Clip+, Rockbox and Class 10 microSD card - it it work?

[pihhu]

Hi!

I'd like to ask you what is your experience with Class 10 card on Clip+ (both with Rockbox and Official Firmware)?
Are they any known issues/compatibility problems? I've heard cards above Class 4 could be problematic on Clip+. Is it true?

I've already ordered 16 GB Class 10 card for my Clip+, so I'm a bit anxious whether it works not not. Would buying Class 4 be a safer bet?

[bluebrother]

I'd like to ask you what is your experience with Class 10 card on Clip+ (both with Rockbox and Official Firmware)?

Some people have reported problems with cards. Some people claim that these problems are related to the class rating of the card. Most developers don't believe this, since cards are pretty much always class 10 it is no wonder that problematic cards reported these days are class 10. In other words, the class rating doesn't tell anything here.

I've heard cards above Class 4 could be problematic on C+.

No idea what "C+" is. I know about "C++" which is a programming language. Please use real words here as per our posting guidelines. "C+" is not even a common Rockbox-specific abbreviation.

[pihhu]

sorry, by C+ I meant Clip+ of course - I've now modified my original post.

anyway, I've heard just that (on Sandisk forums):

"cards above Class 4 could be problematic on Clip+", this post specifically: http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Mobile-memory-professional-cards/32GB-Class-10-Micro-SD-card-unexpectedly-removed-in-Android/m-p/295108/highlight/true#M2397

what do you think about it? I don't know what to think and I'm now scared to buy Class 10 for my Clip+.

[saratoga]

what do you think about it?

I think you should reread the post above yours instead of asking people to repeat themselves. 

[pihhu]

ok, but it that true what he says in that post (about Random Access times)?

"Guys, it's not the card - it's the Class 10 rating.  You want a Class 2 or Class 4, but nothing higher than 4.  You don't want high read/write speeds, you want high Random Access response times.

Class 10 = High Write/Read, Very Low Random Access response times.
Class 2 = Low Read/Write, Very High Random Access response times.

It's a give or take, but not both.  You don't want high read/write speeds on sdcards, they are all very slow anyways."

Is that true that class 10 cards have worse/poorer (as I understand what he said) Random Access times than class 2/4 cards (it's a general question)? But instead they are optimized for higher/better (sequential) Write/Read speeds?

[saratoga]

ok, but it that true what he says in that post (about Random Access times)?

No, none of that is true.  Regardless, this isn't the right place to ask about solid state storage performance. 

[bluebrother]

"cards above Class 4 could be problematic on Clip+", this post specifically: http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Mobile-memory-professional-cards/32GB-Class-10-Micro-SD-card-unexpectedly-removed-in-Android/m-p/295108/highlight/true#M2397

what do you think about it? I don't know what to think and I'm now scared to buy Class 10 for my Clip+.

I don't see much of a point in that guys post, and he's quite wrong.

- When reading audio files you're reading them sequentially. No need for fast random access.
- Cards are pretty fast these days compared to the early ones. The only thing problematic is writing (since flash memory requires you to erase a complete flash page even if you want to write a single byte), but when playing files from an SD card you're only reading it.

I'll skip the rest -- I pretty much disagree with his whole reasoning. Besides, he states:

Class 10 = High Write/Read, Very Low Random Access response times.
Class 2 = Low Read/Write, Very High Random Access response times.

which (to me) reads as:

Class 10: read / write is fast, i.e. high throughput. Low Random Access time means the access is fast.
Class 2: low throughput, i.e. slow read / write. Random Access is slow because access times are high.

Which pretty much means: Class 10 is fast. Class 2 is slow. So either he confuses things or puts it in a way it confuses people.