Fast SD Card backup system

[Joe Piazzo]

Looking to build an economical, mobile system to transfer 32 & 64 gb video & photo data from SD cards to a HD. The cards I have are currently 95mbs - what is the bottle neck for transfer rate in such a scenario. Would a mini-pc & a large SATA HD with a card reader be sufficient? Does the processor really matter much? I was even thinking I could forgo a monitor and use my smartphone to control the desktop. Linux or windows?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

For peeps doing video editing builds I have done for them have included a Hot Swap 2.5" drive bay hat they save their videos on to give to clients. External docks run about $30

Have no experience w/ SD cards, sorry.

 

[menetlaus]

To eliminate as many potential bottlenecks as possible I would use the following:
-Netbook/laptop: with 120GB (or larger) SSD as the OS drive and for temporary storage of files and 2 separate USB 3.0 ports.
-USB 3.0 SD card reader
-USB 3.0 2.5" external HDD

I would copy the SD card to the SSD first, then transfer them over to the external HDD. This way you are reading as fast as possible from the SD and a SSD can easily write files faster than any HDD. Most SSD's will have no issue to keep up writing files from one SD card and reading others to send to the external HDD.

I recommend the 2.5" external HDD as it can be powered over USB and does not need additional power (as the request was for a mobile solution). If the laptop can have dual drives - the HDD can be internal with a slight boost to maximum throughput.

SD direct to a HDD would also work - but if the SD card can actually read at 95MB/s it would bottleneck a number of hard drives (especially if the HDD holds the OS/swap files). Yes current hard drives top out at >140MB/s transfer rates, but this is the peak - and in most cases once the drive is half full the rate drops down to 50% or less.

 

[kanewolf]

I don't know how fast they are, but they make commercial devices (B&H Photo Link) that do what you want, are battery powered and have display screens.

 

[Joe Piazzo]

Do you think something like this MB would be a good base?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157513

To eliminate as many potential bottlenecks as possible I would use the following:
-Netbook/laptop: with 120GB (or larger) SSD as the OS drive and for temporary storage of files and 2 separate USB 3.0 ports.
-USB 3.0 SD card reader
-USB 3.0 2.5" external HDD

I would copy the SD card to the SSD first, then transfer them over to the external HDD. This way you are reading as fast as possible from the SD and a SSD can easily write files faster than any HDD. Most SSD's will have no issue to keep up writing files from one SD card and reading others to send to the external HDD.

I recommend the 2.5" external HDD as it can be powered over USB and does not need additional power (as the request was for a mobile solution). If the laptop can have dual drives - the HDD can be internal with a slight boost to maximum throughput.

SD direct to a HDD would also work - but if the SD card can actually read at 95MB/s it would bottleneck a number of hard drives (especially if the HDD holds the OS/swap files). Yes current hard drives top out at >140MB/s transfer rates, but this is the peak - and in most cases once the drive is half full the rate drops down to 50% or less.

 

[menetlaus]

Do you think something like this MB would be a good base?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157513

No. It is not (easily) mobile.

I'd look for a used laptop on eBay, kijiji, or similar as that way you do not need AC power for it.

If this is meant for a photographer or something where AC power is readily available - I would look at something like this: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220711