Flash Media: 1GB CompactFlash Roundup
by Purav Sanghani on December 23, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Final Words
Lexar's "Write Acceleration Technology" seems to have extended its performance past the supported digital cameras to our desktop flash memory card reader, while the Professional series card has performed the quickest out of 10 cards in the Real World test. However, SanDisk has also proven itself a worthy product by topping the HDTach charts in sequential read and write performance.
We, of course, knew that we'd be comparing apples to oranges by throwing 1x cards together with the higher performance 80x cards, so let's break them down by their manufacturer's specifications, real measured performance, and price.
After taking into consideration the selling price of each product, Transcend's 80x model provides enough performance to make it the first choice of high performance CompactFlash media. It comes second only to Lexar's flash card, but it is priced more than $20 lower. For the mid-performance cards, the EDGE brand CompactFlash media takes the gold as it performs the best out of the batch and is also competitively priced at about $60. For the lower end cards, the PQI model is priced a bit too high for the performance that it puts out. Viking's standard model gives us decent low end performance at a viable price of $53.99, which makes it a top "low-performance" pick.
There is, of course, a very large number of CompactFlash cards out there, which can fit into these categories. Unfortunately, we did not have a chance to look at them, so it's best to try a few different cards out before you settle for a single brand and model. Prices are also always changing due to supply and demand of flash memory chips. Therefore, it is very possible that Lexar's high performance card can catch up with Transcend and give it a run for its money.
Our overall pick would have to be Transcend's 80x card as it is priced at about $66; only $5 over the mid-performance EDGE card and just over $10 above our low performance Viking pick.
Lexar's "Write Acceleration Technology" seems to have extended its performance past the supported digital cameras to our desktop flash memory card reader, while the Professional series card has performed the quickest out of 10 cards in the Real World test. However, SanDisk has also proven itself a worthy product by topping the HDTach charts in sequential read and write performance.
We, of course, knew that we'd be comparing apples to oranges by throwing 1x cards together with the higher performance 80x cards, so let's break them down by their manufacturer's specifications, real measured performance, and price.
| Manufacturer's Specified Performance | Actual Performance | Price | |
| Lexar | High | High | $87.59 |
| PNY | High | Mid | $85.72 |
| Transcend | High | High | $65.95 |
| EDGE | Mid | Mid-High | $59.77 |
| RiData | Mid | Mid | ~$56 |
| Rosewill | Mid | Mid | $51.99 |
| SanDisk | Mid | Mid-High | $73.95 |
| Kingston | Low | Low | $49.99 |
| PQI | Low | Mid | $60.81 |
| Viking | Low | Mid | $53.99 |
After taking into consideration the selling price of each product, Transcend's 80x model provides enough performance to make it the first choice of high performance CompactFlash media. It comes second only to Lexar's flash card, but it is priced more than $20 lower. For the mid-performance cards, the EDGE brand CompactFlash media takes the gold as it performs the best out of the batch and is also competitively priced at about $60. For the lower end cards, the PQI model is priced a bit too high for the performance that it puts out. Viking's standard model gives us decent low end performance at a viable price of $53.99, which makes it a top "low-performance" pick.
There is, of course, a very large number of CompactFlash cards out there, which can fit into these categories. Unfortunately, we did not have a chance to look at them, so it's best to try a few different cards out before you settle for a single brand and model. Prices are also always changing due to supply and demand of flash memory chips. Therefore, it is very possible that Lexar's high performance card can catch up with Transcend and give it a run for its money.
Our overall pick would have to be Transcend's 80x card as it is priced at about $66; only $5 over the mid-performance EDGE card and just over $10 above our low performance Viking pick.
Special thanks to NewEgg for providing us with the CompactFlash cards for this review.
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Anton74 - Saturday, December 24, 2005 - link
It should be noted, of course, that I am a representative of the Department of Redundancy Department. ;-)
heulenwolf - Friday, December 23, 2005 - link
At my workplace, we use CF cards for all sorts of things that don't involve cameras. I, for one, am happy to see random access tests. I agree that they should be in addition to sequential tests to give camera users some info.I agree that the graph types need some work. Specifically, the spline (or whatever interpolation function it is) used on page three, "Real World File Copy Test to Media," connects dots between different cards. This interpolation tells us nothing and only confuses the situation by connecting what should be disassociated information. For example, there's no information provided by looking at what the spline says occurs "half way" between an Edge and a Kingston card. If Purav were to switch the graphing inputs around such that the X-axis is file size and make separate lines for each card, then, assuming he'd picked an appropriate interpolation function for the "Real World" transfer times, we might be able to tell something about transfer times for file sizes in between the three tested. If not, then drop the spline and just plot the dots.
Lifted - Friday, December 23, 2005 - link
So where are the RAID benchmarks?mindless1 - Friday, December 23, 2005 - link
"Special thanks to NewEgg for providing us with the CompactFlash cards for this review."Yes, thank you Newegg. I love seeing reviews where Newegg donated parts, since so many of us shop there it seems a win-win for everyone.