2GB MS Pro Duo Shootout - Sony vs. Sandisk

[Odie]

Well, in the past week I've had both the Sony and Sandisk 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo cards in my possession and I've benchmarked both of them alongside a 512mb Sandisk stick.

I think the results below speak for themselves:

http://www.simpa.net/mspdtest/Cards.jpeg

http://www.simpa.net/mspdtest/specs.gif

http://www.simpa.net/mspdtest/SpeedTest.gif


The 2GB Sony card also took noticeably longer to format in the PSP as well as longer to write savegame data.

Also worth mentioning is that the Sandisk 2GB card has a huge 40MB more formatted capacity than the 2GB Sony.

Needless to say I've now kept the Sandisk 2GB stick and sold the Sony one.

I hope this little 'guide' has been of some use to anyone considering which 2GB memory stick to buy.

- Odie

[Privateer]

How much are Sandisks?

[Odie]

They're slightly more than the 2GB Sony cards just now in the UK, I purchased mine from an Amazon.co.uk Marketplace seller for just under 150 including next day delivery. Well worth the extra ~15 pounds over the Sony in my opinion. Also be aware that many of the Sony 2GB cards being sold on ebay do not come with the full sized MS adaptor even though the sellers may have copied and pasted incorrect item descriptions which say it is included.

Before anyone tries to state the obvious, yes I know that two 1GB sticks would have cost significantly less money, but I think not having to swap sticks and split videos and/or files just to get them to fit makes up for the price premium of getting a single 2GB stick.

[leggy]

I still think I will wait a bit longer till either the prices reduce or a decent hard drive is develloped.

[YourStillWithMe]

When you get 2 Sony 1GB's for 30 bucks a pop like I did (brand new and in the box too) you fail to care as much. It IS very useful. But the fact that it is less than more than half the price of an average 1gb memory stick sold for sandisk you love yourself. Sandisk around 130-140 bucks for a 1gb half of that is 65 dollars or 70 . . .my deal was a steal.

[wakeuphater]

Why do you even need a 2GB memory card? I have a SanDisk 512mb card and I have a ton of stuff on it, Lua player, Megadrive, and NesterJ, plus a ton of games and I have 400mb still free. Just curious why you want such a big memory stick.

[Kamike]

Mostly for the game iSOs that are more or less around the 300mb ballpark. I mean, there are some games which are 600mb and those are must-haves. besides, having a couple of videos along with your isos is neat.

by the way yourstillwithme, where did you get those sticks for 30$? :o

[Odie]

I tend to take my PSP on trips and with a 2GB card I can fit many hours of video on without having to sacrifice quality. That and the fact that I have a spare battery means that I can have up to about 10 hours of video and some gaming time when I'm away without the charger.

[YourStillWithMe]

wakeuphater-Yeah, agreed man. I dont see a huge use for the 2GB memory stick. However if your going away for a week or something its VERY NICE to have and not everyone has access to a pc fast and easily. I however do not see a huge use for it. A 1GB does it for me. It just depends on what you prefer and what your willing to spend

im spent

[Psphreak]

Is it in the formatting or something that gives the Sandisk more room? I remember the Sony 1gig gave 960 or so megs after formatting while the Sandisk gave 949 megs. Glad to see Sandisk being on top.

[Green_Hawk]

The Sandisks aren't nearly as stable though.

[Odie]

Is it in the formatting or something that gives the Sandisk more room? I remember the Sony 1gig gave 960 or so megs after formatting while the Sandisk gave 949 megs. Glad to see Sandisk being on top.

Nope, the card appears to physically have more bytes of capacity to begin with (as reported by Windows explorer). Both cards come formatted with FAT16, but that doesn't affect the capcity figure shown in bytes. 40MB is a considerable amount of extra space.



The Sandisks aren't nearly as stable though.

Could you please explain what you mean by that?

I've had extensive experience with different flash memory cards over the past few years and the only other time I have been as disappointed with the performance of a card as I was with the 2GB Sony MS Duo was when Sandisk used to put out some very poor SD cards which were prone to data corruption in some PDAs, but that was a long time ago now. I've had about 6 different Sandisk MS Pro Duos since I got my PSP in January (not due to any fault, I just tend to buy and sell a lot) and I've not had a single issue so I'd be very interested to know what you mean when you say they're not "stable".

[Humbug]

for reliability ive found sony are quiet good but for speed use san disk :)

[YourStillWithMe]

Wait so Sony is a lot more "stable" and probably less likely to become corruput? I had a Sandisk 1GB and it went dead or got crrupt or whatever in like 3-4 months i was pissssssssstttttt. LUCKILY i had all my game saves and eboots and stuff BACKED UP on my pc like you all should incase something like that happens to you. Sandisk is faster and Sony is less likely to become corrupt? I just got 2 1GBS for 30 bucks a pop so i think thats a good deal :cool: :)

[Odie]

I seriously doubt the Sony cards are any more stable than the Sandisk ones. The fact that the speed is so poor tends to suggest that the memory chips used in the Sony ones are of lower quality, that doesn't exactly scream "stable" to me.

[blublu]

Anyone noticed the new Sony Pro Duo's with high-speed on it?

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6451_7-6296352-4.html

The one the OP tested was the Sony pro duo that didn't have High-speed on it right? There's definitely 2 versions out there so just wondering how this new one would compare to Sandisk...

[Odie]

Yes, there is a High-Speed Sony card, but there is also an "Ultra II" Sandisk High-Speed model as well. The two "regular" version cards I tested are comparable price-wise so the test was fair.

In the PSP it's possible that there will be little or no performance increase with the "High-Speed" cards because I remember reading something awhile back about the device having to specifically support the high-speed MS Duo specification which the PSP doesn't. I could be totally wrong though as I think the info is a few months old.

Either way, the 2GB High-Speed models from Sony and Sandisk cost considerably more than the standard ones (I've seen the Sandisk for ~190 quid)

[bcj_i]

Can any one help? will a sandisk 1gb produce the same results over a sony 1gb, bigger mem etc? which is better, sorry to be a drag lol

[PSPFR3AK]

i have sony 2GB and when i save games like NFS or MGA its slowing down...
:mad:

[Bailey]

lol, just what i want to read 2 daze away from my 2 x 2gb sony duo2 sticks arriving....

...Damn there's a lot of 2's in that.