Standard CF or Hi-Speed?

[swebb]

Hmmmm, been looking to buy a new CF card for my SP 2610, (always good to have a spare, pre-programmed when travelling)

and have found some dirt cheap 2GB CF Cards online, down to £16.99.

I've also found Hi-Speed 2GB CF Cards (both above by Toshiba) at a mere £17.99.

My question is, will a high speed card aid quicker re-draw rates in my SP2610, or will it actually make no difference at all?

More importantly, will the GPS be able to read a "hi-speed" card or is the technology too new for the GPS?

I'm not bothered about a pound, but no good buying the hi-speed if a) it won't work, or b) it'll work but at the reduced standard speed...

I'm sure it won't take long for you techie bods to give me a quick run-down

Cheers.... Stu.

 

[markie_wales]

I've had standard and high speed CF cards in my 2610, and it makes no noticable difference to the unit on the road. However, I *think* it speeds up map transfer, but I haven't timed it so it could just be me!

For £2 get the faster one - you may end up using it somewhere else where it does make a difference.

cheers

Mark

 

[Hman]

Hmmmm, been looking to buy a new CF card for my SP 2610, (always good to have a spare, pre-programmed when travelling)

and have found some dirt cheap 2GB CF Cards online, down to £16.99.

I've also found Hi-Speed 2GB CF Cards (both above by Toshiba) at a mere £17.99.

My question is, will a high speed card aid quicker re-draw rates in my SP2610, or will it actually make no difference at all?

More importantly, will the GPS be able to read a "hi-speed" card or is the technology too new for the GPS?

I'm not bothered about a pound, but no good buying the hi-speed if a) it won't work, or b) it'll work but at the reduced standard speed...

I'm sure it won't take long for you techie bods to give me a quick run-down

Cheers.... Stu.

found this in undocumented features re:- 2610

"d. What Compact Flash Brands?

Many people feel that brand is meaningless because companies simply slap their names on a third party product and claim as their own. So the product under the same brand name can be totally different. While this is true to some extent, I do not believe that reputable companies will risk damaging their good names doing this without stringent acceptance test procedures to ensure a certain standard. I do believe that brand name matters.


Brand of Compact Flash – A very common question people ask is what brand of compact flash they should use to ensure compatibility. The universal answer for the best brand is SANDISK. This is the same brand that Garmin chose to supply the unit with. To date, I have not heard of any incompatibility with this brand of CF in any sizes.

Some mentioned that they have successfully used Dane Electric, Kingston and Toshiba. Most users stated that any brand of compact flash seems to work just fine. However, I myself had one bad experience with a 512MB PNY brand. The Garmin 2610 (with firmware 3.40) refused to recognize this Compact Flash while the PC recognized it just fine. Firmware 3.50 fixed some incompatibility with compact flash but Garmin did not elaborate.

Most recently, when asked about 2GB CF brands that work great with the 2610, here are the ones listed: Sandisk, Sandisk Ultra II, Toshiba, Kingston Elite Pro, Kingston Pro, 120x Transcend.


Faster read/write Compact Flash – Users’ opinions and actual experiences indicate that there are no perceivable differences between faster CF and standard CF.

5/20/06 Update: A long time SP2610 user, Jerry Moorhead, recently has done a timing experiment between a standard 2GB Sandisk card and a 2GB Sandisk Ultra II. He concluded that the above statement is untrue. He used the two cards with identical map sets and a chosen route. After 5 calculations, he found that the standard Sandisk card took an average of 46 seconds while the Ultra II took only 25 seconds. Map redraws using the Ultra II were also much faster."

Hman

 

[swebb]

Coolio

Thanks Hman.... That's a great article... just what i wanted....

2GB Toshiba Hi-Speed it is then.....

 

[longdog]

Thanks Hman.... That's a great article... just what i wanted....

2GB Toshiba Hi-Speed it is then.....

errr, so where, exactly, are you sourcing this CF card from then? C'mon, spill the beans!

 

[swebb]

errr, so where, exactly, are you sourcing this CF card from then? C'mon, spill the beans!

You'll find the Standard Toshiba ones here:http://www.memorymegastore.com/moreInfo.asp?code=TOSCF2GB&tabGroup=GROUP-PC&tabGrpCode=COMP1&tabSelect=Home

the price is currently £16.99 + £3.95 p&p

and the Hi Speed Toshiba ones here: http://www.memorymegastore.com/moreInfo.asp?code=TOSHSCF2GB&tabGroup=GROUP-PC&tabGrpCode=COMP1&tabSelect=TAB5

at only £17.99 + £3.95 p&p

pretty damn good if you ask me... for £1 difference, the hi-speed all the way!!! It says low stock, should be re-stocked early December, so they may have them back in already? I'm in no rush, so will wait until after the new year... price may even drop again, who knows

 

[half_empty1]

i was wondering the other week if there was any advantage to high speed cards,

found these threads, paneuropean seems to know what he is talking about,

so i just went for a bog standard no frills card from misco.co.uk

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20405&highlight=high+speed

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28503&highlight=high+speed

 

[rodskogj]

found these threads, paneuropean seems to know what he is talking about, so i just went for a bog standard no frills card from misco.co.uk

Funny how different people can read the same thread and reach the oposite conclusion... I am now sold on the HiSpeed cards! arthursc (2nd thread) says route recalculation is much faster with high speed.

Anyway, these posts are almost 3 years old now. I think the technical merrits of normal vs hi speed in a gps need to be revisited again and speeds/technology/map sizes have change dramatically

 

[longdog]

High Speed vs. Standard CF Cards

You can find some comments on High Speed and Standard CF Cards on this website and draw your own conclusions.

http://home.socal.rr.com/diverhank/SP26X0UndocumentedFeatures.htm#_Toc144991139