High endurance SD cards vs higher capacity, for high read/write applications?

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Baboon

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#295686 14-Apr-2022 15:44

Any opinions on paying a premium for high endurance models of SD cards for high read/write situations?

e.g. https://www.kingston.com/en/memory-cards/high-endurance-microsd-card

Or would I be better served by spending that premium on a higher capacity SD card, to spread the wear levelling?

The Kingston high endurance SD card specs on their site are utterly unrevealing, and the warranty is no longer (3 years) than their cheapest SD card, anyway - which makes me wonder.

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timmmay

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#2902432 14-Apr-2022 15:49

The cost is only a touch more generally, so I got one for my R.Pi. On a thread that talked about them recently people shared their experience and they generally did last longer. It probably doesn't hurt to buy slightly larger than you need, but on the other hand you could just buy what you need and when it wears out buy another.

Baboon

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#2902435 14-Apr-2022 15:58

Yeah, I'm just trying to avoid the hassle too frequently, as a couple of the cases I use make SD card removal and insertion a minor pain. And one RPi is physically located in a location that's a PITA to access. Stuff like that. If I can extend the SD card lifespan without paying heaps more, I'd be happy.

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Mehrts

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#2902463 14-Apr-2022 17:33

I'd just stick with a high endurance card over a higher capacity one.

Reason being that SD card storage controllers are usually very basic compared to the likes of ones found on a SATA/NVMe SSD, where higher capacities can be used to even out the wear & tear more effectively.

I've always used high endurance cards in RPi's with no issues at all. Usually 16-32GB in size.

michaelmurfy

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#2902489 14-Apr-2022 21:00

I've purchased a 256gb High Endurance card straight from Amazon (Link) for a Raspberry Pi that sits in my car for dashcam footage. I've always used endurance cards for basically everything that may require additional writes as I find normal SD cards now are built to be cheap. Never had an issue with high endurance cards.

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fe31nz

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#2902541 15-Apr-2022 01:20

I have never heard that SD cards do wear leveling. That seems to only be in SSDs, as it requires a processor on the memory device. So a larger SD card will not last longer - go for a high endurance one.

For an RPi, the best option is a real SSD (SATA or NVMe/M.2) on a USB port. Or a hard drive on a USB drive mount. But yes, those options do tend to be a bit bigger than the Pi itself, so I can see the point of sticking with an SD card, despite its problems.

Baboon

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#2903130 16-Apr-2022 23:10

SD cards do indeed have a microcontroller built-in.

And some pricier models of SD card do indeed have wear levelling. More simply use flash cells that store fewer bits, e,g. MLC instead of TLC, so wear out slower. The highest priced cards use both methods.

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#2903135 16-Apr-2022 23:52

Previous company I worked for had a fleet of well over 2000 raspberry pis and found SanDisk cards worked reliably. Only the odd failed one in about 6 years of operation.

I guess it depends what operations you're trying to perform / how many writes you do, that cannon be written to a ramdrive etc.