PRS-600 Which memory card should I get?

ghostyjack · 10-21-2009, 10:09 AM

I'm planning on getting a memory card for my PRS-600 and was wondering what the general opinion of using cards on it is.

Which card is better? MS Duo or SDHC?

Also does it matter what the speed of the card is? i.e. class 2, 4, 6.

I know I can get a card with 16Gb (or larger), but does the size effect the performance of the card?

tovare · 10-21-2009, 10:44 AM

I've read elsewhere in the forum that some people had issues with MS Duo.

Get the fastest card you can find. I'm using a class 6 SDHC with 4 Gb and it works really well (SanDisk Extreme III). Size shouldn't affect performance, but how many files you have on there. Reports elsewhere in this forum indicate that you can't have thousands of books on there. I have 346 songs on my card and that works great, the reader works 20 seconds after I insert the card.

llreader · 10-21-2009, 11:14 AM

Thanks! I was just coming in here to post this exact question.

mwheinz · 10-21-2009, 11:18 AM

Memory Stick is generally more expensive; SD cards are cheaper and now available in faster speeds. I would say, however, that this isn't a digital camera, you really don't need a class 6 card for an ebook reader - class 2 or better should be fine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_..._Class_Ratings

tovare · 10-21-2009, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwheinz

Memory Stick is generally more expensive; SD cards are cheaper and now available in faster speeds. I would say, however, that this isn't a digital camera, you really don't need a class 6 card for an ebook reader - class 2 or better should be fine.

I would dissagree with that point, although I've also heard that advice before and in a way it's correct advice because the device would probably work.

I tried a 4Gb Kingston class 2 (or was it 4) on my cell phone which should be more than enough for streaming mp3's, but inserting the card and adding the files to the music library took 10 minutes, sucked up all the battery and playback became unstable and I had to remove and re-insert several times each day (Nokia E71). Switching to an 8 Gb SanDisk ultra (Class 6) solved all those issues.

Kashue · 10-21-2009, 11:57 AM

I agree with tovare , reading from slow card can make problems, like slow speed of device, on slow card making of thumbinal take very long time, the faster card You get the faster will loading of the book's work.

llreader · 11-26-2009, 07:33 AM

So is Class 4 good enough? Or is it better to get class 6? There is a big price difference for 4 vs 6. I can see wanting some speed for music, which is time dependent, but is class 4 good enough for books?

Thanks!

tovare · 11-27-2009, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by llreader

So is Class 4 good enough? Or is it better to get class 6? There is a big price difference for 4 vs 6. I can see wanting some speed for music, which is time dependent, but is class 4 good enough for books?

Thanks!

You can read books and play mp3's from a class 4, but consider the advice above and think utility value rather than the price difference between rock bottom and a quality product. (You'd never own a Sony reader if you didn't care :-) )

Class 4: 4 MByte/s - 26x
Class 6: 6 MByte/s - 40x
SanDisk Extreme III—maximum speed of 30 MByte/s (200x)
SanDisk Extreme IV—up to 45 MByte/s (300x)

I'd rather wait and save up to get Extreme card, before resorting to a class 4, but that's just related to my previous painfull experience.

HarryT · 11-28-2009, 05:39 AM

Honest advice: don't bother.

If you have sufficient books on your Reader to require a memory card, the "Library Scan" when you add or remove books will take so long that it makes the Reader virtually unusable.

The only exception would be if you had a small number of extremely large books - eg PDFs with scanned images.

HarryT · 11-28-2009, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovare

You can read books and play mp3's from a class 4, but consider the advice above and think utility value rather than the price difference between rock bottom and a quality product. (You'd never own a Sony reader if you didn't care :-) )

Class 4: 4 MByte/s - 26x
Class 6: 6 MByte/s - 40x
SanDisk Extreme III—maximum speed of 30 MByte/s (200x)
SanDisk Extreme IV—up to 45 MByte/s (300x)

I'd rather wait and save up to get Extreme card, before resorting to a class 4, but that's just related to my previous painfull experience.

But, with respect, the "class" of the card primarily relates to how fast the card can be written, and only really matters for such things as "continuous shooting" with a digital camera. eBooks are small, and the whole file is not read at one time. Do you have any actual evidence that a "fast" card has any performance gain on the Reader compared to a slow one?

nick101 · 11-28-2009, 06:08 AM

I'm with Harry on this. We're not talking high volume continuous streaming here. If it's book reading, then data volumes are very low. If it's mp3 playing, then they're higher, but not high.

It's something of a personal choice, but I see a *lot* of unnecessary agonising over SD card speed. It's too easy to talk yourself into spending wads of extra cash for no real benefit

llreader · 11-28-2009, 06:11 AM

Hmm. I was thinking of getting a smaller, faster card, since I haven't even used up the space in the Reader yet (my wife is making a trip to Boston, and I am ordering some stuff for her to bring back). From what you are saying, Harry, it sounds like the Library Scan is CPU bound, and that is going to cause problems. I might try and old 16MB card I have from an old digital camera to see how that works (if I can find it)

It might be worth it to wait and see if I ever fill up the Reader, by which time card prices will be cheaper. I have less than half the memory full (I don't use the reader for music), and more books than I could reasonably read in a couple of months, with the amount of free time that I have. Of course, some are reference books, which are good to have around. And several journal articles. Slightly over 90 documents (I have about 150 in my calibre library). I guess I don't really need one. Maybe I will pick up a cheap 2-4 GB card (they don't cost much) and we can use it in the camera if we need to.

Of course, my laptop has a card reader, so maybe a better card would not be wasted.

JSWolf · 11-28-2009, 08:26 AM

Also, the SD card does use more battery.

llreader · 11-28-2009, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Also, the SD card does use more battery.

Thanks, that is another important issue. I decided to get a two-pack of 4GB Kingston SDHC cards. We only have a 1GB for the camera, and I can use the other one for the laptop if testing on the Reader doesn't produce any exciting results. I really doubt I will ever have the need for more than 450MB of text on this machine, but I can if I need to.

whazzup · 12-05-2009, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Also, the SD card does use more battery.

juz wondering, when u mention it uses more battery, is it in comparison to the memory stick? or u mean to say external memory cards uses more battery in general?

10-21-2009, 10:09 AM	#1
ghostyjack Guru Posts: 718 Karma: 1085610 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Bristol, England Device: PRS-T1, 1825PT, Galaxy Tab, One X, TF700T, Aura HD, Nexus 7	Which memory card should I get? I'm planning on getting a memory card for my PRS-600 and was wondering what the general opinion of using cards on it is. Which card is better? MS Duo or SDHC? Also does it matter what the speed of the card is? i.e. class 2, 4, 6. I know I can get a card with 16Gb (or larger), but does the size effect the performance of the card?

10-21-2009, 10:44 AM	#2
tovare Addict Posts: 221 Karma: 1133312 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Oslo/Norway Device: PRS-600, Kindle kb Wifi, new Kindle NT, PW2, Kindle Oasis	I've read elsewhere in the forum that some people had issues with MS Duo. Get the fastest card you can find. I'm using a class 6 SDHC with 4 Gb and it works really well (SanDisk Extreme III). Size shouldn't affect performance, but how many files you have on there. Reports elsewhere in this forum indicate that you can't have thousands of books on there. I have 346 songs on my card and that works great, the reader works 20 seconds after I insert the card. Last edited by tovare; 10-21-2009 at 10:44 AM. Reason: Typo

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10-21-2009, 11:14 AM	#3
llreader Mesmerist Posts: 331 Karma: 506558 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Spain Device: PRS-600 Silver. Much nicer than I expected.	Thanks! I was just coming in here to post this exact question.

10-21-2009, 11:18 AM	#4
mwheinz award-winning bozo Posts: 258 Karma: 172703 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Philadelphia Device: Kobo Libra 2	Memory Stick is generally more expensive; SD cards are cheaper and now available in faster speeds. I would say, however, that this isn't a digital camera, you really don't need a class 6 card for an ebook reader - class 2 or better should be fine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_..._Class_Ratings

10-21-2009, 11:57 AM	#6
Kashue NightStalker Posts: 36 Karma: 230 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Poland Device: Sony PRS-600	I agree with tovare , reading from slow card can make problems, like slow speed of device, on slow card making of thumbinal take very long time, the faster card You get the faster will loading of the book's work.

11-26-2009, 07:33 AM	#7
llreader Mesmerist Posts: 331 Karma: 506558 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Spain Device: PRS-600 Silver. Much nicer than I expected.	So is Class 4 good enough? Or is it better to get class 6? There is a big price difference for 4 vs 6. I can see wanting some speed for music, which is time dependent, but is class 4 good enough for books? Thanks!

11-28-2009, 05:39 AM	#9
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,560 Karma: 93980341 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Honest advice: don't bother. If you have sufficient books on your Reader to require a memory card, the "Library Scan" when you add or remove books will take so long that it makes the Reader virtually unusable. The only exception would be if you had a small number of extremely large books - eg PDFs with scanned images.

11-28-2009, 06:08 AM	#11
nick101 Groupie Posts: 190 Karma: 1248 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Milton Keynes UK Device: Sony PRS-600 Touch, iPhone	I'm with Harry on this. We're not talking high volume continuous streaming here. If it's book reading, then data volumes are very low. If it's mp3 playing, then they're higher, but not high. It's something of a personal choice, but I see a lot of unnecessary agonising over SD card speed. It's too easy to talk yourself into spending wads of extra cash for no real benefit

11-28-2009, 06:11 AM	#12
llreader Mesmerist Posts: 331 Karma: 506558 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Spain Device: PRS-600 Silver. Much nicer than I expected.	Hmm. I was thinking of getting a smaller, faster card, since I haven't even used up the space in the Reader yet (my wife is making a trip to Boston, and I am ordering some stuff for her to bring back). From what you are saying, Harry, it sounds like the Library Scan is CPU bound, and that is going to cause problems. I might try and old 16MB card I have from an old digital camera to see how that works (if I can find it) It might be worth it to wait and see if I ever fill up the Reader, by which time card prices will be cheaper. I have less than half the memory full (I don't use the reader for music), and more books than I could reasonably read in a couple of months, with the amount of free time that I have. Of course, some are reference books, which are good to have around. And several journal articles. Slightly over 90 documents (I have about 150 in my calibre library). I guess I don't really need one. Maybe I will pick up a cheap 2-4 GB card (they don't cost much) and we can use it in the camera if we need to. Of course, my laptop has a card reader, so maybe a better card would not be wasted.

11-28-2009, 08:26 AM	#13
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 80,782 Karma: 150249619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Also, the SD card does use more battery.