Hacking Are RiDATA MicroSD's any good?

[Rayder]

So, I was looking into getting a bigger/better microSDHC card for my CycloDS. Currently, I'm running a Transcend Class4 8GB and it's working fine, but it won't run PoR without crashing, so I'm looking into Class 6's. A while back, I bought a Transcend 8GB Class 6, but it acted flaky and wouldn't work right in the CycloDS....I understand this CAN happen on occasion and the exact same brand card may not do it again, but I'm going to try a different brand anyway.

Here is the card I'm looking at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820183245

Anyone have any experience with these MicroSDHC's? My purchase will be limited to NewEgg.

Comments/suggestions welcome.

 

[vergilite]

lucks good and the reviews are quite good i would probably go for it but id also wait for someone who has had this card to give his or her experience with it.

 

[Rayder]

Well, I ordered it. We'll see if it's any good. When I get it, I'll run tests on it and report read/write speeds and response times. I 'll compare it with my current Transcend 8GB Class 4 that I've been using in the Cyclo.

I really hope it won't be flaky in my CycloDS like that one Transcend 8GB Class 6 was, I don't have anywhere else to put it if it doesn't work in the Cyclo.

Anyway, I'll post the results of my tests here when I get it. Should come in next week sometime.

 

[KingdomBlade]

I have one and it's fast and it fragment's less than my Kingmax (which fragments about every month)

 

[Briankealing]

I've never heard of RiDATA, but fifty bucks is a bit much. I've seen 16 gigs that are thirty.

 

[altorn]

16gigs for 50 bucks is typical here in canada but yea a bit much for US...

it comes with 2 adapters though so i think it is almost worth it.

go for it i say...


(the review says blister packaging is a CON? hmm.)

 

[Rayder]

OK, I got the card and ran some tests. Seems to be working fine in the CycloDS....boots new games and creates the saves just fine, pops into the enhanced menu within 2 seconds, boots UMK with or without a save file (long story

) and pretty much acts just like my old 8gig. Unfortunately, the response time isn't fast enough for Castlevania PoR though it's still got a faster response time than my 8gig does.

Here's the test results:

My old card...
Transcend 8gig Class 4 (formatted with Panasonic SD format utility, 7.60GB)
Using ATTO Benchmark
Write: 12.1MB per/sec
Read: 18.8MB per/sec

Using HDtach:
Response time: 1.6ms
Read: 18.6MB per/sec



My new card...
RiDATA 16GB Class 6 (formatted with Panasonic SD format utility, 14.9GB)
Using ATTO Benchmark
Write: 5.5MB per/sec (HEY! That ain't class 6 speeds! WTF?!)
Read: 18.5MB per/sec

Using HDTach:
Response time: 0.9ms
Read: 18.1 MB per/sec

Both cards had the exact same format style (FAT32, 32k clusters) and files wrote to it...about 5.5GB worth.

So, I didn't get PoR to be fully playable, but everything else I tested worked fine. The Ridata is MUCH slower to write (actually slower than its Class 6 rating would suggest), but is about the same speed at reading. So defrags (copy to PC, format SD, copy everything back) will take longer on the 16GB card, but the response time is 0.7ms faster. Which essentially means I doubled my card space and that's about it. While the slightly faster response might help, I don't really feel it's significant since PoR still requires an even better response time to run properly.

I can live with it. If I ever bought another 16GB microSD, it probably wouldn't be a RiDATA though. 5.5MB per/sec write speed is too slow for what is supposed to be a Class 6 card and the response time isn't good enough for the "problem" games. But otherwise, I'm no worse for wear coming from my old 8GB and I doubled my free space.

It's certainly better than the one Transcend 8GB Class 6 I bought a few months back that had great read/write speeds and 0.8ms response times, but was flaky and unusable in the Cyclo.....even though it works fine in my cell phone. At least this 16GB works properly in the CycloDS.

 

[fearofshorts]

Umm... don't call me stupid for saying this, but don't flashcarts flash roms onto their on-board memory?
I thought that was why they were called FLASHcarts. If this is true, this means that it's only the cartridge itself which determines the play speed of games that tend to lag.

Besides, you said so yourself: the read speed is the same and the write speed has no effect on how games load off it.

 

[kenio8185]

I've never heard of RiDATA, but fifty bucks is a bit much. I've seen 16 gigs that are thirty.

where?

 

[david432111]

Umm... don't call me stupid for saying this, but don't flashcarts flash roms onto their on-board memory?
I thought that was why they were called FLASHcarts. If this is true, this means that it's only the cartridge itself which determines the play speed of games that tend to lag.

Besides, you said so yourself: the read speed is the same and the write speed has no effect on how games load off it.

No, they read the games off the micro sd. Yes the actual flashcart does make a small difference but the speed of the micro sd is the most important.
And it's called a flashcart because it's a cart that reads flash memory(Micro sd).