4GB,6GB and 8GB SDHC test

[kms108]

This thread is produced for people who may have interest in purchasing the 4GB micro SDHC memory Card, with info and a simple test that I have conducted with the latest 4 GB, 6GB and 8GB micro SDHC memory cards.

So far there are only four brands available on the market, but may be more, these are the Toshiba, kingston, Adata and Sandisk. So before you go out and buy yourself one of these, you must take into consideration of the following points.

-Micro SDHC is not compatible with all device that supports Micro SD,

-Micro SDHC/Full size SDHC are only in there early stage of the market,
And 4 GB is the smallest size available going up to 32 GB, Although larger sizes may not even make their way onto the market.

-Some people have issues with these cards, saying they are thicker than normal Micro SD, and having problems removing them from their devices, although none of the problems has arisen yet for me.

-The prices of these cards are quite expensive, anything from USD 47 to USD 140, depending where you buy them from.

-Due to high prices not many places stock these cards when they were first released, but now they are more popular and are much easier to find. The Adata, Sandisk and kingstons are much easier to find, but the Toshiba brands are mainly sold in Asian, and harder to find in US and the UK.

-Unlike normal Micro SD/SD cards, where manufacturer label individual card for their speed as 25X, 45X, 60X, 66X, 150X, high speed, ultra high speed, turbo and super etc.
This is very confusing for people in search for a fast memory card and can be very misleading, for SDHC the speed is divided into three classes.

Class 2 = 2MB/s
Class 4 = 4MB/s
Class 6 = 6MB/s

The Classes are referred to the minimum write speed, as for the read speed, this will depend on the manufacture.


-The only devices that I know which supports the 4 GB SDHC is:-

Nokia N95 mobile phone
Nokia 6110 Navigator mobile phone
Nokia 6500 classic slider mobile phone
Motorola Z8 mobile phone
HTC Touch window mobile 6 PDA
HTC Touch Enhanced version
HTC Touch Dual
HTC P3600I
HTC Tytn II and all the variations
Cyclops Cyclos DS Evolution Flash Carts
M3 DS Real
M3 DS one SDHC

There are others, these are the only one I know.

Here is a simple test using the program HD Tach to test the speed of these cards.


To conduct this test, the following were used:-

PC using p4 3.00GHZ CPU, 80GB HD with 512MB Ram, with only five programs installed.
6GB and 8GB tested on my Pentium III Dual 1.266GHZ cpu, 120GB HD with 768MB Ram.

HD Tach windows program

Micro reader (memory card reader made by Adata, one of the fastest readers on the market for Micro SD)

Kingston/Toshiba 4 GB class 4 SDHC micro SD made in Japan
Sandisk 4 GB class 2 SDHC micro SD made in China/Taiwan
Adata 4GB class 6 SDHC micro SD made in taiwan

*Updated 6-12-2007

*Added

Adata 4GB class 6 made in Taiwan Version 2 (Second released batch has different layout of the PCB)
Sandisk 6GB class 4 made in china (test has been done on a lower spec PC, so if a better spec PC is used, results may be better)

*Updated 7-12-2007
*Added

Sandisk 8GB class 4 made in china (test has been done on a lower spec PC, so if a better spec PC is used, results may be better)

*Updated 2-1-2008
*Added

Kingmax 4GB class 4


Test Results


Sequential Read Speed

Toshiba 20MB/s
Sandisk 10.8MB/s
Adata 20MB/s
Adata V2 20.1MB/s
Sandisk 6GB 19.4MB/s
Sandisk 8GB 19.5MB/s
Kingmax 4GB 16MB/s

Burst Speed

Toshiba 20.6MB/s
Sandisk 10.8MB/s
Adata 20.4MB/s
Adata V2 20.4MB/s
Sandisk 6GB 19.9MB/s
Sandisk 8GB 20.1MB/s
Kingmax 4GB 15.9MB/s


Random Access

Toshiba 0.9ms
Sandisk 1.1ms
Adata 0.7ms
Adata V2 0.7ms
Sandisk 6GB 1.6ms
Sandisk 8GB 1.7ms
Kingmax 4GB 0.8ms



Average Read Speed

Toshiba 19.8MB/s
Sandisk 10.7MB/s
Adata 19.8MB/s
Adata V2 19.7MB/s
Sandisk 6GB 19.3MB/s
Sandisk 8GB 19.5MB/s
Kingmax 4GB 15.5MB/s


Write Speed in Seconds with 129MB (131MB for 6GB and 8GB Micro SDHC) of Data transfer from PC to Card using Cut and Paste.

Toshiba 26-27s
Sandisk 28-29s
Adata 15-16s
Adata V2 16-17s
Sandisk 6GB 13s
Sandisk 8GB 12-13s
Kingmax 4GB 16-17s


Actual write speed in MB/s

Toshiba Approximate 5MB/s (32X)
Sandisk Approximate 4.3MB/s (28X)
Adata Approximate 8.6MB/s (56X)
Adata V2 Approximate 8.2MB/s (52X)
Sandisk 6GB Approximate 10.1MB/s (70X)
Sandisk 8GB Approximate 10.2MB/s (70X)
Kingmax 4GB Approximate 8.2MB/s (52X)

Actual usable memory size of cards before format in GB.

Toshiba 3.74GB
Sandisk 3.79GB
Adata 3.81GB
Adata V2 3.74GB
Sandisk 6GB 5.68GB
Sandisk 8GB 7.60GB
Kingmax 4GB 3.74GB

All info and data from this test was collected and produced by me, so if anyone has questions regarding the accuracy of the contents, I will not be held responsible for any errors that you may encounter from it.

Due to differences of the card reader and PC specs used, other ppl will get different results whether it's better or worse, but figures will be very similar.

FYI: The Red and Black micro SDHC reader in the photo is called the mobile mate micro reader by sandisk, it can reader and write both micro sd and sony M2, and is supplied as a package with the 8GB Micro SDHC, and read/write at full speed, although the test did not use it.


kms

[jomo25]

Awesome info! So, no difference in reading between Class 4 and 6 with your set up. But the advantages were seen in writes.

So, from your writeup, no phone was used in this test. Any chance a similar test could be run using the phones? I dont know if any such tools exist for WM...

[kms108]

if you buy a card with a class 6, you definate get at least 6MB/s transfer speed, as for class 2 and class 4, it doesn't mean it's slower, even these can reach a data transfer rate higher than the class 6, but is not guaranteed, looking at my results, you can see that class 2 and 4 has only a minor differances.

as for testing them out on the phone, i have'nt come across any programs that you can test out, but a fast card like the toshiba, kingston or the adata allows the phone to display thumbnail photos much quicker, as it does have a read rate of about 20MB/s compared to the sandisk at around 11MB/s.



kms

[ChrisArden]

Does anyone know the speed of the microSDHC interface in the Kaiser? Maybe Class 6 would show no improvement at all over Class 2 ??
Chris

[tiptoekirk]

According to your tests, I bought the slowest card available! The Sandisk.... Thanks for the info!

[pride429]

Don't know if these figures are of any help (I really don't know what they mean in terms of speed etc) but I used Pocket Mechanic Professional to give me the info on my 4GB Sandisk in Orange TyTn II

Here's what it said . . . . .

File system read test (unbuffered) - 7.32 MB/sec (buffered) - 9.32MB/sec
File system write test (unbuffered) - 394.16 kb/sec (buffered) - 3.21 MB/sec

Does that help anyone??

[hangyong]

Originally Posted by tiptoekirk According to your tests, I bought the slowest card available! The Sandisk.... Thanks for the info!

if you look carefully....

Sandisk is class 2
Toshiba is class 4
Adata is class 6

all with 4GB of space.

so infact, it shows how slow the Toshiba is in terms of writting....

all else, are quite well proportioned.

[kms108]

actually the toshiba is'nt the slowest, it does meet the industial standard, class 4, which offers at least 4MB write spped, by offering 5MB/s.


kms

[hangyong]

Originally Posted by kms108 actually the toshiba is'nt the slowest, it does meet the industial standard, class 4, which offers at least 4MB write spped, by offering 5MB/s. kms

well, all the cards did meet its specifications... just that when comparing in this test, and considering the classification at the same time, it just slightly faster than a class4 card, so that is relatively slow.... thats what I meant anyway.

[Seppl82]

Any Idea where i can by the Adata microsdhc card?
Prefered in Germany.
I can't find it.
What is the currently fastest 4GB Card for my Kaiser?