What is the fastest CF USB2.0 card reader

[2100]

Hi,

Wondering who knows where to get a fast CF or multi-slot card reader? USB 2.0. Just got a Transcend 120x card.

I know SLS has got a lot, but i'd prefer a fast reader. Max budget is $100. Thaks!

 

[2100]

Oh btw, i already have 3 readers for my 3 computers. But then the oldest one is v. slow at about 3-4MB/s, even though all of them are USB 2.0. There is a noticeable diff. Now would prefer a fast reader for my main comp coz the CF pretty big lar, i store all sorts of things/rubbish inside. Thanks.

 

[skf]

assuming you are using a desktop PC, why not get a firewire card for about $30/-, if have available PCI slots and willing to open up the PC to do the installation

Then get the Lexar firewire CF reader (thats is about $80~ ?, i think)

 

[igpenguin]

yup concur on firewire..

 

[Cursor]

I think if you just want to stick to USB, then when you look for card reader make sure on the USB logo you see the word "High-Speed" printed on it. Cos High-speed will indicate that the device can transfer to near 400Mb/s.
If it is a USB 2.0 Logo, with no text, then I think is it Full Speed. Hence the transfer rate is I think less then 11Mb/s.
Since you got $100 to spare you can get more branded one, so that you know the logo is not just anyhow print one with nobody certify one.

Can see http://www.usb.org/developers/compliance/logo/ to see how the logo look like.

 

[2100]

assuming you are using a desktop PC, why not get a firewire card for about $30/-, if have available PCI slots and willing to open up the PC to do the installation

Then get the Lexar firewire CF reader (thats is about $80~ ?, i think)

Yup, i have firewire already, coz i have a capture card. Lexar CF reader, any pointers where to buy? Tks.

cursor, actually i am on USB 2.0 already, counting the ones i have in office i have 5. But the fastest one is only about 9MB/sec. The slowest is 5MB/s. All are High-speed capable. However there is a speed difference.

 

[zcf]

can let me know which brand and model is the 9Mbyte/s one please, looking for one now.

 

[adamadam]

How does the speed of the Lexar 32-bit cardbus compare?

 

[skf]

Yup, i have firewire already, coz i have a capture card. Lexar CF reader, any pointers where to buy? Tks.
....

I bought mine quite a while back. I don't remember seeing them anywhere lately.

To date, I have only seen the Sandisk one (100+ range, Ouch!!, that was why I never buy) and the Lexar one (seemed to remember a $79 figure). I had no trouble with mine, but an acquaintance was cusring and sweaing at his...

 

[igpenguin]

i did some tests:

Card: 1GB Sandisk Extreme I
Data: 939 mb (RAW+JPG)

Card to PC transfer (PC Desktop)
1. Lexar Firewire: 99 sec
2. Generic USB2.0 #1: 363 sec
3. Generic USB2.0 #2: 336 sec

Card to notebook (Intel Duo Core)
1. Generic USB2.0 #1: 359 sec

Card to iBook transfer
1. Lexar Firewire: 93 sec

My Conclusion:
I have two rather slow USB2.0 readers

 

[yanyewkay]

USB transfer speeds is also related to CPU power. USB requires CPU processing power to transfer. Even with 2.0 Hi-Speed certified, you wun be able to achieve consistent 480mb/s as stated in the usb.org site. Although FW is rated 'slower' than USB2.0 at 400mb/s (iirc). USB2 requires CPU processing power and has MORE data overheads per packet compared to FW. FW on the other hand, has it's own dedicated controller and doesn't rely on CPU power.

I've used this analogy many times in CS.
Imagine there's a group of 30 tourists (your data in CF card) waiting to reach a destination and the only way is thru a bridge 100km away (data connection) will a ferrari(USB2.0) be able to transport them over faster or a tourist bus(Firewire)?

Ferrrari(USB2.0) has very fast top speed but in normal traffic conditions can only do bursts of top speeds and carry only 1-2 passenger each time(high data overhead, each packet of data has lots of other information attached). The tourist bus can carry all 30 at 1 go at a consistent 'slow' (relative) speed.

All tourist (data) will reach your destination (computer) faster than the ferrari can.

 

[mpenza]

Yup, i have firewire already, coz i have a capture card. Lexar CF reader, any pointers where to buy? Tks.

cursor, actually i am on USB 2.0 already, counting the ones i have in office i have 5. But the fastest one is only about 9MB/sec. The slowest is 5MB/s. All are High-speed capable. However there is a speed difference.

9MB/s is pretty fast liao. The bottleneck could be the harddisk and CPU processing.

Phil got around 9MB/s using Cardbus 32bit (is this faster than USB2.0?):
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond200/page12.asp

 

[2100]

9MB/s is pretty fast liao. The bottleneck could be the harddisk and CPU processing.

Phil got around 9MB/s using Cardbus 32bit (is this faster than USB2.0?):
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond200/page12.asp

I see, so my card reader already pretty fast. Anyway, I got a Prolink USB 2.0 one, i see the filenames jump ok lar, can do. Coz just got a 4GB Transcend 120X, so the read speed needs to be fast. (esp since i incorporate Morning Express Highlights Montage into my standard package nowadays as promo).

Write will be bottlenecked by my D200 (to about 7MB/s, according to Rob Galbraith)

 

[Wai]

Forget about USB if you need to read/write lots of files...although USB is capable of 480MB/s while firewire only 400MB/s, but USB cannot sustain the high speed, so in the end it will be slower (much much slower) than firewire when transfering lots of files

but if u think firewire is fast, 32bit card bus is faster than firewire reader, and the differnet is rather significant (when tested on apple powerbook)

however, it is very troublesome to use card bus reader on desktop, cos the adapter is expensive.

I got my lexar firewire reader from east gear booth during one of the IT show last year.

 

[2100]

Forget about USB if you need to read/write lots of files...although USB is capable of 480MB/s while firewire only 400MB/s, but USB cannot sustain the high speed, so in the end it will be slower (much much slower) than firewire when transfering lots of files

It's funny how come CF card readers (USB) always seem to be slow. I have an ultra high-speed 1GB USB2 flash thumb drive and after timing using the stopwatch on my mobile, I realised that it could read (Flash > PC) at about 13MB/s. The flash drive is not cheap, about 30% more expensive than the norm.

But i guess for current 2-4GB cards I have, it's ok to get the faster USB readers. Next time USB 3 liao, then perhaps 16GB is quite normal.

But then a bit du lan, coz i have 5 systems to do my DI, buying 4 Firewire cards a bit funny leh.

 

[2100]

i did some tests:

Can't seem to find the Lexar Firewire reader. Forgot about EG though...haven't check.

 

[igpenguin]

I got mine from TK Foto over a year ago... TCW was carrying it too, don't know about now