512MB Secure Digital for $289

[Janak Parekh]

My 1GB Microdrive is slowly dying (making bad clicking sounds if you read/write near the end of the disk :cry:), so I decided to finally retire it and get a Secure Digital card instead (that I could use in my iPaq without a sleeve). 256MB is too small for me and my music, so I typed "512MB Secure Digital" into the Pricegrabber field on the right side of our site, and <a href="http://pocketpcthoughts.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=605496/search=512MB%2520Secure%2520Digital/ut=182e6354d15f60e8">amongst the results</a> saw eCOST selling a Lexar unit for $289, with free shipping and no tax.<br /><br />Not a bad deal, or so I think. Have you guys found better deals on 512MB cards?

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

That's a pretty nice deal for SD. Only a month ago, eCost's price was about $320. Looks like these drop in SD prices are happening across the board.

[Gary Garland, Esq.]

I'm not sure about pricing, but my 256 mb SD card got filled up much faster than I thought, especially with GPS maps and photos of the baby - I"d encourage you to get at least 512 mb, but as 1 gig is still a fortune it is probably the best price point. I know sandisk has their cruzer on sale with an sd card (not sure 128 or 256 meg) and it goes for about $4 more with the cruzer than without - if you could find a 512 mb sd with the cruzer, you will have done yourself a great service! (The cruzer is a USB adapter - slap the sd in, use no drivers, and notebooks/desktops see it as another drive - wish i had one! 8O

[Jonathan1]

Drop that by another 60 buck or so and you got yourself a deal....I wonder what prices are going to be like this spring? 8O

[IronGeek]

Seems like a better deal to get two 256 meg SD cards for $66 each ($132 plus shipping). The largest single file I’d want to put on a card is a movie, but even “The Matrix“ at 2 hours and 16 minutes can be sized to 233 megs. For the difference of $137 I would rather just swap cards. Does any one regularly use a single file bigger that 256 megs?

[Gary Garland, Esq.]

Seems like a better deal to get two 256 meg SD cards for $66 each ($132 plus shipping). The largest single file I’d want to put on a card is a movie, but even “The Matrix“ at 2 hours and 16 minutes can be sized to 233 megs. For the difference of $137 I would rather just swap cards. Does any one regularly use a single file bigger that 256 megs?

I could potentially if I had a party loading GPS maps. I would recommend AGAINST 2 256 meg cards - I have one now, and I'm out of space. To me, the idea of the SD card is that it is ALWAYS in my lil buddy, versus my CF card which is sometimes in, sometimes out depending upon whether using a GPS receiver or wi-fi card, or if I want it to go naked. Sure, 2 256 megs is cheaper, but I think you lose a lot of benefit that way. on that note, how about 4 128 meg cards? :)
I do agree, however, if you're just going to put a movie on now and then, the 2 card method is a money saver - it's just not the way I'd use my lil buddy :lol:

[Peter Traugot]

Have you guys ever checked out the Techbargains web site? If you don't mind chasing the rabbit for a little while 8) , or sending in rebate forms, this site usually finds some great low vizabilty deals.

I just got a 512 cf card for $89.

[IronGeek]

Best price I found on Pricegrabber was $48.95 for 128 megs. That would be $195.80 plus shipping, still more price than two 256 meg SD cards. Looks like 256 is still the sweet spot.

[ThomasC22]

Welcome to my world Bdj :?

Ever since I went dual slot I decided to go all SD with my memory (being that (A) you're pretty much guaranteed an SD slot in any PPC you buy these days and (B) there are a lot more CF peripherals). But let me tell you, it's a decision I've paid for in the pocket book.

Although one thing I must say is that a lot of my problem is a result of just being lazy (I spend big money on one card because I don't want to have to switch back and fourth).

but like IronGeek said, if you're willing to swap, SD has gotten very affordable.

oh and btw, for those who haven't purchased yet, Pricescan has a 512 SD for $274 (http://www.pricescan.com/items/item143630.asp).

[Deslock]

I haven't seen any deals at techbargains.com or slickdeals.net that beat this. Having two 256MB SD cards can be inconvenient if you install all your apps to SD. Currently 512 MB SD cards are twice as much per MB than 256 MB cards (Lexar 256 MB can be had for $72) but in a few months that'll change. I plan to stick with a single 256 card until then.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I've completely stopped investing in CF memory myself. It's a pricy decision. I paid $320 for my 512MB SD when 1GB CF (non-SanDisk) would only cost me about $450.

Like you said, Thomas, I feel secure that any PPC that I invest in the future will have SD... I'm not so sure about CF... and I'm not so sure that any device other than the occasional PPC's will be using CF in the future.

[robwoomer]

Simpletech is selling their 512 ms SD card through Amazon for only $269.99. Not sure how much shipping is but this is a little cheaper....I'll bet if you wait til the spring, the price point will get down even lower.

[Janak Parekh]

Thanks for the tips guys. I agree largely with Deslock and others in that having two cards is annoying; especially for SD, which has the problem that it's easily loseable. For me, the additional overhead is worth the eliminated swapping.

My 512MB SD card just arrived. Being a Lexar-branded card, and the free shipping/tax, sealed it for me. What a miracle of technology this stuff is. :)

--janak

[snazzy]

Seems like a better deal to get two 256 meg SD cards for $66 each ($132 plus shipping). The largest single file I’d want to put on a card is a movie, but even “The Matrix“ at 2 hours and 16 minutes can be sized to 233 megs. For the difference of $137 I would rather just swap cards. Does any one regularly use a single file bigger that 256 megs?

Where are you able to find the SDs at 66 ea? Thanks.

[IronGeek]

I used pricegraber off of the front page of this website.


Edit: Here is a link http://pocketpcthoughts.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=637899/search=SD%2520Cards/ut=95a016684d940c86

[nobody]

eCost has different shipping charge and handling charge. Even if shipping is free but handling is not! And the handling is even more expensive than shipping! What's up with that?!

[Programmer]

The largest single file I’d want to put on a card is a movie, but even “The Matrix“ at 2 hours and 16 minutes can be sized to 233 megs. For the difference of $137 I would rather just swap cards. Does any one regularly use a single file bigger that 256 megs?

How do you convert your movies? I am interested in what you use and what your settings are.

Thanks

Robert

[Janak Parekh]

eCost has different shipping charge and handling charge. Even if shipping is free but handling is not! And the handling is even more expensive than shipping! What's up with that?!
Hmmm.... I have my receipt here, and both the shipping and handling fee was $0. I did ground shipment. No clue why you're getting a different result. :?

--janak

[IronGeek]

I use VirtualDub, Divix 4.12 codec for video at 200 kbs, 32bit stereo mp3 for audio, rotated to landscape at a resolution of 320x176. I've encoded some movies this way and tested them on my pc and they look pretty good, I'm still waiting for my Axim to get here.

[st63z]

I keep asking, begging, pleading for SD card speed comparisons. Panasonic was first with that large-capacity 5x-speed boast, and now I see similar claims from other brands' recent announcements. I hope The Powers That Be at PPCT (TPTB, all hush-hush and mysterious) will post benchmarks and test results and opinions as soon as they hear about any...

I've resisted the 512MB cards so far because I'm still disappointed with my SanDisk 256MB card's anemic speed (which to be fair isn't one of the supposedly 10MB/sec 5x-speed units). Not so much sequential transfer rates (transferring one huge file) as, I think, access or latency times or whatnot. Say, copying your IE Favorites folder to this SD card, it's like slower than floppy, you gotta wait and wait and wait...

Hmm, actually though, sequential DTR could always be faster too. But I think the 5x-speed units will take care of this to compete with CF cards, yes???

That's assuming using readers with high bus bandwidth (a boat load of parallel address lines) or whatnot to maximize performance. See how stupid I sound quoting these things, that's WHY I need benchmarks and test reports and exposition essays... :)

[Pony99CA]

Thanks for the tips guys. I agree largely with Deslock and others in that having two cards is annoying; especially for SD, which has the problem that it's easily loseable. For me, the additional overhead is worth the eliminated swapping.

Besides price, there's another advantage to having two SD cards over one. If you have another device that uses SD cards, you could have one 256 MB card in your Pocket PC and one in your other device. So if your digital camera or MP3 player uses SD cards, you wouldn't need to take your programs and data out of your Pocket PC to use the other device.

As my iPAQ 3870 is the only thing I have that uses SD cards, though, I would also get the biggest card I could afford instead of two cards.

Steve

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I've resisted the 512MB cards so far because I'm still disappointed with my SanDisk 256MB card's anemic speed (which to be fair isn't one of the supposedly 10MB/sec 5x-speed units).
I have both a 256MB Lexar SD and a 512MB Lexar SD and they're both quite fast, though I agree that benchmarks would be more effective in illustrating that.

Certainly, while many people seem quite happy with SanDisk, their CF cards were amongst the slowest cards around (even their "Ultra" line is quite behind the curve)... and my experience with their MMC/SD cards certainly seemed to follow the same pattern.

[Johan]

I keep asking, begging, pleading for SD card speed comparisons. Panasonic was first with that large-capacity 5x-speed boast, and now I see similar claims from other brands' recent announcements.

Hi,

I saw a comparison in a PC-magazine some time ago and in the Panasonic SD ruled. I use a 256MB Transcend SD and it feels quite snappy in the 5450! Certainly a LOT faster than the Sandisk CF I used before in the 3630 with CF-sleeve. Hard to understand that Sandisk is so dominating, the performace sucks IMHO.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I saw a comparison in a PC-magazine some time ago and in the Panasonic SD ruled. I use a 256MB Transcend SD and it feels quite snappy in the 5450! Certainly a LOT faster than the Sandisk CF I used before in the 3630 with CF-sleeve. Hard to understand that Sandisk is so dominating, the performace sucks IMHO.
I've never tried Transcend SD, but I know their CF cards are blazingly fast.

SanDisk's domination is for no other reason than the fact that they are the most visible in retail/online stores and they sell for the cheapest. Removable media is one of those areas where most consumers assume that all brands are the same so the combination of availability and price is a rather strong one for SanDisk.

[Pony99CA]

SanDisk's domination is for no other reason than the fact that they are the most visible in retail/online stores and they sell for the cheapest. Removable media is one of those areas where most consumers assume that all brands are the same so the combination of availability and price is a rather strong one for SanDisk.
I tend to agree with that assessment. People will equate CF and SD with floppy disks and CD-Rs, I think (even though flash memory is much more expensive).

SanDisk may have the greatest visibility because they were one of the first companies to make flash memory. Their name even reflects their emphasis -- SanDisk, Sand Disk, Silicon Disk.

Steve

[st63z]

BTW thanks for all the first-hand SD testimonials. Good to hear not all is slow-pokey in SD land.

SD card *faster* than CF card, if I hadn't read this I wouldn't believed it, not with my CF and SD cards :)

[PetiteFlower]

Hard to understand that Sandisk is so dominating, the performace sucks IMHO.

Easy--cause they're cheap. $20 cheaper then every other brand. Enough for me to overlook performance and customer service issues and buy one anyway. Haven't had any problems with it either, just using it for MP3s anyway.

[Conchchowder]

This discussion of a $320, 512MB SD card in 2003...5 years later you can get a 16GB card for $50...I'l lolling over this!

Soon, 1TB SD cards will be had for a twenty.

[hogger_jeff]

Actually, I think the SD spec has a max of 32GB. Kind of short sighted, but so was Bill Gates when he made his infamous "640kb should be enough memory for anyone" speech when asked about the DOS limitation in the early days of PC's.

[jadesse]

This discussion of a $320, 512MB SD card in 2003...5 years later you can get a 16GB card for $50...I'l lolling over this!

Soon, 1TB SD cards will be had for a twenty.

Those prices are unavailable to day. You can buy a 1G for $5.00 now.