Someone with SD CARD knowledge please...

I'm looking to buy an SD card for my handheld video game console. I wanted to buy a 32GB CLASS 10 MICRO SD CARD. I need a high class card... This I know... What I want to know from you guys is if brand names really matter with SD CARDS?

They seem like something that would easily be made the same or similar in any factory by various companies. I can't see how it could compare to buying different hard drives from different manufacturers. Please someone weigh in on this... Go for cheap pricing, or brand names on my micro SD card?

 

I think the class relates to the speed of the reading and writing to the device so if it says class 10 then the brand is errelivant. what may make a difference is the lifespan. Solid State memory has a maximum number of read and writes before it fails (known as the mean time to fail or mtf). This will probably be higher on branded products.

 

I once bought a 2gb SD card 2 pack with a house name on it (Ritz, made by Lexar). The cards together didn't equal 2 gb, so they were either mislabled or something. I took it back and got a replacement and the replacement was the same thing.

When you say "high class" what exactly are you looking for? You'll likely want high read/write speeds. Often times you'll see something like 32x, 40x, 133x, etc... the higher the x's the higher the read/write speeds. That's basically what you want to base it on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#.C3.97_rating All of the other fluffy adjectives they use are just to confound the user and sell more crap. If it doesn't state the rating or read/write speeds, it's likely now worth buying.

 

Be sure to check the video game console specs for the max. capacity card it will support before buying.

If the specs are ambiguous and only state it takes an "SD" card, you are limited to a maximum capacity of 2GB per card.

Anything over 2GB per card is "SDHC" - putting an SDHC card (4GB or larger) in a device designed for lower capacity cards will cause data loss (if the hardware even recognizes the card at all).

Even if your device is SDHC, many models will max. out at 4, 8 or 16GB. Although the device may initially recognize the 32GB card, you're playing with fire on data loss and corruption.

As for the speed, I recommend going with a Class 6 or higher.

 

You get what you pay for,if its important and by the way your talking it sounds like your save games/data ect is important to you then spend a little extra on the decent quality card instead of a generic no name.

I'd guess your handheld gaming system will be the bottleneck no matter how good of an SD card you buy,you will be limited by its read speed.

Post the name of the handheld system or its spec sheet and this can be confirmed.

I concur with gman on over sized spec'd cards,they seem to work at first but then your device begins to crash and your data goes missing.