Crucial 12-in-1 Flash Reader and 1GB Secure Digital Card

The ever-growing technology industry has provided us with many useful devices such as digital cameras and for entertainment such as MP3 players. These devices require the use of some type of flash memory card in order to read and write data because they consume less energy. It shouldn’t be a surprise when you hear Crucial with the term ‘Flash Memory’. Crucial Technology is a sub-division of Micron Technology. Micron Technology is a leading manufacturer of quality chips geared towards performance and stability. Crucial is more famous for their desktop products, such as their Ballistix line of memory. They also manufacture all types of flash memory and provide inexpensive solutions for card readers. Crucial has their own line of flash memory and we are proud to show off Crucial’s Secure Digital card and their Flash Reader.

Flash Reader and Specifications

Crucial 12-in-1 Flash Reader:

Crucial’s 12-in-1 Flash Reader supports 12 card types in 4 slots. The supported media are as follows: Memory Stick®, Memory Stick Pro/Pro Duo (need adapter)/Duo, Secure Digital™, miniSD, MultiMediaCard™, RS MMC (need adapter), Smart Media™, Microdrive®, CompactFlash™ Type I/II. This card reader uses a USB connection and is compliant with USB 1.1 and USB 2.0. Located on the top left hand corner is a CompactFlash/Microdrive slot. Below it is the slot for Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard. Immediately to it’s right is the Smart Media slot. Above that is the slot for Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro/Pro Duo/mini-SD. There is an LED on the card reader to let the user know that it is receiving power and operational (green color) or if it is in operation (blinking orange color). Card to card data transfer is supported. Best of all, you don’t need external power to operate this reader.

Specifications**:**

• Supports USB 2.0
• Works with Microsoft® Windows® 98®SE and higher and Mac® OS 9.0 or higher (drivers required for Windows 98 SE)
• Size: 4.331 in. x 2.402 in. x 0.6299 in. (110 mm x 61 mm x 16 mm)
• Plastic exterior
• Drag files between memory card and computer
• Card-to-card data transfer
• No external power required
• Supports hot-swapping
• Low power consumption
• Read-from and write-to capability

Secure Digital Card

Crucial 1GB Secure Digital Card:

Crucial’s Secure Digital line of flash memory comes in four sizes: 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB. Secure Digital cards are rated differently. Write and read speed will vary; the faster the speed, the more you pay. Secure Digital is popular due to its low battery consumption and size. Many technological devices adopted Secure Digital as a storage method due to these factors. Like other Secure Digital cards, Crucial’s card also has a locking mechanism to prevent accidental deletion and others from deleting your saved data.

Testing Setup and Results

Testing Method:

Testing will be conducted using SiSoft Sandra Flash Memory benchmark. The Crucial 1GB Secure Digital card will be pitted against a SanDisk 512MB card for speed comparisons. Storage size will be neglected during testing, due to size differences. I have included a CompactFlash card to provide a general sense of performance. None of my cameras use CompactFlash anymore, so I do not have any cards larger than 32MB.

Test System:

• AMD Athlon64 3000+ Winchester (9 x 275FSB = 2.475GHz @ 1.65v)
• MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
• 2 x 512MB PDC1G3200+XBLK (2 x 512MB @ 2.5-3-3-7)
• Leadtek GeForce FX 5950 Winfast A380 Ultra (500 MHz Core Frequency / 1000MHz Memory Frequency)
• TTGI SF-450TS 450W Power Supply

Competition:

• Crucial 1GB Secure Digital Card
• SanDisk 512MB Secure Digital Card
• Canon Hi-Speed 32MB CompactFlash Card

Results:

Conclusion and Thoughts

Crucial’s 1GB Secure Digital card is not much different from the many products out there. Most Secure Digital cards are rated to have up to 6-8 MB/s read speeds and 3-5 MB/s write speeds. Any faster would mean spending more money. For regular uses, such as traveling, the 1GB should suffice. Taking pictures in medium quality and a decent resolution would allow for a great number of pictures. You wouldn’t use up the memory unless you have a weird craze and love for pictures. Music wise, assuming each MP3 is about 5MB each in size, you could probably store around 200 songs on your MP3 player. What makes this card special from every other 1GB card? Nothing, really. A quick check online reveals similar prices for a SanDisk 1GB Secure Digital card. Eventually, it all boils down to the price. Whether it’s after rebates or savings from a sale, the cheaper one would be a good buy.

The 12-in-1 Flash Reader is similar to the SunbeamTech 20-in-1 Superior Panel we reviewed a while back. The Crucial flash reader is more handy due to it’s portability. This flash reader is external and connects to the computer via a USB cable. It is also plug and play compatible in operating systems newer than Windows 98, making it extremely portable and easy to carry around. Many computers should have Windows XP or 2K installed, so drivers are definitely not a problem. I personally travel to school everyday with a digital camera for graphical work and constantly need a reader around. This is a good solution. This reader is priced at $16 and is definitely recommended.

We would like to thank Crucial for providing us the sample. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to hit us up in the forums. You can also check out more of our latest reviews on the front page.