A-DATA Turbo Series 16GB SDHC Card

[Darksaber]

[page=Introduction]
Introduction
I would like to thank A-DATA for supplying the review sample

ADATA is mostly known for its high end DDR memory aimed at the enthusiast market, which is a shame because they manufacture some other memory products that are really good and sell for a decent price. The company also offers various SDHC cards, which range from 4 GB to an incredible 16 GB. The Turbo Series of these cards is the fastest, as these are so called Class 6, with a minimum write speed of 6 MB/s

Today we will be taking a look at the A-DATA Turbo Series 16GB SDHC card.

Specifications from ADATA Technology:

File System: FAT32
Class 6: up to 6MB/s
Enhanced DSC function & flawlessly video recording
Compatibility: All devices with SD 2.0 or SDHC logo
Lifetime Warranty


Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/packfront_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/packfront.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/packrear_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/packrear.jpg)
The card comes packaged in A-DATA's newly designed plastic mold, which can easily be hung up on a shelf. The front holds the card, which is clearly visible and also features a "carbon" look with gold stripes and text. A round bubble on the top right corner lets the potential customer know what size he or she is looking at. The rear just holds the feature set in multiple languages.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/frontpacked_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/frontpacked.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/rearpacked_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/rearpacked.jpg)
The plastic cartridge which holds the Turbo SDHC card is soft but solid. A-DATA has opted for a fairly large cartridge with a lot of unused space. While this is no downside, it serves no purpose. The rear of the card can also be seen, even when it is in the package.

[page=A Closer Look]
A Closer Look
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/cardfront_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/cardfront.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/cardrear_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/cardrear.jpg)
A-DATA continues the same theme found on the package with the SDHC card itself. The label has the same bubble and the carbon backdrop. As you can see this is a Class 6 card, which means that it has a write performance of 6 MB/s on an empty card. The rear does not have any stickers or labels. When looked at from this side there is no visible difference between a normal SD Card and the SDHC variant.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/serial_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/serial.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/writeprotect_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/writeprotect.jpg)
A-DATA lasers the serial number of the SDHC card into the back of the housing. It is clearly visible and cannot be removed without noticably damaging the housing. As with every SD card, the Turbo Series also features a write protect switch. It is white, which should make it easier to use, as it is fairly small.

[page=Performance]
Performance
As I mentioned before a Class 6 card has a write speed of up to 6MB/s when it is empty. A-DATA does include a lengthy 80MB marketing video and two PDFs on the memory card. These are just promotional items and can be deleted if you wish. To test the performance correctly, these files were deleted and the card was formatted once more using FAT32.

To bench the A-DATA Turbo Series card, a card reader was used which exclusively works with all MMC and SD formats. This provides the best performance and so the card reader will not become the bottleneck in the benchmarks.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/hdtach_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/hdtach.jpg)
HD Tach really surprised here, the card manages almost 20 MB/s read performance across the entire 16GBs.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/graph1.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/graph2.gif
As you can see, the A-DATA card bests all the other SD Cards we have taken a look at so far. Considering that even good card readers do not manage to tickle out 100% of the possible speed of the card the maximal performance possible should be just a wee bit higher, maybe one MB/s or so.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/Turbo_Series_16GB_SDHC/images/atto.jpg
ATTO further surprised with very good write speeds. Even though the card is a Class 6 card, which only "offers" 6 MB/s the A-DATA Turbo Series manages to write at almost 10 MB/s. The read performance is on par with the results of HD Tach.

[page=Value & Conclusion]
Value & Conclusion
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<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The A-DATA Turbo Series 16GB SDHC Card should retail for about $160 which is a lot, but you are paying a premium for speed and the fact that there is nothing larger than 16GB in this format at the moment.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Great read performance
Well above Class 6 write performance
Awesome access time
Lifetime warranty
Nice package
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Pricey
Odds are that old cam of yours won't be SDHC compatible
</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.2</th>
<td>
The A-DATA Turbo Series SDHC cards are just that - fast. While you will be paying a premium for the speed and having the largest SDHC card on the market in form of the reviewed 16GB variant, it should last you quite a while before you have to worry about buying a new memory card. Even if you have a digital camera with Compact Flash, there are SD/SDHC adapters out there so you can use this card inside such devices. Even though it is classified as "Class 6", it delivers much more than that and this specification actually just lets you know how much the card will deliver at a minimum. So overall, A-DATA is not only the first out the door with a 16 GB SDHC card but also has the performance numbers to back it up.
</td></tr><tr><th></th><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/editorschoice.gif</td></tr>
</table>

[Sasqui]

Good review as usual and wow what a fast drive!

I've got a question - looking for a SD adaptor that basically turns an SD card into a thumb drive (a small one), Anyone come across one? There certainly isn't a lack of card readers out there, but I'd like something that would go well on a keychain...

[Darksaber]

Good review as usual and wow what a fast drive!

I've got a question - looking for a SD adaptor that basically turns an SD card into a thumb drive (a small one), Anyone come across one? There certainly isn't a lack of card readers out there, but I'd like something that would go well on a keychain...

yea hama has one. The company rebrands things, but they are incredibly cheap here..

I bought an SD/SDHC thumb drive converter for 4 euros...

want one I can send you one as you live in the UK, just wire me 5 pounds via paypal and I will drop one in the mail

cheers
DS

[ElWapo973]

I bought this card back in mid December for $99.99 on Newegg.com(barely a month after your review was written). I just check up on the site again and to my shock they are currently available for $74.99(94.99NewPrice - 20.00InstantDiscount). Even at the price I paid that is an incredible value consider it's original MSRP. At this price I might just pick up another. :rockout:

[jh]

For whatever reason, my 8GB A-Data Turbo tests at 19MBps write speed in the internal slot of an ASUS EeePC. The test consisted of copying a 432 MB file using the File Manager drag-n-drop from the internal flash drive (SSD) to the SDHC card. The stop watch was stopped when the copying process finished, not after the file was closed. Closing the file takes as much as 16 seconds, which skews the results.

Not exactly "scientific", but it indicates what this particular card can do. Again, note that closing files on this machine takes a long time. A CompactFlash card in an external SanDisk Extreme reader displayed the same behavior.

Regards,
jh

[chumley]

I have one of these cards purchased from chiefvalue and just received today. It looks exactly like the one pictured in the article. The serial number is a slightly different format: G16GNMC830754.

With HDTach it only measures 12.5MB/s avg read speed and 0.8ms random access time. My card reader is identified in HDTach as "Myson SD/MMC/MS reader 1.00", and is labeled as 150x speed on the reader.

Copying some large files to the card and timing manually, I measure between 8.5MB/s and 9MB/s write speed.

This is acceptable performance, but definitely not as good as the review sample. Either my card reader is not performing up to snuff, or perhaps A-Data has switched to slower flash memory in order to bring the price down.

[tzanig]

Agree with Chumley, I just bought a 4GB SDHC Turbo (same as the one tested, only smaller capacity) for only 16 EUR but the speed is disappointing. I found quite strange that they don't write 150x anymore on the cards like they did on the very fast 150x SDs, now I know why...

Well my HDtach result is as low as 7.6 Mb/s sequential read speed.

s/n G04GFRW820320

My SD reader is built in a HP laptop, I will test tonight with a D80 camera and compare with the other 4GB non-SDHC A-Data 150x that I have. I noted that they no longer offer non-sdhc 4gb sd cards.