Difference between class 6 and 2

[fedito]

What is the diference? what its more recomended?

[Michalaq]

The classes refer to the speed of the card:
Class 2 - minimum 2mb/sec transfer
Class 4 - minimum 4mb/sec transfer
Class 6 - minimum 6mb/sec transfer

With bigger cards, the faster transfer speed is a bit of an issue, especially if you shuffle your music around often.

The thing is, the speed of the SD slot on the D2 is limited, and might not take advantage of the faster cards (not sure about this, I always use a USB reader). I could test this for you if you want.

So, if you buy a big card and upload new music to it often, then the coule of bucks spent on a faster card might be worth it.

[fedito]

can you test it for me? I just order mi cowon d2 and it will be here in 2 or 3 weeks, and i order 8gb Class 6 trancend (something like that) card and other class 6 but 4gb. So i will have mi d2+8gb+4gb both class 6. Its supossed to be better dont?

[Michalaq]

well, if you don't mind spending the extra money on the faster cards, then definitely go for it. Whether you need the speed is for you to decide.

I just ran a quick test (Copied around 400mbs of mp3s back and forth from my Integral Class6 8GB SDHC using the D2 and my USB card reader)

D2 internal reader:
Read: 3.73mb/s Write: 1.67mb/s

Cheap E-bay SDHC card reader:
Read: 8.73mb/s Write: 3.52mb/s

Thus, since read speed is what really matters, I guess there is no benefit to having a faster card if you're going to only use it in the D2, as the device's speed is below the max speed of a Class 2 card anyways.

I do recommend that you get yourself a card reader (mine cost something like £3) - transferring 8gbs at 1.5megs/sec is a pain... Still, to be honest I was expecting a slightly better performance from my card - it could be that I got a poor card, that the brand is no good, or that my card reader is slow.

Another thing that I would consider is that the D2 has a pretty long startup time whenever you switch SD cards, or change the files on a card (it needs to update its database) - say about 30 seconds, if not more. This goes down to a reasonable 4-5 seconds when you turn it on again with the same card/files. If you intend to use the 4gb for videos or less listened-to music, it will be alright, but if you intend to switch cards constantly, this might get a bit annoying.

[ManchesterBaby]

It would be interesting to see if there's any difference in the D2's database build time when using different speed SDHC cards (tested with the same files on each of course). Is anyone with both a C6 and a C2 card (ideally of the same capacity and manufacturer (for scientific correctness) although i doubt this really matters too much) willing to try this out?

[Goenitz]

What I think would be more accurate is a benchmark using a program like Flash Memory Toolkit on the different SD cards.
I have tested my digital camera, my cellphone, some USB sticks... so i think the program should accept input from the D2 or a SD card reader, right?
too bad I dont have either of them yet to try [yawn]