Should I buy a new Flash Memory now?


Good question. Based on recent ads, the prices of flash memory have tumbled significantly compared to few months ago. One of online merchant I visited (www.tigerdirect.com) even offers $9.99 for 256 Kingston CompactFlash memory (I guess it is 1x speed).

Depends on your need, the price range can go from US $9.99 up to couple hundreds of dollars for the top memory (such as 4 GB, 40x speed). The speed plays a big role in pricing. The access speed (read/write) factor is similar to CD drive (150 KB/sec is for 1x speed, 300 KB/sec is for 2x speed so on). The new high speed CF sometimes is called CF II.

One thing I still hate to see is there are too many variants and different standard of flash memory. There is CompactFlash I/II, there is Memory stick, MemoryStick Pro, MemoryStick Duo, SmartMedia, SmartDigital, MM and what else, I don't remember. Why don't these people just make one single standard then our life would be better, isn't?

For people who are eager to see and compare the prices, check www.shopping.com, www.dealtime.com, www.mysimon.com, www.techbargains.com, or www.ebay.com. There are many other online shopping comparation portals but I cannot list them all here. Just search them at google, you will see many of them. Comments from previous buyers on these sites are many times useful. The more buyers put comments, the more confidence (or inassurance) you may get. Just check them out!