Product Testing Desk Archive

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My Digital Discount's in-house testing team is here to help you make the most informed decision before you buy.

• 2008 Flash Memory Card Reader Testing
• 2008 CompactFlash Compare: BiWin 150X/300X vs. SanDisk Extreme III
• 2009 Solid State Disk Drive Compare: MyDigitalSSD MLC vs. Transcend MLC
• 2009 CompactFlash Compare: Transcend 300X vs. SanDisk Extreme IV vs. Delkin 305X

Flash Memory Card Reader Testing

Memory card reader testing was performed on a Dell Dimension 5150 with an added LaCie FireWire 800 PCI card using a free benchmarking software, FDBENCH.

Throughout testing we noticed that bottle necks still remain for high speed memory on current day machines such as the PC and readers used in testing. For example, the Lexar 300X UDMA CompactFlash line shows anywhere from 7.076MB/sec to 29.51MB/sec write speed while Lexar's literature for the card demonstrates that it has the ability to perform at 45MB/sec write.

Another observation was that the allegedly slower speed rated Transcend 266X CompactFlash card performed as fast and faster than the Lexar 300X CompactFlash card with every reader we tested.

Furthermore, we found that the RiDATA 150X Secure Digital card's speed was right on the heels of the Transcend Class 6 Secure Digital card.

While the RiDATA card performed at around half the write speed it boasts we noticed the same trend in CompactFlash leading us to believe that Transcend is using high quality materials in their Class 6 line of SDHC cards considering Transcend Class 6 Cards are Multi Layer Cell (MLC) while the RiDATA 150X Cards are Single Layer Cell (SLC).

PROS vs. CONS

Conclusion: If you are a professional photographer, someday aspire to be one, or just an avid shutterbug that primarily uses UDMA CompactFlash cards, albeit having a slightly higher price tag, the FireWire readers will end up saving you more time transferring your images. If  you primarily use standard non-UDMA CompactFlash cards or various types of memory the better choice would be a USB 2.0 reader. The DataFab All-In-one Reader seems to be an excellent choice as it is UDMA enabled and is actually faster than the FireWire reader with Non UDMA memory and at a mere $18 price tag.

We also found that the Transcend CF and SDHC is a very good value at the lower prices. Offers the best value for the price.

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CompactFlash Compare: BiWin 150X/300X vs. SanDisk Extreme III

Speed Comparison Testing using the DataFab High Speed USB 2.0 All-in-1 Reader on a Dell Dimension 5150 PC

Read speed represents the speed at which data can be transferred from the memory card to a computer or any other type of storage device while Write Speed represents the speed at
which data can be put onto the memory card.

SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash Card FDBENCH Results

BiWin 150X/300X UDMA Enabled CompactFlash Card FDBENCH Results

Conclusion: Both the BiWin and SanDisk Extreme III have strengths and weaknesses where neither is a clear cut winner over the other. Deciding which card to choose really boils down to what your intended use for the card will be and how much you want to spend.

BiWin 16GB ($59.99) If you're primarily using the card with a camera that cannot take advantage of high write speeds or as a way of transporting files and can't stand sitting and waiting for the data to transfer to your computer, judging by read speeds, the BiWin card is what you're looking for.

SanDisk Extreme III 16GB ($199.99) If you're a professional photographer, or even an aspiring one then the SanDisk card could be the better choice especially if you're using an expensive digital SLR cameras that can take advantage of the Extreme III's write speed.

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Solid State Disk Drive Compare: MyDigitalSSD MLC vs. Transcend MLC

Speed Comparison Testing

Test Parameters
PC: Windows XP Home Installed in a Dell Dimension C521
Software: HDBench V3.3 - Format: FAT32

MyDigitalSSD 32GB 2.5" MLC SATA I/II Solid State Disk Drive (SSD) HDBENCH Results

Transcend 32GB 2.5" MLC SATA Solid State Disk Drive (SSD) HDBENCH Results

Conclusion: The MyDigitalSSD SSD far outperforms the Transcend SSD in both read and write performance making it the better value MLC Solid State Disk Drive for your money.

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CompactFlash Compare: Transcend 300X vs. SanDisk Extreme IV vs. Delkin 305X

The following comparison features 2 popular UDMA SLC 16GB Compact Flash cards on the market. We first compared the cards in the fastest known USB 2.0 Reader and then in the fastest known FireWire Reader.

Read speed represents the speed at which data can be transferred from the memory card to a computer or any other type of storage device while Write Speed Represents the speed at which data can be put onto the memory card.

Conclusion: It has been a little known fact that for the past year or more since the UDMA cards came out that a true high speed 16GB UDMA CompactFlash card has not yet materialized. We had hopes that Delkin was going to be the first with their 16GB 305X SLC UDMA card but found their performance fell short of expectations.

Suffice to say this kept us from getting our hopes up to high when we received word Transcend was releasing a version of their own. Upon testing it though we were astonished as it performs nearly as well as a Lexar 300X 8GB CF card and far outperforms the Delkin 16GB 305X CF card in both read and write speeds.

The Transcend 16GB 300x UDMA Compact Flash card also saw the single fastest read speeds we have ever seen in a CF card, even clocking faster read speed than an 4GB SanDisk Extreme IV Ducati card, making it the best value for your dollar.

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