1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,060 There's a good chance that at some point, you're gonna need to buy an SD card. 2 00:00:04,060 --> 00:00:09,780 But there are so many confusingly different options that pop up if you just go and search for one on Amazon. 3 00:00:09,780 --> 00:00:13,400 How do you know which one to pick? SD cards are different from each other 4 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:18,660 in only three important ways. The physical size of the card, the data capacity, 5 00:00:18,660 --> 00:00:22,900 and the speed. Let's start out by talking about the different sizes, 6 00:00:22,900 --> 00:00:26,020 standard SD, mini SD, and micro SD. 7 00:00:26,020 --> 00:00:30,500 Standard SD was the original SD card, and it's still quite common in cameras, 8 00:00:30,500 --> 00:00:33,820 while you often see micro SD in smaller portable devices, 9 00:00:33,820 --> 00:00:36,980 such as the Nintendo Switch, and the smattering of smartphones 10 00:00:36,980 --> 00:00:41,380 that actually allow you to expand their storage. The good news is that you don't really have to worry 11 00:00:41,380 --> 00:00:45,260 about mini SD anymore, as that was a tweener size 12 00:00:45,260 --> 00:00:48,540 that virtually no newly manufactured devices are using. 13 00:00:48,540 --> 00:00:52,020 It's that awkward in between phase, you know? Kinda stinky. 14 00:00:52,020 --> 00:00:55,060 These two sizes offer similar speeds and capacities, 15 00:00:55,060 --> 00:00:59,140 so just make sure whichever one you buy will actually fit into your device. 16 00:00:59,140 --> 00:01:04,780 But if you want to right protect your card to make sure nothing is accidentally overwritten or erased, 17 00:01:04,780 --> 00:01:07,820 you can only do that on a standard-sized SD, 18 00:01:07,820 --> 00:01:13,120 although you can get the same effect on micro SD by using one of these handy little adapters. 19 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:16,860 Now let's take a look at storage capacity, which is a little more complicated. 20 00:01:16,860 --> 00:01:23,380 The modern SD spec can theoretically hold up to 128 terabytes on one card. 21 00:01:23,380 --> 00:01:26,620 Wow! But in reality, it's currently difficult 22 00:01:26,620 --> 00:01:31,100 to find anything above one terabyte. The only other thing you need to remember about capacities 23 00:01:31,100 --> 00:01:35,940 is to look for these symbols. An SD symbol without anything appended to it 24 00:01:35,940 --> 00:01:40,460 means you're looking at an older-style card that can only hold up to two gigabytes. 25 00:01:40,460 --> 00:01:45,380 SDHC, which stands for High Capacity, will give you up to 32 gigabytes. 26 00:01:45,380 --> 00:01:49,200 XC, or Extended Capacity, up to two terabytes, 27 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:52,980 again, in theory. And UC or Ultra Capacity will let you reach 28 00:01:53,020 --> 00:01:56,680 that 128 terabyte mark if such SD cards 29 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,140 ever become readily available. It's not just about size, though. 30 00:02:00,140 --> 00:02:05,660 Be sure to pick whichever combination of letters your device asks for, as some older devices 31 00:02:05,660 --> 00:02:08,780 won't support the new XC and UC cards, 32 00:02:08,780 --> 00:02:12,580 though you might get them to work with a reduced capacity if you format the new card 33 00:02:12,580 --> 00:02:18,500 with the older FAT32 file system. We're now going to talk about speed. 34 00:02:18,500 --> 00:02:23,540 The speed of an SD card is important if you're often using it to work with large files, 35 00:02:23,540 --> 00:02:26,900 such as game downloads, and it can be very important 36 00:02:26,900 --> 00:02:31,260 if you're using a nicer camera, as slower cards can't keep up with recording 37 00:02:31,260 --> 00:02:35,620 HD 4K or 8K video. But the reason it's so complicated 38 00:02:35,620 --> 00:02:40,780 to figure out what you need is that the markings that SD cards use to tell you their speeds 39 00:02:40,780 --> 00:02:45,540 are rather cryptic. So let's break them down. First, you're gonna see a number, 40 00:02:45,540 --> 00:02:50,620 either within the letter C or the letter U. The C is used for slower cards 41 00:02:50,660 --> 00:02:54,300 with the number indicating the right speed in megabytes per second, 42 00:02:54,300 --> 00:02:59,300 while U is for faster cards called UHS for ultra high speed. 43 00:02:59,460 --> 00:03:03,620 And here, the numbers work a bit differently. A number one inside the U means it gets 44 00:03:03,620 --> 00:03:09,660 at least 10 megabytes per second of right speed while a three indicates at least 30 megabytes per second. 45 00:03:09,660 --> 00:03:14,300 But that's not all. UHS cards will additionally have a Roman numeral. 46 00:03:14,300 --> 00:03:18,660 This indicates the bus interface or a maximum theoretical speed 47 00:03:18,660 --> 00:03:22,540 that you're more likely to get close to for reads rather than for writes. 48 00:03:22,540 --> 00:03:26,540 Most cards currently on the market are UHS-1 or UHS-2, 49 00:03:26,540 --> 00:03:31,540 but UHS-3 delivers up to a whopping 624 megs per second, 50 00:03:31,940 --> 00:03:38,300 about the same as you'd get on a SATA SSD. But if you see an EX or Express instead of a Roman numeral, 51 00:03:38,300 --> 00:03:42,260 it means that the SD card supports the PCI Express bus, 52 00:03:42,260 --> 00:03:48,820 meaning you'll get close to one terabyte per second and possibly even more if that card supports newer versions 53 00:03:48,820 --> 00:03:52,260 of PCI Express or uses multiple lanes. 54 00:03:52,260 --> 00:03:57,860 Finally, another marking you might see alongside the others is a letter V with a number after it. 55 00:03:57,860 --> 00:04:02,540 The V stands for video speed class and is just another quick way to show 56 00:04:02,540 --> 00:04:05,540 how many megabytes per second can be written to the card. 57 00:04:05,540 --> 00:04:13,100 V30 is recommended for HD, with V60 a good amount for 4K and V90 for 8K. 58 00:04:13,260 --> 00:04:18,580 You know, it would be so much easier if they just clearly printed the speed on the card itself, 59 00:04:18,580 --> 00:04:22,740 but I guess sexy branding like XC and Ultra 60 00:04:22,740 --> 00:04:27,580 draws people in more effectively. Oh God, our GBSD cards are coming, aren't they? 61 00:04:27,580 --> 00:04:31,920 And thank you for coming to this place to watch this video all the way through. 62 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:35,660 Hey, like the video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it, check out our other videos 63 00:04:35,660 --> 00:04:40,500 and comment below with video suggestions. And don't forget to subscribe and follow us, 64 00:04:40,500 --> 00:04:44,820 but just so you know, all the videos are gonna be here so you can just come back here.