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OCZ Gold Series SDHC 8GB


Date
: 02/11/09 – 01:52:39 AM

Author
:

Category
: Storage

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: OCZ Technology

Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) was first introduced in 2006 but the technology of secure digital memory cards have been in existence since late 1999. This year marks the introduction of SDXC: Secure Digital eXtended Capacity. This doesn't make SDHC cards obsolete, as a matter of fact, they are really just entering their prime.

OCZ released the Gold Series SDHC card as the successor to original OCZ SDHC Memory card. Both can be found in the Class 6 speed rating, but the Gold Series was designed with professional photography and high definition video applications in mind. With a capacity of up to 16GB, we're entering a world where your battery will be long dead before you fill your memory card. Today, we have the 8GB OCZ Gold Series SDHC card on hand for testing.

Page 2 : Package & Content

The OCZ Gold Series SDHC comes in a standard blister package, far too excessive in my mind. The cardboard insert shows a few key pieces of information but the memory card itself takes up approximately 1/9th of area. In a day and age where cost cutting is important, this packaging is a prime place to shave a few cents.

The back of the package have some good information, but nothing we can't find online. The best piece of information here is the capacity chart, showing how many photos or how long of a video can be recorded with the 8GB OCZ SDHC Gold.

The blister package is heat sealed along the edge; you will need a good sharp knife or a pair of scissors to open it up. Once you do, you can pull out the SDHC card and its protective case. The card looks exactly like every other SDHC card on the market.

On the front side of the card we have a label showing OCZ's name, the product family and the capacity. Directions on which way to insert and how-to write protect the card are also printed on the label. The back of the card is etched with the serial number, capacity and class rating. The contacts on the card are gold plated in color, how fitting for its name.

Here's a quick look at the sliding lock to write protect the memory card.

Page 3 : Features & Specifications

The OCZ Gold Series SDHC comes in 3 sizes: 4GB, 8GB and 16GB depending on your need. The specifications are all the same and can be found OCZ's product page

OCZ Gold Series Secure Digital(TM) High-Capacity (SDHC) flash memory cards offer professional photographers and videographers unbridled performance combined with ample storage capabilities for high-resolution pictures and video. These premium memory cards offer professionals and enthusiasts incredible speeds up to 150X and up to 16GB capacity, to deliver flawless performance and ultra-reliable storage for high-definition video or photos.

OCZ Gold Series SDHC cards are ideal for the latest D-SLRs to deliver exceptional shooting performance, speed, and reliability to accelerate photo and video transfers from card to computer. With a blazing 150X write performance at Speed Class 6 and available in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB capacities, OCZ SDHC Gold Series is designed and optimized for HD video enthusiasts and photography professionals shooting a faced-paced action sequence or a memorable occasion.

OCZ Gold Series SDHC cards allow you to capture every moment perfectly, and are backed by an industry-leading lifetime warranty and legendary support for the ultimate peace of mind.

Just like every other SD card on the market, this one measures 1.25′x15/16′x1/16′ (LxWxH).

The 8GB version that I have has the following listed capacity, OCZ states that the numbers are based on JPEG files and vary from camera model and personal settings.

Page 4 : Installation & Test Setup

There's not a whole lot to do for memory card installation. If you plan on writing files to the card, make sure the card is not write-protected. Installation is then very straight forward, you can only insert the card one way on all devices that I've had.

For testing purposes, I will be using a 150X SDHC card reader along with my regular day-to-day machine.

• CPU: Intel C2D Q6600 (G0 SLACR L731B434) @ 2.71 GHz
  
  
• CPU Cooling: Thermalright HR-01 w/ 120mm Antec Tri-Cool Fan
• MB: Asus P5E3-Dlx Wifi-AP Edition
• RAM: Aeneon 2x2GB XTune DDR3-1600 @ 10-10-10-30 1T
• PWM/NB/SB Cooling: Stock
• PSU: Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W
• HD: Seagate SATA 80 GB 8MB NCQ (ST380811AS)
• OS: Windows Vista x64
• Sapphire HD 4850 X2 Catalyst 8.12

Flash Memory

• OCZ Gold Series SDHC – 8GB
  
  
• OCZ SDHC 4GB Class 6

I'll be running the following benchmarks: 32MB ATTO Disk Bench with transfer sizes of 0.5 to 1024KB, 1000MB File size CrystalDiskMark v2.2, HD Tach RW v3.0.1.0 and HD Tune Pro 3.10. All benchmarks will be executed 3 times with rests in between. The average result will be published along with sample graphs as applicable.

I will also capture my experience of using the Gold Series SDHC with my Canon SD880IS digital camera and Samsung SC-MX20 digital camcorder.

Page 5 : Test Results

ATTO Disk Benchmark

ATTO Disk Benchmark is a commonly used program by manufacturer to gage how fast a drive reads and writes. With the OCZ Gold Series, we're off to a good start with the memory card peaking out at 11.4MB/s write and 20.2MB/s read. The 20.2MB/s read speed is lower than the listed 22.5MB/s transfer rate for 150X however the 11.4MB/s write speed far exceeds the minimum class 6 of 6MB/s.

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark is another synthetic benchmark that determines read and write speeds for sequential performance, performance with transfer sizes of 512KB and with 4KB. The results are very similar to those from ATTO.

HD Tach RW v3.0.1.0

HDTach gives us our first look of performance from start to finish. The drive almost consistently write at 12MB/s and reads at 20MB/s. There were a few hiccup that caused the read and write performance to take a small dip. HD Tach RW also shows our CPU utilization to sit at 3% and gives a random access time of under 1ms. Both numbers are very respectable.

HD Tune

Our final synthetic benchmark is HD Tune. It does essential the same thing as HD Tach and the numbers are identical.

From the benchmarks we've seen, the OCZ Gold Series has consistent read and write performance. When I put the 8GB OCZ GOld Series SDHC card inside my SD880IS I was pleasantly surprised by the write performance the card offered in real world testing. I set the camera up to shoot at the highest resolution (3648×2736) and at the superfine level. The card was able to hold 1824 photos at this setting. At the lowest resolution, 640×480, the card holds over 10,000 photos. Each picture at the highest resolution and detail was 3.382 MB and with continuous mode I
never
had to wait for the camera finish writing on the memory card before being able to take another photo. I fired off 200+ photos before getting tired of holding down the button. When I tried the same test with the original OCZ SDHC card, it would occasionally flash a ‘busy’ icon indicating the buffer is getting full but still the pictures only slowed down for a split second before going right back into rapid fire. The camera shoots at approximately 1.4 frames per second on continuous mode.
After formatting the 8GB OCZ Gold Series SDHC for my Samsung SC-MX20, I was able to store 4 hours, 4 minutes and 54 seconds of video. The battery was only good for 164 minutes!

Page 6 : Conclusion

OCZ wasn't going to let us down with a sub-par memory card, and they didn't. The OCZ Gold Series SDHC card exceeded the claimed expectations of a Class 6 memory card. We peaked out at 11.5MB/s write and 20MB/s read. These numbers are similar to the original OCZ Class 6 SDHC card, but it does have a slight advantage from the tests I've done.

I've used the Gold Series card with my SD880IS and it never failed to capture an action shot. If I went back to my old 133X SD card, I may have missed an opportunity due to the slow writing onto the card. Something I think justifies buying a new memory card for my camera. While the price of the OCZ Gold Series may be a tad higher than the original OCZ Class 6 SDHC, it holds the advantage of having a lifetime warranty ensuring your money is well spent.

If you want a product that will last a lifetime with affordable performance, the OCZ Gold Series SDHC is worth your time and consideration.

Advantages

• Exceeds Class 6 Write Speed
  
  
• Lifetime warranty

Disadvantage

• Small performance increase over existing OCZ Class 6 SDHC

Overclockers Online would like to thank OCZ for making this review possible.