multimediacards and secure digital cards

[Note: This review was originally posted on 20-Oct-2003 and contains an important update made on 29-Oct-2003! Be sure to read the entire review for details!]

SanDisk's 512MB SD card is by far the cheapest available. In most cases, the other cards are at least 50% more than this one.

I was curious about speed since SanDisk is known for being a bit on the slow side. This card was relatively newly released when I wanted it, so I was unable to find any good speed figures online. Therefore, I bought it anyway -- and ran the speed tests myself.

Testing on a Toshiba/AudioVox Genio e550G with Kai's Speed Test application, I ran the Write Test 5 times with the following results:
Trial #1: 263KB/Sec
Trial #2: 263KB/Sec
Trial #3: 181KB/Sec
Trial #4: 171KB/Sec
Trial #5: 196KB/Sec

Not very consistent, for some reason. I was not running any other applications at the time, so I am not sure why the fluctuation.

For comparison, here are the results using a Lexar 256MB SD card:
Trial #1: 263KB/Sec
Trial #2: 271KB/Sec
Trial #3: 279KB/Sec
Trial #4: 256KB/Sec
Trial #5: 256KB/Sec

So, at their best, the two cards seem quite comparable. It is just that the Lexar card is clearly more stable as far as speed fluctuations go.

In any case, I'm happy with it -- especially for the huge difference in price in most cases. Works for me. Plus, 5-year warranty -- just in case.

- John...

---UPDATE---
The fact that the card always performed well for the first two tests but then slowed and stayed slow until the device was reset was really bothering me, so I contacted SanDisk about it and gave them the same results that I shared here. SanDisk said that they thought the card was defective! I therefore had this card replaced (very quickly and easily by Amazon, I will add) and have just repeated my tests with the new card. Good news! The replacement card is usually faster and much more consistent than the original! It no longer slows down after the first two tests -- the results are repeatable at any time.

For comparison, here are the new figures for the 512MB SanDisk card:
Trial #1: 329KB/Sec
Trial #2: 263KB/Sec
Trial #3: 341KB/Sec
Trial #4: 279KB/Sec
Trial #5: 318KB/Sec

As you can see, the card is now performing at or above the speed of the 256MB Lexar that I had previously tested. I am now quite satisfied with this card -- it appears to be giving the same speeds or better than other cards well above this price range.

- John...

I ran these tests using SiSoft Sandra 2004 (SP1) just so that I could personally compare the performance differences between my various CF and SD flash memory cards and using USB 2.0 vs. 1.X. Here are the impressive results of the SanDisk 512MB SD Card:

Make/Model of Flash Reader used:
Lexar 6-in-1 USB 2.0 Multi-Card Reader (model RW018-01)

Homebuilt PC used:
Asus P4P-800VM motherboard with on-board USB 2.0, Intel P4 2.8GHz (800 FSB), 1GB Crucial brand DDR RAM, Win XP Pro (SP-1)

512byte files:
R = 101 kb/sec, 0x
W = 2.2 kb/sec

32kB files:
R = 2788 kb/sec, 15x
W = 107 kb/sec, 0x

256kB files:
R = 5773 kb/sec, 32x
W = 785 kb/sec, 4x

2MB files:
R = 6485 kb/sec, 36x
W = 1638 kb/sec, 9x

Note: Why 4 stars instead of 5? Well, I am currently on my second 512MB card. My first one became corrupted after a week of use. It could not read from it write to it or even access it. I use it mainly for my Compaq iPAQ 3970 Pocket PC. Always make sure you backup the SD card's contents to your PC just in case it goes bad like mine did. The Lexar reader I used (which I purchased here on Amazon) makes this a quick process.

And try to use USB 2.0, because when I ran the tests above on a USB 1.X system, these were the results I got using 2MB files:

R = 1024 kb/sec, 5x
W = 683 kb/sec, 3x

Going from USB 1.X to USB 2.0 results in a huge leap in performance.

And for you PDA users... The speed of a card is not really an issue since Pocket Mechanic on my Compaq iPAQ 3970 Pocket PC benchmarked my SanDisk 512MB SD Card with a molasses-slow Read Speed of 0.5x and a Write Speed of 0.2x. In other words, the PDA's internal controller is the bottleneck, not the SD card. If writing large amounts of data, I recommend you purchase a USB 2.0 card and USB 2.0 reader for your PC and use that instead.

I bought this (Sandisk 512 MB Secure Digital) in February and gave it to my mom as a gift in May. She used it in her digital camera and took pictures with it for her college reunion. Afterwards, the card displayed "Corrupt Data" and the pictures were lost! Do NOT buy this card, if you do not believe me, do a search for this card and you will see similar testimonials!
The grief and sadness this card has caused me is not worth its cheaper price!
user be warned!

by the way, the one i have is made in china, i have read these ones are the WORST