Posted 19 June 2017 - 07:18 PM
@Wonko: I don't trust SanDisk products, reason being, I've had a handful of flash drives by them that failed within months of buying them new. I prefer to go with established brands by reputable companies, I'm particularly preferential to Samsung, having owned several of their SSDs. I don't mind paying more for quality, as long as the price difference isn't substantial. Besides that, I would rather wait for 500gb to come around, I already have a 200GB and it is nearly filled. I have an unlimited data, I download game and software torrents (huge ones, like 60GB+) to my Androids, then transfer them to my PC. I don't have home Internet, mobile data and WiFi hotspots are my only connections.
Read speeds, it is the writes. Despite buying faster cards and trying to use a flash-optimal FS (like F2FS and ext4), I have found that there is no substantial difference in write speeds in say, ext4 vs exFAT. I really have no idea how much proper alignment plays in regards to speed, but it probably isn't much. My guess is that a properly aligned low quality card will still be slower than a misaligned high quality card, it's the quality of the flash that counts.
I don't trust most eBay sellers regardless of their ratings, I much prefer Amazon or NewEgg or some other reputable online store. The gaming laptop I bought online a few months ago cost close to $4K, I knew the importance of buying from an established site that is widely trusted and will back their claims (warranty, RMA, etc). Although I would have preferred to buy in a physical store, it is nearly impossible to find Sager/Clevo in the physical stores like Best Buy, they are generally that is found mostly online or from custom builders.
If a price is much lower than the established norm then it's probably too good to be true. I'm skittish of buying from fly-by-night street sellers, they can't back their claims most of the time, are oftentimes running illegal outfits, and their goods tend to be used and of questionable quality. I don't usually buy used anything when it comes to electronics, given my tendency to abuse and push to the limit. With me the probability of failure rises substantially.
What is a private seller (in relation to what)? And what is "Honk Kong" (that one was too funny not to laugh at)?