Which USB 3.0 SD card reader?

fozzybear

fozzybear

fozzybear

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I've see a few possibilities - SanDisk, Lexar, Kingston and Transcend. Which of these will get the best speeds?

Ideally, I'd prefer one with a longish cable rather than one that you plug directly into the USB port.

Cheers.
 
I recently bought the Kingston FCR-HS3. I'm very happy with it.

I timed a transfer a 1GB worth of RAW files, from card to PC, it took about 13 secs.
I did the same test with my old SanDisk USB2 reader, it took 58 secs.

A 1GB transfer of mixed RAW and JPGs took 2.5 sec with the Kingston. I didn't try the test with the USB2 reader.


Alternatively, I've heard very good reviews of the Delkin Reader 42 Multi Card Reader.
 
I use a Lexar USB3 reader and am very happy with it. Don't use it with SD cards but, with CF, it maxes out my 60MB/s Sandisk cards no problems at all.
 
Have you had any issues with the Lexar USB3 reader? I've read a few reviews and some people have reported problems using it with Windows 7 64bit.
 
I'm running W7 x64 and now you mention it, when importing photos sometimes the card would disappear and then re-appear as a different drive letter and keep doing that. I ended up swapping the USB port I was using and it seems to have stopped. I assumed it was a driver issue though, might be hardware I guess?

What problems were reported?
 
Mint_Sauce said:
I'm running W7 x64 and now you mention it, when importing photos sometimes the card would disappear and then re-appear as a different drive letter and keep doing that. I ended up swapping the USB port I was using and it seems to have stopped. I assumed it was a driver issue though, might be hardware I guess?

What problems were reported?
Click to expand...

Some reported that cards weren't being recognised and others said they just weren't getting true speeds. Other people said they had to keep unplugging and then plugging it back in for Windows to recognise it.

There has been some new firmware since though. Here.
 
Nice one, thanks for that. It's been fine since I swapped ports but I'll update the firmware just in case I'm not getting its full speeds.

Sounds like you might be better off with the Kingston reader :D
 
fozzybear said:
Have you had any issues with the Lexar USB3 reader? I've read a few reviews and some people have reported problems using it with Windows 7 64bit.
Click to expand...

Nope. Using Win7 x64 Professional and never had a single problem with it. That is with CF cards though, don't know if those reporting problems were using SD?
 
Vertigo1 said:
I use a Lexar USB3 reader and am very happy with it. Don't use it with SD cards but, with CF, it maxes out my 60MB/s Sandisk cards no problems at all.
Click to expand...

This. i've got one. Was about £45 brand new at some point then picked one up for about £23 and can't fault it. When copying USB3 over USB2, makes a huge difference!
 
Vertigo1 said:
This update has buggered my reader. It still works but speeds now max at around 25MB/s rather than the 55-60MB/s of before. Not happy.
Click to expand...

Mine updated fine and I've just tested transfer speeds, I'm getting 40MB/s with a 16gb Sandisk extreme (60MB/s) filled with RAW files.
 
I've done some more testing and am getting around 40MB/s now, which is strange.

I have the same cards as you (a 16GB and two 32GB) and, when I last tested transfer speeds, I was getting about 58MB/s!
 
I have the official Sandisk one and it's brilliant and looks stylish too. The 45MB/s rated SDXC card reads and writes at 49MB/sec
 
I applied the update to the lexar , on a kingston 32gb cf 600x

i got

read 68 write 53 before
read 76 write 66 after ,hmmm:)
 
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