Top SBC Micro SD Card (Group Benchmark)

[@carson3210]

Chris, I expect you will receive Knighthood due to your outstanding work.!

[@williamhorton9763]

I'd love to see Chris (if I may call him Chris) play the Nottingham angle and dress in green tights for an episode and maybe shoot arrows at old hard drives or something.

[@thomasherzog86]

id rather see him declining that as people like Faraday, Shaw or Kipling, but thats just a personal opinion.

[@Okurka.]

Let's hope Chris won't get crowned.

[@spacewolfjr]

I saw the Queen at M&S a few weeks ago and told her about "Sir" (pending) Chris from ExplaningComputers and before I could finish she said "dot com".

[@FlorisApon]

Thank you so much, there are loads of videos that either don't cover this, or are over 4 years old An updated very detailed video about the little buggers is a warm welcome

[@sir_whocampsalot2876]

Welcome to the future, now this very video is already 4 years old itself! But still very relevant.

[@FlorisApon]

Well well well,@@sir_whocampsalot2876 Isn't this funny, I didn't expect to see a response to a 4 year old comment

[@rjbook51]

This was great, and must have been tedious to go through.

[@ExplainingComputers]

It indeed took forever to make this video! :) I've never done seven Raspbian installs in one go before.

[@rjbook51]

@@ExplainingComputers Well, I have always loved the 12 labours of Hercules, and now I have to admire the "7 Installs of CB" I wonder which took longer, the installs or opening those damn card packs? Man, you got geek cred here!

[@MarkTheMorose]

@@rjbook51 Stanley and Mr Scissors are still having flashbacks.

[@yannisgk]

@@rjbook51 LOL!!!

[@rjbook51]

@@MarkTheMorose OMG! LMAO! CB is probably talking to them while self isolating!

[@howardwilliams2587]

Great analysis of real world performance. What is surprising is the overall performance of each uSD was remarkably close and you could choose any of the cards tested and achieve very good results. Thanks Christopher for taking the time to do these test and provide the results in an easy to understand synopsis.

[@Goman1244]

Again, your comparisons are wonderful. I don’t think that anyone else would buy all these SD cards and then take the time to do the comparisons. It is obvious that the tests were fair and unbiased. I will use this video to help guide my purchases in the future.

[@IM-br1eb]

This was by far the best microsd review I’ve seen . Thank you.

[@samyojeetdey3889]

I used a Sandisk ultra 64 gb card from 2015 when it was first launched. It has been replaced 3 times under warranty till date. I am using a Samsung Evo 32gb from 2016 and is working flawlessly till today. You must have taken a lot of time to make this tedious video. Thank you from all of us for making such amazing videos.

[@Eyetrauma]

Great analysis, Chris. I do photography and use my GoPro *in addition to* using SBCs so microSD performance is something I'm always thinking about and my experiences are pretty in line with the outcomes of your benchmarking. One problem I've had with Samsung is that it seems to have a pretty substantial amount of variability: I've had Evo + and Pro Selects that have outstanding performance only to get another from that same line and have it be terrible. AFAIK they're all originals (proper serials, no sketchy packaging), so it really just seems to be kinda hit or miss. Usually I stay away from Lexar just because the price premium they typically have doesn't correspond with better performance/longevity but yours seems reasonably priced. I also hadn't even heard of those high endurance cards, I'll have to check them out. Great video as always!

[@chuckevans2792]

After many outstanding evo selects, the recent ones have abysmal IOPS! Sandisk A2 cards have been good, worth paying more!

[@deedd4401]

my dad's dashcam chewed on a cheap sd fairly quick ... so we got him endurance one and so far, so good

[@6581punk]

Yeah, flash isn't really a great idea for that purpose. But what else can they use?

[@Autotrope]

Dashcam people speak highly of the much cheaper Samsung Evo Plus / Evo Select

[@tlmoller]

As always a great production. A bit of a differnet channel. Sort of look dated and at the same time totaly up to date and hugely satisfactory to watch. Great stuff!

[@lonewolf31337]

Another awesome video. No one else explains tech so clearly. Also I don’t trust most tech videos that rate products because the majority are geared to go for a sponsors product. You have never let me down!

[@MichaelGrantham18]

Highly anticipated video. Excellent stuff, thank you!

[@NewAgeDIY]

The tip about the new diagnostic software was a welcome bit of information. I found this review very timely due to the fact that I’m running a number of MotionEyesOS Pi’s and I was looking for the best SD card to use. Thanks Chris 🙏🏿 Stay safe and healthy my friend! We are living in troubling times but we will pull through😉

[@Delinka3D]

This video answers a lot of questions I've had on the topic, thank you for all the effort you put into this.

[@richardeadon6396]

Great video, must've been quite tiresome to bench all those cards. Your comforting videos and calm demeanour are always welcome, but just what we need at the moment :)

[@user-vn7ce5ig1z]

• The thing that complicates is that for any given card, some attributes might be higher while others might be lower. For example, you might have to choose between a C10 A1 V10 (SanDisk Ultra) or a (no A rating) U3 V30 (SanDisk Extreme Plus). Unfortunately, it's not always as simple as pick the one with the bigger numbers (price not withstanding). • 8:03 - Hmm. 🤔 The Lexar has the highest write IOPS but the second-lowest write speed. 🤨

[@henrikwils9323]

IOPS and throughput are different things.

[@ezg8448]

IOPS is king almost all the time, you read to the card more often then you write to it. Also most reads will be random reads assuming you're running Linux and the such. Only large files like movies get close to the max read speeds.

[@perrymcclusky4695]

I really appreciate the time and effort you put into this video. It was interesting, informative and simply brilliant. Well done!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings Perry, stay well.

[@RoboNuggie]

Every video is learning tour de force.... Thank you Christopher, for everything you do.....

[@elviraeloramilosic9813]

Hello Chris, 👋🏻 Explaining SD cards, excellent as always. Beautifully done. Makes my locked down Sunday brighter. 😁 Just keep on going making this excellent videos and stay safe.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Hi Elvira, here we are again. Thanks for your kind comments. :) I guess that many people are watching this in some kind of lockdown or isolation. So it is good I think that this little bit of normality can continue.

[@elviraeloramilosic9813]

ExplainingComputers Indeed and true. 🙂

[@BILLY-px3hw]

Which micro SD was the most effective against covid-19? that's what we all really want to know

[@akonako364]

Even this vid is already 2 years old, you gave me an idea what sd cards should i buy specially my laptop that only have 64GB emmc storage and doesn't have m.2 slot.

[@indrajitghosh4187]

As always, a very well made video. Thanks for putting in so much effort, this does help in deciding with the next set of cards I am planning to buy. And yes, thanks for including the high endurance cards too!

[@TrystansWorkbench]

Chris, I consistently enjoy your methodology in putting together your presentations. They are very well thought through and give great data. You get to the point and summarise your findings in an exacting manner. The consistency and thoroughness of your approach gives us confidence in your assessments and is a real testament to the number of subscribers of your channel. You're doing good Chris, and I'd brew you a mug of tea any day of the week.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for your kind feedback, much appreciated. :)

[@sbc_tinkerer]

Just recently switched from the SanDisk Ultra to the San Disk Extreme PRO. Thanks for the justification, sir!

[@zebop917]

Please stay safe Chris. I'm expecting to spend a lot of time playing with my Raspberry Pi and stuff over the next few weeks. Your videos will be a lovely highlight to look forward to.

[@anonylesss]

your videos are a ray of sunhine in these crappy crappy times. thank you & stay safe

[@mekuranda]

Amazing detailed tests...Saved for future reference and shopping carts! If you do a similar set of tests on USB sticks i.e. booting a PC via USB and if and when the Pi or other SBC's can boot off USB would be equally save worthy....as always the background info that you give is next to impossible to find in one place...I learned so much more than I expected when starting to watch

[@anonymoususer7663]

Chris you're a hero thank you for being on KZbin!

[@spudhead169]

This is extremely useful information Chris, thanks. Appreciate the time and effort this must have involved.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Glad it was helpful!

[@The_Robert.Fletcher]

Thank you, Chris. Based on your review I settled for the Sandisk Extreme Pro 32 Mb currently selling for £9.69 from Amazon. All this in time for the delivery of my Raspberry Pi 400 next week. All your reviews are very much appreciated.

[@ExplainingComputers]

That is a good price for an Extreme Pro. Amazing how things change! Good luck with your Pi 400, I imagine you will be very pleased with it.

[@neilgoodman2885]

You are still tops in my book. Thanks for the tips on these essential little cards.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks.

[@tpobrienjr]

Revealing. Again a relevant test suite design. Thank you. I continue to be amazed at the low prices.

[@spikekent]

Huge appreciation for all the work you put in to obtain all these results. Thank you Chris.

[@BotBytesHQ]

Thanks for doing this video. Its been really helpful especially when I have been struggling with my Jetson Nano setup and which one to go for. Your overall recommendation did help me select an SD card Lexar as an option and found an excellent deal with Amazon.

[@UNS7OPPABL3]

Excellent video Chris! :) Very useful and professionally made!

[@storage000]

Great! i love how i can always use the actual information coming out of your videos sir, from having my own open vault to getting my very own atomic pi

[@paurano]

Really a great job. Now we can consciously choose an sd card. Your videos are always very useful and comprehensive. Thanks Chris, it's nice to know that we can always count on you to learn new things and thus stay up to date.👍🤗

[@devinhedge]

Long overdue review. Thank you!

[@TBL_stevennelson]

I some time like to buy from different vendors. You never know if some electronics have a high fail rate or if the product was miss handled. This was a great video Thank you and please be safe out there everyone

[@Reziac]

That's insanely useful info. (In fact, I made wallet cards of your charts for next time I'm cruising the SD card displays.) Thanks for enduring all those tests on our behalf. Useful gadget for boosting old PCs: bootable IDE adapter for SD cards. Works great!

[@rogerkoh1979]

I have been ask what SD card are more suitable for Raspberry PI. Thanks to your hard work, we know what to recommend. Another great show.

[@MickeyMishra]

YOU ARE THE MAN! Dude, you really are AMAZING ! It takes a LONG time to do this. GOOD JOB BRO!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks. :)

[@playercatboy]

Great video! Thanks! This is exactly what I want. I’ve been waiting for SD card speed test since Raspberry Pi 3.

[@snowconesreveiws]

Christ this info was so hard to find, you have like the only relevant benchmark and it covered everything I was looking for, god bless.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Glad I could help!

[@srtcsb]

Really good information Chris. Very useful, now that the SBC's are getting faster and more usable as desktop systems. Thanks for another great video.

[@davocc2405]

Three certainties in life - death and taxes on one hand and on the other hand - superb videos from Christopher, just as he has delivered here once again. Faster cards are particularly useful in an SBC, I have a Pi 4b (4gig) and I swapped out a 32gig older card for a faster Lexar 32gig card - HUGE difference in all operational functions when you're using it as a desktop replacement. I also spec'd a card for a friend of mine in Australia and we achieved staggering write speeds on it - it was so fast writing Raspbian I thought it'd failed to write at all and did it 3 times over (I was doing this remotely through RDP over SSH). I think from memory it was a Lexar 128gig card, he was using a USB 3 micro card reader. It seemed to be writing at roughly hard drive speeds.

[@Urosaurus]

Thank you, your channel and your work helps me maintain some sense of normalcy! I hope that you are well.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for watching. I am well right now, and I hope you and all others here are too.

[@Urosaurus]

@@ExplainingComputers Thank you. It is very good to hear that. Your channel will help me use some time now to learn new skills and have some fun, I hope, too.

[@Froggie92]

thanks for the video answering my question chris! ❤️

[@rv6amark]

Great video, Christopher! Another area you may want to explore is USB-C cables. That has become a real tangled mess! (Pun intended!)

[@DiyEcoProjects]

Yeay, thank you chris for doing this video. I appreciate it. I still find it amazing that you can fit so much memory on a fiddly bit of plastic chip. Not all memory card readers as the same ... would you be interested in making a video about those maybe? All the best, kieron

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks Kieron.

[@timmienorrie]

A really well thought out test. Very informative results. Well done and thank you.

[@Aimad_99]

the intro is just flawless 😍

[@ExplainingComputers]

You are very kind, thanks. :)

[@YounesLayachi]

Appreciate the details ! Thanks for yet another useful video

[@timpeterson2738]

Thanks for doing all this research, I'll be referencing this data on future purchases

[@Vennotius]

Great video. We appreciate all the trouble you went through to give us this valuable information.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Glad it was helpful.

[@81pieda]

When I saw your previous video about SD cards that you have posted a few weeks ago, I was wondering how a good comparison of different brands / types could be useful. So thanks a lot for reading my mind ;)

[@Normazing]

I did not expect the Lexar to perform as well as it did, I bought the san disk extreme pro without seeing this video first but after watching it I am confident I made the right choice

[@rikprince8414]

Excellent video, as usual! You have far more patience than I, fine Sir!

[@dffabryr]

Congratulations for your videos all there are crystal clear and very professional. Thank you very much!!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thank you very much!

[@chriholt]

Thank you for doing these tests Chris, I found the results very interesting!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks Chris, stay well in these difficult times.

[@anthonymccarthy4164]

Between your two videos on this topic I finally feel like I have a clue about this topic. Thank you.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Excellent!

[@cliffordjamesbloomfield4161]

I sincerely appreciate the work you put into your videos. Thank-you very much!

[@rick-lj9pc]

I don't think your videos are too long, so changing the length won't really matter- let the topic and how much you really have to say about it determine the length. Keep doing good content and the views will follow. You could also add a forum that your members could suggest show topics- and other members could vote on which they really like. Here are some topics I think you could make some interesting content for: How much CPU performance does my PI/Pico/Arduino have compared to older personal computers? I think most people would be amazed at how powerful our cheap modern SBC and micro controllers are compared to older PCs that they might remember using. Maybe a chart showing integer MIPS or other CPU benchmark vs year of introduction for 386/486/Pentium/Pentium II etc. Portable storage- Do NVME USB enclosures make USB flash drives obsolete? Compare performance of a few samples of each like your Top SBC Micro SD Card (Group Benchmark) video. It would also be useful to look at some real-world test cases like copying a directory with a bunch of files and doing system backup. Why isn't my new computer that much faster than my old one except in benchmarks? Explain how Amdahl's law shows why multi core performance can be very disappointing with real world software you could also touch on why graphics cards can actually make use of thousands of processors.

[@Colin_Ames]

Thanks Chris. Another very informative video. Stay healthy!

[@ninline2000]

I appreciate the hard work here. This is very useful information.

[@carsetc1794]

Great video young man, I was wondering this exact thing a few days ago!

[@rogierx]

Thanks alot for this excellent reference video - i was waiting for this for a long time

[@leeoliver2969]

Lots of good work. Could detect a very small trace of seriousness in your delivery. Thanks for giving me something neutral to watch this morning.

[@BharatMohanty]

Greetings from India sir. Its lockdown here in my city. watching videos or making videos (or reading books) is the option left for me...

[@ExplainingComputers]

Glad you are watching. Stay well.

[@BharatMohanty]

@@ExplainingComputers stay safe sir..🙏

[@Okurka.]

Is that the 14-hour lockdown?

[@BharatMohanty]

@@Okurka.now extended to 31st March with immediate effect

[@СергейД-ч4ь]

Wish you luck from Russia!!!!

[@VorpalForceField]

Excellent Comparison..!! Thank You for the hard work .. Cheers :)

[@1lukaszlew124]

wow. Great review and comparison. Well done. Thank u :)

[@nikobellic570]

Thanks for this comparison. My go-to card became the Sandisk Ultra after years of enduring the slow speeds of Kingston class 4, which were the cheapest ones on ebay. Slow cards compounded the sluggishness of earlier Pi models, and Kodi became unusable. Lesson learned. The right sdcard is transformative and i'm glad the word is being spread.

[@Jeroenvdv]

Excellent video, as always. Now, during lockdown, started ordering; the PI4 is already delivered, next some SanDisk's extreme pro or the Lexar, depending on the price and availability.

[@yomismo416]

A magnificent video, my congratulations. Thanks for your input. Cheers

[@ExplainingComputers]

Many thanks!

[@johnhealy9231]

Once again Chris an educational video I’ve learned something I like most thought all cards where the same but with different amount of gb👍

[@buhnux]

Great video! Some other things to consider when buying an SD card is, what environment will the SD card going to operate in? I have a pi in my attic, which reaches pretty high temps in the summer. For example, the Samsung pro and Sandisk extreme and high endurance (and probably others) have a higher max operating temperature than many other SD cards, so I chose one of these. Another example could be if you want an SD card in for you dash cam in your car.

[@NOPerative]

Excellent. Can't say that I expect any less from EC - quality meets practicality.

[@heedmywarning2792]

I always appreciate your videos.

[@jackpatteeuw9244]

Very interesting ! Especially the fact the the "high endurance" cards are not much more expensive than the rest of the field.

[@muddyexport5639]

Thanks! Good job! Informative as usual!

[@MrKoNtI1]

This is was really a good point. Great video

[@adoby83]

For endurence using a SD card you can make changes to how the operating system works. For instance you can allow dirty data to accumulate and merge before writes. Good for log files. You can also turn off the accessed timestamp for files. And you can turn off swap and use zram instead. OMV has this "packaged" in their flash memory plugin. And I think it really makes many SBCs function as very reliable NAS platforms with impressive endurance, running from SD card. The plugin is nice for PC based NAS as well. Using the flash memory plugin you can run the NAS from a USB stick with good reliability. Of course this only works if you don't use the flash memory for things like databases or media metadata. But it is usually possible to store that stuff on other media. Perhaps you should make a video about how you can make a SD card or a USB thumbdrive work as a boot and root filesystem drive by reducing the writes to the flash memory?

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great video idea -- noted.

[@fravier10001]

Pretty interesting idea!

[@adoby83]

No. Not if you use berryboot to install to flash memory. For instance a thumbdrive. You need to take measures to reduce writes to a thumbdrive as well. Only if you use berryboot to install and run distro from a SSD, then endurance will be improved. It may be much cheaper and efficient to modify use of a SD card or a thumbdrive simply by adjusting how the OS writes to flash memory.

[@ConfuSomu]

Using zram instead of a swap partition or file is a good point. Instead of writing temporary data to disk, tmpfs can be used for /tmp, /var/log and /home/pi/.cache, for example. You won't get logs after a reboot, but this is generally not needed. When the system has frozen, instead of pulling the plug and risking data corruption, SysRq can be used to safely shutdown (while syncing the file systems) the machine. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_request

[@yaserhumeid3922]

Your content is pure GOLD Thank You so much

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks.

[@stuartofblyth]

Very useful. Thanks for the closer look.

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@resrussia]

Thanks for an excellent video on micro SD cards. Keep up the good work!

Man, you must have the patience of a saint, as my dear old mum used to say! Still, as always, you have come through for us once again with another extremely useful video. Not only is this video good for finding out the best card for small form-factor computers like the pie, but also for general use in modern day computers. For example, I quite often use them instead of USB thumb drives for when I want to keep stuff away from prying eyes (insert your imagination here.) I mean, try swallowing a thumb drive over a micro sd and you will see what I mean 😉.

[@ExplainingComputers]

This video did indeed take some time to produce! :)

[@davidderfus3462]

GREAT VIDEO !! !! !! Thanks for putting in the time, GREATLY APPRECIATED !! !! !!

[@ExplainingComputers]

No problem 👍

[@danniandersen5858]

Great video mate, thank you for doing the tests and giving us the results. Cheers!

[@brianheywood8330]

Clearly explained and well researched - Well Done :-)

[@ExplainingComputers]

Many thanks!

[@encycl07pedia-]

It's a good thing you don't broadcast news, Christopher. The world would think COVID-19 was no big deal due to how cool and calm your voice is. lol

[@MichelMorinMontreal]

Greetings! Without a doubt, this is one of the most brilliant, exhaustive and useful test of the last few months (OK, OK, maybe of the few last weeks, the author being an expert in digital pertinence! And I will personally take his "strong suspicions" about the specific format of the 2 last MSDs as a bloody good probability...!) I am already planning purchases based on these results. Once again, many thanks!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for your positive feedback. :)

[@OleMose]

Chris, You know our needs. :) I have been thinking about this for so long. How should i find out, whats the best card, not just trusting the specifications? You did it. :)

[@JoseLopez-oz1xm]

Great info Chris, always looking forward to Sunday morning. 😊

[@jackladd4332]

Brilliant and very very helpful video Chris. Thank you.

[@martkt10]

Great review, good to see the Lexar is still a good card as i use them with my Raspberry pi 4 and my android phone

[@jdloop]

What we really need is some way to gauge/measure the wear/write leveling? I have a project with several dozen rpis over the last couple years, not an esp taxing application, and two cards have failed, and there is really NO "reliable" OS indication of the write failure -which we think it is. One card we read to remake it, the other card loses writes on a reboot, but "works?" Digging into kern msgs I get clues, but I wonder if the OS/Linux is up to figuring out what is going on under the hood for these microSD cards!? Can the "fsck" handle these cards? I noticed agnostics pkg, but don't think there is anything in there for that... Thanks for a great video!!!! Best explanation I have found.

[@josiahmoorhouse8036]

Thank you for this extremely informative and well-prepared video!

[@gustavgurke9665]

I appreciate your work, I imagine it's kinda tedious to do all these tests... seven times in a row. I usually just choose whatever is cheap and looks good on paper (usually SanDisk cards) but maybe I will use this as a reference next time. Thanks!

[@stillfindingmyway]

Watching this on my Raspberry Pi 3 (OS installed on a hard drive, though). Great video as always Chris!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Ah, you have the benefit of USB boot on a Pi 3. :)

[@stillfindingmyway]

@@ExplainingComputers Yes, my Pi boots from a hard drive but as I couldn't get the auto-boot feature to work, I simply leave a small SD card in the Pi and have setup NOOBS to install the OS (sometime ago) to the external hard drive. It works really well! This has the advantage that when the Pi caches to disk, it does so to a hard drive that can handle repeated write cycles. Of course, using a hard drive like this, particularly over USB2, makes the already slow Pi even slower but hey-ho. Chris, you are sounding a little gruff - please look after yourself

[@x0rZ15t]

As always an amazing job! Keep up a great work!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks, will do!

[@IWatchedWhat]

Thank you Chris, infomative as always.