in which case there is no harm done. Except of course, by the time you upgrade your device the faster card will have probably come down in price as faster ones are produced.

I found a big difference when changing from a standard Kingston card, 4x read/write, to their Ultimate x133. e.g. Installing maps via a card reader 'whizzed' through. Less lag on screen and voices, especially the final 'turn left/right', came in advance of the turn rather than at it with the slower card.
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Formerly known as Lost_Property
And NO that's NOT me in the Avatar.

bazzza · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 4:08 pm Post subject:

Lost_property,
Do you know what the speed is of the originally installed sd card in TT Go 300. I have just bought a Standard Kingston 1.0 GB SD Card prior to getting the latest WE maps. Would I be better putting that down to experience and buying a faster card?
It seems to me that if the new maps have speed limits etc on them the card has a bit more to do.
Bazzza

bazzza · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 4:13 pm Post subject:

Sorry, couldn't edit. I also wanted to ask where I can get info on formatting a new SD Card?
Bazzza

Oldboy · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 5:33 pm Post subject:

trog100 · Regular Visitor Joined: Sep 15, 2006 Posts: 195

i did some speed read/write tests on a bunch of cards..

from the slowest to the fastet they vary by a factor of say four.. u cant reply on the so called speed factor either

the 1 gig card the newer western europe totmtom map comes on is pretty fast.. it compares well with a sandisk ultra 11 extreme..

however the 128 card that came with my go 300 is so slow its off the planet..

the fast tomtom 1 gig card now lives in my digital dslr camera.. tomtom has a generic cheapo 1 gig card in him and dosnt notice the difference..

basically a cheapo generic is plenty good enough for a tomtom..

trog

bazzza · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 6:45 pm Post subject:

Thanks Oldboy and Trog, That clarifies it for me.
Bazzza

mikeyking · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 07, 2006 Posts: 3

Just got one of these for the TomTom One and it works perfectly. Really really quick and probably overkill for the device but it was cheap especially with the free P&P. I'm in no way connected to this company - all I can say is that I ordered it yesterday and received it in the post today...

http://www.valueshop.co.uk/info.asp?MFGno=SDCFX3-1024-902

Mike

mikeyking · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 07, 2006 Posts: 3

shauneco · Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:59 pm Post subject:

mikeyking · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 07, 2006 Posts: 3

rugrat2 · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:20 am Post subject:

Its not so much the speed of the card,it is actually the make,they dont all work in a tomtom unit,I use Dane/Elect as they always work... :D
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Neil.......ttgo..Mio p550...2.8 lwb exeed pajero. where cant I go..

trog100 · Regular Visitor Joined: Sep 15, 2006 Posts: 195

standard sd cards are pretty generic devices.. they should all work.. it is possible to have the odd faulty one thow..

trog

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