class 2, 4, or 6 mem card?

[smileshappy]

Class 2,4,or 6 mem cards. Is there really that much of a difference to notice?

What is everyone using?

Is the stock 8 gig plenty? I see. Radio shack has a sandisc 16 gig class 2 on sale for $49.99

I take a lot of pics. With the 8 meg camera.... does it fill up memory quicker?

Just curious what you all are using.

 

[Mdorty]

From everything I've read, it seems like the higher class sd cards will really only show a significant speed difference when you're transferring large files from your pc to your phone (or vice versa). I bought a 16gb sandisk off of amazon for ~$30, and its worked just fine for me so far. It's a class 2, and music/photos/movies work just fine, I don't notice much lag, and certainly not any more than with the stock 8gb card (which is also a class 2 card).

 

[jpdaballa]

if you do alot of transferring from the computer i recommend the class 4 or even the class 6 cards.

when you transfer one song thats 4mb it doesn't make a difference, but when you are transferring about 1 gig of music your talking 10+ faster minutes....

also if you transfer psx iso's or movies look into the higher class cards...

 

[EVOlved Geek]

Definitely agree with other posters about the speed. I use a class 2 in my EVO and play HD video, music, run apps, etc. from it with no issues. As stated previously, the only downside to class 2 is just the speed when you are copying large files. Unfortunately, class 4 or 6 cards are still fairly expensive, so for me, I'm ok with the reduced speed when copying.

Here's the exact one I use from Amazon. They've got about the cheapest price going compared to anyone that I've seen. Whatever you do, don't buy it from big name electronics stores.

Amazon: SanDisk 16 GB Class 2 microSDHC Flash Memory Card SDSDQ-016G $30.74

As far as size, 16Gb has been fine for me, but I don't store huge numbers of music or video files on it. I would definitely recommend upgrading from the 8GB card that comes with the EVO.

 

[Alfred Batet]

Usually, class 4 is sufficient for any high speed device.
Class 6 is way too expensive, not cost-effective.

 

[R3Z]

Usually, class 4 is sufficient for any high speed device.
Class 6 is way too expensive, not cost-effective.

I disagree. At least with the way I use it. I do a lot of transferring and also have my EVO set up with CM6 w/ Snap Kernel 7.2, which used the sdcard to increase speed. Having a class 6 literally made my phone scream. It was blazing. Fastest my phone has ever run. And that is easily attributable to the fact that I was using a class 6 card with the kernel.

But I guess for every day use on a regular ROM, its fine using class 2 or 4

 

[Mdorty]

I disagree. At least with the way I use it. I do a lot of transferring and also have my EVO set up with CM6 w/ Snap Kernel 7.2, which used the sdcard to increase speed. Having a class 6 literally made my phone scream. It was blazing. Fastest my phone has ever run. And that is easily attributable to the fact that I was using a class 6 card with the kernel.

But I guess for every day use on a regular ROM, its fine using class 2 or 4

After reading your post, I wanted to check out that kernel, unfortunately xda is down I'd love to test it out, even though I only have a class 2 card.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

I disagree. At least with the way I use it. I do a lot of transferring and also have my EVO set up with CM6 w/ Snap Kernel 7.2, which used the sdcard to increase speed. Having a class 6 literally made my phone scream. It was blazing. Fastest my phone has ever run. And that is easily attributable to the fact that I was using a class 6 card with the kernel.

But I guess for every day use on a regular ROM, its fine using class 2 or 4

I have heard things like this about the higher class cards being good for certain things. I've also heard that the higher classes open apps on the sd card faster, too. Which makes sense since the transfer rate is higher.

 

[Mdorty]

I have heard things like this about the higher class cards being good for certain things. I've also heard that the higher classes open apps on the sd card faster, too. Which makes sense since the transfer rate is higher.

Its really only the bandwidth that's faster, isn't it? It doesn't actually increase these speed at which the card is accessed, does it?

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Its really only the bandwidth that's faster, isn't it? It doesn't actually increase these speed at which the card is accessed, does it?

Yes, actual transfer speeds are faster with higher class cards. It's like the difference between a 5400rpm hard drive, 7200rpm hard drive, and SSD. Maybe not as dramatic but hopefully the analogy helps.

 

[Mdorty]

Yes, actual transfer speeds are faster with higher class cards. It's like the difference between a 5400rpm hard drive, 7200rpm hard drive, and SSD. Maybe not as dramatic but hopefully the analogy helps.

Right, what I'm saying is if a class 2 transfers at say 2mbs, and a class 4 does it at 6mbs, unless you're accessing a pretty large file, its not going to be a speed increase a far as just accessing the file goes, only with moving the file.

D thatoes make sense? I'm nit sure if I'm explaining myself very well.

 

[jonathanlc2005]

class 2 is just fine

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Right, what I'm saying is if a class 2 transfers at say 2mbs, and a class 4 does it at 6mbs, unless you're accessing a pretty large file, its not going to be a speed increase a far as just accessing the file goes, only with moving the file.

D thatoes make sense? I'm nit sure if I'm explaining myself very well.

Would you rather download a 1mb file at 1mbps or 10mbps? Even small files benefit from the speed increase. Even if you're only accessing them.

If you've ever accessed another computer's files over a network you would be able to tell the difference between 100mbps (theoretical) and 1gbps (theoretical). It's a much better experience with the faster speed even though you aren't really transferring any files, just looking around.

I've also noticed that thumbnails in the gallery load faster with my class 6 card than they did with the stock class 2.

EDIT: Using the hard drive example from above if you open a picture that's 10mb in size it will still open faster on the SSD than the regular hard drives. This is because the speed (access and write) is faster.