SanDisk vs. Lexar - Speed

[Dave Potter]

I've heard people railing against SanDisk for quite a while now... their unreliable and slow - or so I have heard.

I've had one 256 MB SanDisk card go bad - and it was quickly exchanged with little or no hassle. Since then, I have bought another SanDisk 256 MB card and have had no other problems (knock on wood).

However, yesterday I bought a 256 MB Lexar card and it has opened my eyes. 8O I never would have believed it - but there is a noticeable difference in speed between the two manufactures. The Lexar card is easily twice as fast for writing than the SanDisk. I haven't actually benchmarked the two cards - but I perceive a significant difference.

Now, I have heard that Lexar cards are sometimes made by SanDisk. I don't beleive that this is the case here though. The Lexar card has several different physical characteristics - most notably the contacts. The SanDisk card's contacts are matte copper which scratch when it's inserted into an SD slot. The Lexar card's contacts are more of a polished copper that doesn't seem to scratch (not so far anyway).

I'd be curious to find out how the two cards compare benchmark wise. Has anyone done this?

Also - does anyone know who might have made the Lexar card? I have also heard Panasonic mentioned.

[Howard2k]

Look no further:

http://www.achilles-site.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=357


The Scamdisk is less than half the speed at writing.

[disconnected]

Does anyone know if the speed has improved for the new 1GB cards?

[ignar]

High capacity Lexar SD card is often a rebranded Panasonic, which is fast and reliable. If you have a Palm device around, plug in your SD card to Palm and run "Card Info". It will show the real manufacturer. I've tested a several SD cards and so far found they are all manufactured by either Panasonic, Toshiba, or Sandisk. Among them, Panasonic is the fastest, Toshiba is the second, and Sandisk is the slowest.

[Howard2k]

Does anyone know if the speed has improved for the new 1GB cards?

I heard that someone contacted them and they quoted 3MB/s writes. While the Lexar 32x is 4.8MB/s.


I'd believe that 3MB/s when I saw it :)

[Dave Potter]

Upon further examination I see that the SanDisk cards are made in China whereas the Lexar was made in the USA. Does this narrow down the potential sources of the Lexar card at all?

[Howard2k]

All the Lexar cards I've seen (including the ones that I own) have been made in Japan.

[Dave Potter]

All the Lexar cards I've seen (including the ones that I own) have been made in Japan.

Hmmm.... very interesting. My 256 MB Lexar was definitely made in the USA. I wonder who actually made it then?

[Howard2k]

That's wierd.. It says so on both the actual card and the packaging? Is it the 32x?

[Dave Potter]

The packaging is in the trash - but "Made in the USA" is stamped into the actual card itself.

No - it's not the 32x. But, qualitatively speaking, it does seem alot faster than my other two 256 MB SanDisk cards. I would estimate that it is about twice as fast.

[Len M.]

You might have a look at our benchmark page:

http://www.core-sound.com/CF-and-SD-mass-storage-comparison.html

You'll see that sometimes the cheapest line that SanDisk makes is faster than the Lexar WA "40X".

So beware of manufacturer's speed claims.

If you have an SD or CF card, please consider running benchmarks and sending the XML file to us for inclusion in the Web page.


Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com

[arnage2]

my sandisk works great, but the lexar might be faster in write speed. Look for the best price