seen a lot of questions about memory, and i figured i would write a tutorial so you know what to buy.
Sony vs Sandisk
There are 2 important brands of Memory Stick Pro Duo (MSPD), Sony and Sandisk, but what are the differences?
It's quite simple, the Sony MSPD's cost more, and perform less, yes you read it right, the Sandisks are faster then it's Sony counterparts.
Here are some test results of 512mb and 1 gig, the 1 gigs are both gaming models and the 512 standard models.
Ofcourse most people wonder wether Sony has other advantages over the Sandisks, the answer is no, memory is something that almost never goes wrong, it's why Sandisk gives you 5 year warranty on it's normal models, and lifetime warranty on it's Ultra models. Also the acces time is the pretty much the same, although i'm sure 1 is slightly faster then the other, it would be nearly impossible to measure as it matters so little.
What size to get
Memory isn't cheap, but you will be wanting to get a MSPD that is big enough. Since a lot of games are bigger then 512mb, 512mb is pretty much pointless to buy, so you will automatically get a 1 gig atleast, but 1 gig has it disadvantages, most of the time you can only get 1, or perhaps 2 games on it, but from what i've seen some games are bigger then 1 gig. At 2 gig is where it really starts, you will be able to put atleast 2 big games on it, but probably 3-4 games, and you will have some room for music and such, it really depends what you put on it, but 2 gig gives you some room to work with. 4 gig is ofcourse best (for now), you can put 5+ games on it with no problem, and if you use up only 3 gig for games then you still have more then enough to put all your MP3's, and videos on it.
So basicly the choice is between 2 and 4 gig, if you really want to only use it for gaming then 2 gig should be fine, but if you want to use it to put videos and music on it, then you will probably want to go with the 4 gig.
To use Ebay or not
Simple answer really, not. Although on Ebay you get better prices, you also get scammed, in the short time i've been here i read about dozens of cases in which people got ripped off, and although many also do actually got a good MSPD, imo it's not worth the risk, people get scammed way to much with memory, and you don't want to fall victim to that.
Faster and more expansive MSPD's models
There are models that give you higher speeds, you would be able to transfer data faster (mainly when used with a appropiate card reader), and the loading times of games should also improve, how much? I don't know, i haven't found any tests for that.
You won't need those faster versions, everything will still run on full speed with the normal versions, so personally i wouldn't buy a faster version, but each their own choice.
Questions and Answers
Some of these i have made up myself as they would probably be asked at 1 point, others are based on a question or comment.
Q: Does it matter what cardreader you got?
A: Yes, if you want to get the best possible speed then you will need to get a cardreader that fully supports all technologies used, like with the faster cards, you will need a card reader that supports that, otherwise it will use the card at the same speed as a normal one.
Q: I've seen people sell cards for much less on Ebay, the user has really good feedback, surely this would be safe to get?
A: Most of the time not, there are automated scripts that use fake auctions to build up high feedbacks, the accounts are then used to sell the products making people think they are legit because they got a high percentage of positive feedback. If you still do want to trade then do 3 things first, google their username with the words "ebay" and "scam", if the person would be known to scam, then it will give you some interesting results, 2 their feedback should be public, if it's private then they will have something to hide, and 3 look at their negative feedback, although this can be very outnumbered by their positive feedback, it shows wether people got bad expierence with them or not.
Q: What are these fake cards i hear about?
A: They are cards that aren't what they supposed to be, many don't work, don't work properly (lost data, slow speed) or aren't the size they supposed to be, ofcourse there are also cases where people did get a fake, yet working cards with the right sizes, however they are dodgy wether they realise it or not, otherwise they wouldn't get sold like that.
If anyone has any other questions then feel free to ask them and i will edit this post, and if someone has valuable info to get more accurate data in this post, or because i'm wrong about something then please post them.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 27. August 2006 @ 03:16
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