Libra 2 Rev 3 Slow SD Card

[Semwize]

Interesting about the Raspberry Pi SD card. I want to try it, but I only found it from one seller on Aliexpress ( ( Only a 64 GB card, he doesn't have 128.

[DNSB]

It'll cost you more but you can purchase Raspberry Pi SD cards from places such as PiShop or Canakit (since I'm in Canada, I went with in-country suppliers). Currently, I'm using a 256GB SanDisk High Endurance card in a Pi 5 since I wanted the extra storage.

[Semwize]

Originally Posted by DNSB

It'll cost you more but you can purchase Raspberry Pi SD cards from places such as PiShop or Canakit (since I'm in Canada, I went with in-country suppliers). Currently, I'm using a 256GB SanDisk High Endurance card in a Pi 5 since I wanted the extra storage.

The seller on Aliexpress questionable to me, the reviews are good, but still... I'm looking at analogs, there are a lot of tests, which SD cards are recommended for Raspberry Pi. Based on the fact that they should be perfect for Kobo.
I'm currently using SanDisk Extreme Pro.

[DNSB]

When I was doing more testing on µSD cards and their small block speeds, SanDisk and Samsung were consistently the best performers. One sad case was a class 10 32GB Patriot card where the small block write speeds were ~15KB per second compared to 32GB SanDisk and 32GB Samsung cards where the small block write speeds were in the 1-2MB per second range.

The two attached images are for two 32GB µSD cards. A SanDisk which shows as 29GB and a Samsung which shows as 30GB. Both cards are class U-1 (50MB/S).

[Semwize]

I want to put 64 GB or 128 GB on Libra 2, I choose a card))
I would like to see the results of the Raspberry Pi SD card. It's difficult for me to order it, but if everything is absolutely wonderful there, then why not.

SanDisk Extreme Pro

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Semwize

I want to put 64 GB or 128 GB on Libra 2, I choose a card))
I would like to see the results of the Raspberry Pi SD card. It's difficult for me to order it, but if everything is absolutely wonderful there, then why not.

The Raspberry Pi SD cards as near as I can tell are high endurance cards. Linux is absolutely enthused with reading/writing small blocks of data so the high endurance makes sense. I understand that the Raspberry Pi branded µSD cards are manufactured by Longsys (also using the Lexar brand name) tested for compatibility, etc. but going by the specifications, any decent brand name A2 µSD card with CQ support will work. The high endurance cards will simply work longer.

Took a while to dig this link out of my collection mentioning SanDisk & Raspberry Pi but found this item:

Raspberry Pi SD Cards and the Raspberry Pi Bumper: your new favourite accessories

One issue with putting a larger µSD card in a Kobo ereader is that when you start getting larger numbers of books on the ereader, the database size increases and can easily exceed the RAM size which does slow down some functions such as searching (I noticed this when I had >12,000 ePubs on my Clara HD).

[Semwize]

Thanks)
In fact, this is a whim, there is practically no point in installing a card of this size to an e-reader.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Semwize

Thanks)
In fact, this is a whim, there is practically no point in installing a card of this size to an e-reader.

Sounds like my reason for installing a 128GB card in my Clara HD. No worry about is it practical, just can I do this?

[zerius]

Thank you, I believe it was reading your posts that inspired me to test.

In order of performance I saw (based on benchmarks too)

Raspberry Pi > Lexmark Silver Plus > Kingston Canvas Go >= Samsung Pro Plus > Sandisk Extreme Pro

The Sandisk Edge in the Gen 1 Kobo Libra 2 is actually on par with the Extreme Pro, but the other chip in the Gen 3 was horrendous.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by zerius

Thank you, I believe it was reading your posts that inspired me to test.

In order of performance I saw (based on benchmarks too)

Raspberry Pi > Lexmark Silver Plus > Kingston Canvas Go >= Samsung Pro Plus > Sandisk Extreme Pro

The Sandisk Edge in the Gen 1 Kobo Libra 2 is actually on par with the Extreme Pro, but the other chip in the Gen 3 was horrendous.

Are you testing with small blocks and random read/writes?

[zerius]

Originally Posted by Semwize

I want to put 64 GB or 128 GB on Libra 2, I choose a card))
I would like to see the results of the Raspberry Pi SD card. It's difficult for me to order it, but if everything is absolutely wonderful there, then why not.

SanDisk Extreme Pro
Attachment 216125

Here's the review that put the Pi cards on my radar - I was pretty skeptical since they were so much cheaper than similar sized cards from Sandisk / Kingston / Lexar, but for $20USD shipped for two I thought I might as well for science

https://bret.dk/official-raspberry-p...d-card-review/

Here's a table that benchmarks many different cards, where the silver plus comes out ontop for UHS-I

https://alikgriffin.com/micro-sd-memory-cards/

Here's another review that shows better small block speeds for the Silver Plus

https://charlestech.fr/en/test-lexar...drone-outings/



*** Not all numbers are comparable between reviews, since even in my own benchmarks with CDM I noticed a discrepency based on OS, Drive Format, Win/Mac, and Reader - therefore I took more into account rankings within a single review, and used the relative rankings to form my own opinion for purchase.

After I purchased the cards, I did my own benchmarks (sorry I lost the Pi data somewhere, so you'll have to take my word that it is the best performer)

Lastly - despite all the cards being A2 and certainly fast enough for 4k - interestingly DJI only certifies the Kingston Canvas Go! and the Lexar Silver Plus for their Osmo 3 - when I benchmarked the cards, in fact they did performed the fastest across the board.


I discovered this by a lucky accident, DJI from Costco was bundled with a Kingston 64gb card (too small for 4k, but large enough for Libra), and was BLOWN away by the performance boost, which led me down this rabbit hole.

[zerius]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Are you testing with small blocks and random read/writes?

Yes, only 4KiB RND with CDM. I *think* the write speed has more influence on UI responsiveness though - since all the cards performed similarly in reads, but differed quite a bit in writes. (Also, because the 512GB Samsung Pro Plus benchmarked with a higher read speed than the Kingston Go 64gb!, but was very minuscule slower)

At this time I only had the OEM, Samsung, Sandisk Extreme Pro and Kingston to test, later I had the Kingston, Lexar, and finally the Lexar, Raspberry Pi - so I can only make pairwise comparisons confidently

I asked my colleague why a SD card would have such an impact - and our hypothesis is for a low powered device, RAM would draw too much power, so for UI interactions there's a read/write that's persisted - which becomes the bottleneck.

[zerius]

Originally Posted by Apollyon202

I think the old CPU may have more of an impact on the overall responsiveness of the device than the speed of the storage.

That was my initial guess when I was comparing whether to keep the Libra 2 vs Libra Color, and the latest Paperwhite Gen 12, and had purchased all of them to do side-by-side comparison, and noticed that the Libra 2 Gen 3 was much slower at page turns (so much so it bothered me, but the crispness of the screen made me keep it)

But after swapping out the SD card, the page turn and UI (going from book, to setting menu) became much quicker and I am no longer bothered by the lag between pressing the button and seeing the page move.