[ehien]

Just bought 2 4GB Sandisk micro-SDHC cards and found out they are only class 2 (2MB/s) rated. I've been spoiled by the fast CF and SD cards used in my DSLR and HD cams and am concerned about low speed of these cards.

I wonder how fast can 8320 read and write a micro-SD card?

So far with beta 4.5.0.69 OS even video recording works fine with the slow card. But if the BB can access the card at faster speeds, I certainly want to exchange them for faster ones, even just for the sake of faster upload/download with PC.

TIA!

Ehien

[mckinneycm]

I have the 8gb class 6 card. Pretty nice!

[ehien]

Originally Posted by mckinneycm

I have the 8gb class 6 card. Pretty nice!

Thanks! I know it is nice. But my key question is whether our 8320's can reap the benefits of Class 4 or 6 cards over Class 2 ones. It requires some efforts to return or exchange the cards I got so I'll only do it when I'm sure.

[griphon]

When upgraded the OS, I installed an 8Gb, and works great.

[ehien]

Originally Posted by griphon

When upgraded the OS, I installed an 8Gb, and works great.

Thanks for sharing but this is not exactly what I'm asking. I'm talking about the speed of card.

I do feel the card access is quite slow with my 8320 and want to know if it's caused by the slow card (Class 2) that I got. If it is so I'll try to return them and get the 3x faster Class 6 cards instead.

Anyone has a good idea on this?

[Trimix]

Bump as I'm curious about the Class/speed and if it really makes a difference.

[daphne]

Here are the speeds:

Class 2 = 2 MB per second
Class 4 = 4 MB per second
Class 6 - 6 MB per second

A mp3 that is 5 MB is going to transfer pretty fast with any of those. A video that's 700 MB is going to take a bit longer to transfer. You can do the math.

In some cases, it may partially depend on the PC, how many other programs are running, how much RAM you have, etc.

[John Clark]

Does it say this on the card or documentation somewhere? I've never noticed, or payed attention to, the class of the card.

[daphne]

I didn't notice on the card either but it's on the web, on Amazon, I think, and other sites about the speeds of the cards.

[John Clark]

figures. Looks like my 8Gb is a Class 4. I never realized there was that much difference.

[daphne]

Info here:
Secure Digital card - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity, SD 2.0) is an extension of the SD standard that appeared in June 2006.[15] SDHC allows standard-compliant capacities in excess of 2 GB. SDHC cards are often formatted with the FAT32 file system, which supports partition sizes up to 127.53 GB.[16] It uses the same form factor as SD, but the SD 2.0 standard in SDHC uses a different memory addressing method (sector addressing vs byte addressing), thus theoretically reaching a maximum capacity of up to 2 TB (2048 GB). However the SD Card association have artificially defined the maximum limit of SDHC capacity to 32 GB. SDHC cards only work in SDHC compatible devices, but standard SD cards work in both SD and SDHC devices. The SDHC trademark is licensed to ensure compatibility.[17]

SDHC cards have SD Speed Class Ratings defined by the SD Association. The SD Speed Class Ratings specify the following minimum write speeds based on "the best fragmented state where no memory unit is occupied":[18]

Class 2: 2 MB/s
Class 4: 4 MB/s
Class 6: 6 MB/s

I don't know what class mine is either.

[John Clark]

I just looked on Amazon for the same card I have (SanDisk 8Gb with the MobileMate Reader (looks like the same package as the one I have) and it says Class 4.

[DallasFlier]

Originally Posted by John Clark

figures. Looks like my 8Gb is a Class 4. I never realized there was that much difference.

Well, as the OP says (or asks) there may or may not be any difference in our BlackBerrys. Doesn't matter how fast the memory is, if the BB can only read it at a slower speed. Just like your PC - for top performance you have to put in fast enough memory to take advantage of the CPU's transfer bandwidth. Anything faster in memory specs is simply a waste of money.

I've wondered the same thing about the memory bandwidth of the BB, and if a faster card would make any difference. I have yet to see anyone come up with an answer to that question.

[John Clark]

Yeah, who knows. I started just using a card reader anyway. The BB is just to slow for loading stuff on to an 8Gb card.

[daphne]

Good points. We could have a BlackBerry -- Micro SDHC card standoff. I'm not sure how one would devise the test though.

[DallasFlier]

Originally Posted by John Clark

Yeah, who knows. I started just using a card reader anyway. The BB is just to slow for loading stuff on to an 8Gb card.

OK, I'll make you a bet. I'll bet I can load a full 8Gb of data onto my card through the BB and USB cable faster than you can remove the battery, remove the card, put it into a card reader, load the 8Gb, remove the card from the reader, replace it into the BB, replace the battery and reboot the BB to operating status.

[daphne]

I don't have the 8 Gig, but it seems pretty fast to me using Explorer to drag and drop from the PC to the card inside the BB with the USB connection.

[John Clark]

I don't remove it for miscellaneous files here and there--just when I move large amounts back and forth.

[daphne]

Originally Posted by DallasFlier

OK, I'll make you a bet. I'll bet I can load a full 8Gb of data onto my card through the BB and USB cable faster than you can remove the battery, remove the card, put it into a card reader, load the 8Gb, remove the card from the reader, replace it into the BB, replace the battery and reboot the BB to operating status.

Hehe... good one. I would not bet against you on that -- I think you'd win.

[Capita_7]

I dont think there is a point in spending the extra money on a class 6 car I heard that the 83XX BB's can only read up to class 4 and you will only notice a difference switching from a class 2 to a class 4, not class 4 -6