Faster SDHC card reader????

J

JerryB

Well-known member
Does any one have suggestions on a fast SDHC card reader for transferring media from card to computer. I am currently putting my 16g SDHC Class 6 card into a HP printer with an SD card slot connected usb cable, but the transfer of media is incredibly slow. I own a cheaper Asus laptop with an SD slot that transfers the media from card to computer almost 4x as fast.

I have read about a few that are fast, but would love to know if any one has personal experience with an external reader. I am more than willing to spend decent money ($50ish) on an SDHC reader that will transfer the media faster than currently. Any suggestions?
 
I found a $7 no-name 5-in-1 reader at Fry's. I'm using it with a Patriot 32GB class 4 'Duplicator' card, and it works perfectly. The transfer using the reader is much faster than directly from the camera. So, I think any SDHC-compatible reader will probably do a good job.
 
JerryB said:
Does any one have suggestions on a fast SDHC card reader for transferring media from card to computer. I am currently putting my 16g SDHC Class 6 card into a HP printer with an SD card slot connected usb cable, but the transfer of media is incredibly slow. I own a cheaper Asus laptop with an SD slot that transfers the media from card to computer almost 4x as fast.

I have read about a few that are fast, but would love to know if any one has personal experience with an external reader. I am more than willing to spend decent money ($50ish) on an SDHC reader that will transfer the media faster than currently. Any suggestions?
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The reader itself shouldn't make any difference. Transfer speed will primarily be affected by two factors: card speed and interface speed.

The SD card will likely be the slowest part of the chain. The interface (connection) will only matter if you're connecting with something REALLY slow. USB 2.0 and Firewire are both far faster than the card read speed. The most likely explanation for why your printer was transferring so slowly is that the connection was USB 1.1.
 
I would caution everyone about the reader or the sdhc card itself. I had a Transcend 16GB card and it had been working very well until a very important filming. When I loaded the card into the reader to make a backup copy of the recording, it did not complete the task. Instead, it turned dead and no computer (PC or Mac) could recognize the card any more. Two hours of important footage is gone forever.

I am not sure if there is anything wrong from the card or the reader. The card had been working flawlessly prior to this. It just decided to quit. I tried the reader with other card and it worked fine but it is now very difficult to have full confidence on the card either.

I would recommend using only the best or tested reader/card combination. Any fault in the process could be very costly.
 
Car3o said:
uh, transfers from the camera aren't any slower than the card is rated.
Click to expand...

2GB Transfer test:

From Camera = 7:10
From Reader = 4:04

*standard disclaimer (all the cautions that everyone else added)

I've had at least 4 cards corrupt in-device (not the GH1). The worst offenders are my Archos 605 (4GB), and any ebook reader app for the PocketPC. I don't think they handle the device's sleep mode well.
 
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I just uploaded 4.44GB using my macbook pro's internal card reader in 3:45 with a class 6 16GB Patriot card. Just a reference. A card reader that uses USB is limited by the USB port I would think. So I imagine an internal reader is much faster. If that printer is using USB 1.0 then you will probably get slow up times like you described. Maybe there is a PCI card that has readers?
 
Nitsuj said:
A card reader that uses USB is limited by the USB port I would think. So I imagine an internal reader is much faster.
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Yes, and so the USB card readers aren't likely to match the built-in card readers. Ironically, I have an built-in card reader, but it doesn't support SDHC, and so I need the USB reader.

All of my USB 2.0 devices (Archos, HTC, Garmin, GH1, etc...) transfer slower than the USB card reader. I don't know why.

Gizmodo is reporting that Intel's chipsets might not support USB 3.0 until 2011.
 
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Nitsuj said:
A card reader that uses USB is limited by the USB port I would think.
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USB 2.0 offers sustained bandwidth of slightly over 30 MB/s. The Class 10 SDHC cards transfer at up to about 22 MB/s. So how do you think that the USB interface is the bottleneck?
 
As above.

Also, there's a nice Lexar card reader that has a CF and SDHC slot that's from their Pro line.
 
This has turned out to be a hot topic. Do you ever get the feeling that throughput isn't the whole story with these devices and cards?
 
I'll admit that I'm neither an expert nor an engineer. Maybe you know more than I do. Do you have any ideas about where bottlenecks could be in the card->reader->USB->computer chain, especially versus a built-in card reader?

I don't know of any major bottlenecks, other than the speed of the card itself. So I see no reason to simply assume that a built-in card reader would be faster.
 
Maybe tomorrow I will try to up from the camera and see if I get any different results. If I do then that shows there is a bottleneck between USB and internal card readers, I think that is.
 
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