Kama Reader 2 performances

[ebourg]

I just got a Kama Reader 2 and did some performance tests with HD Tach. I compared it to two Delkin readers I'm using currently on my laptop, the Cardbus UDMA32 for CF cards (PCMCIA), and the ExpressCard 34 reader for SD cards.

With a 2Go Transcend SD card the Kama Reader reached an average of 10.2MB/s, that's equivalent to the Delkin ExpressCard which reached 10.6MB/s. The Kama used slightly more CPU power.

With a 4Go 120x Transcend CF card the Kama Reader reached 17.5MB/s (that's 114x, almost the speed of the card). The Delkin Cardbus was a bit better with 21MB (137x). The difference was more significant on the CPU usage, the Delkin reader is around 2%, and the Kama Reader is around 8%.

Overall the performance is quite good, it could be better on the CPU usage but it's really far from the worst readers available (basic PCMCIA CF readers use 100% CPU and reach only 1MB/s !). It was on average 3 times faster than reading the card directly from the camera with a USB cable (checked with a Sony Alpha 100 and a Casio Exilim).

[ebourg]

The test was conducted on a Thinkpad T60p (T2600). I tried again on a E8400 and got better results, the CF card has been read at 18.5MB/s (that's exactly 120x) and 5% CPU usage.

[hiroshige]

Hello ebourg,

thanks a lot for the information, I will forward them to the Product Development.

Cheers,
Stefan - Scythe EU Hamburg

[Shinigami]

Hi ebourg,

Thanks for these informations. We are glad that you like the performance and the item. Could you maybe specify which Delkin cardreader that exactly was? I think the price also matters as in a comparison. I was wodnering and wanted to check that for rounding up the test

Thanks ocne again.

Cheers,
Andy

[ebourg]

This is the Delkin CF reader used:

Delkin Devices - Products - CardBus UDMA

And here is the SD card reader:

Expresscard Multi-card Adapter

[Shinigami]

Ok, thanks for the info. If I saw it correctly, then the Delkin product is smaller but costs more and is performing basically similar to Kama Reader 2. That should make the choice easier for each individual.

Thanks for the update.

[ebourg]

The Delkin reader is great as an internal reader for a laptop, and the Kama Reader is great as an internal reader for a desktop computer.

I don't think the Kama reader is really convenient as an external reader due to it's connector at the back, it doesn't look strong enough to be plugged/unplugged frequently. It would be better with a real USB connector instead of an internal connector.

[Shinigami]

Thanks for the feedback. We will see on how we can implement it into a next version/revision =)