13 SDHC Memory Cards Reviewed

OCZ SDHC 8 GB, Patriot SDHC 16 GB

OCZ also sent a memory card for review. Their sample stores 8 GB and is rated at Class 6 speed, which equals a 6 MB/s minimum sequential write throughput. OCZ offers 4 GB and 8 GB models, and it also has Class 4 cards at the same capacity points.

OCZ also has a Gold Series, which is rated at 150x (30 MB/s) and available at up to 16 GB, but unfortunately we did not get this model for our roundup. That might have been the better product, as the OCZ Class 6 SDHC card is fast, but not a winner: 15.3 MB/s read throughput and 11.5 MB/s sequential writes were the fastest numbers we could get during our testing. However, OCZ still beats Kingston’s SD6 card and the Lexar Platinum II when it comes to write performance, as it sustains 11 MB/s at all times.

Details are available on the OCZ Web site.

Patriot Memory SDHC Class 6, 16 GB

Patriot also plays in the SDHC arena, as memory cards fit well into its product portfolios, which are dominated by memory products. The SDHC Class 6 card delivered a maximum write throughput of 13.4 MB/s, while we could read from it at the maximum speed of 19.7 MB/s. That’s the maximum throughput of our card reader, and also as fast as 95% of all other USB 2.0 and SATA card readers can go.

Patriot Memory offers four different models. While the 4 GB, 8 GB and 16 GB capacity points are all Class 6 rated, the 32 GB top model was rated at Class 4, which is rather common. Unfortunately, the specification page doesn’t contain any valuable information, except a table to show people how much data they can store at each of the capacity points. Information on the temperature operating range would be more valuable, for example.

Details are available on the Patriot Web site.