[tinpanalley]

I'm reading things that go all across the spectrum of opinions on what's better. I may have even read (don't remember) that you can even run Kodi on USB flash drives. So, what's the deal then with microSD, can we really just get any 8GB class 4 or higher and be fine? And what makes the official Raspberry Pi NOOB card so special? Surely, we know who the manufacturer is by now, no?

[dandnsmith]

There have been problems with some SD cards - I think it depended on which OS you were using, but a lot of the problems have been countered now.
As long as you have an SD card organised to boot from, you can arrange to run the main OS and Kodi on other media - such as external HDD, or network connected filesystem.
I wouldn't use a USB flash drive for this purpose as it will have a limited life as compared to one of the other alternatives.

[Ned Scott]

There was a time when it made a lot of sense to boot on the SD card (which is always required on a Pi) but load the actual OS from a USB flash drive, both for speed and to prevent corruption. It seems nearly all corruption related issues have been solved over the years, so that just leaves speed. However, people have identified really fast SD cards that make the speed boost from a USB flash drive not as big of a deal, especially with Kodi usage. For example, the Samsung EVO cards give really good results.

The official NOOBS SD cards are chosen for having very good random read/write speeds, which is often more important than the sustained/class speed of a card, and at a cheap price. They're not as fast as the Samsung EVO cards, but are still faster than most, and a good value.

I have used both, and for Kodi I haven't really seen a major difference between them. Other uses of the Pi can give other results, of course. I would recommend either.

USB flash drives are still good solutions for people who happen to have a very small or slower SD card floating around. You can even boot the Pi from an old 32 MB (yes, MB) SD card, and then use a larger USB flash drive for the actual OS files, and it works fine.

[Milhouse]

With the latest sdhost driver it's now possible for SD to significantly outperform even a decent USB3 flash drive, eg. sequential read SD: 42MB/s, USB3: 32MB/s.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2005396

[Milhouse]

And what makes the official Raspberry Pi NOOB card so special? Surely, we know who the manufacturer is by now, no?

It's openly acknowledged to be from Samsung - read this blog post from 2 years ago.

[tinpanalley]

And what makes the official Raspberry Pi NOOB card so special? Surely, we know who the manufacturer is by now, no?

It's openly acknowledged to be from Samsung - read this blog post from 2 years ago.

Oh, ok, good to know. Well I was going to get a SanDisk Ultra 16GB Class-10 UHS-1 (SDSDQUN-016G-FFP-A). But I do see on Tom's Hardware's benchmark tests that Samsung EVOs and PROs tend to have better random read/write rates which is what you want in a card running NOOBS or kodi (I'm guessing?) Also, do I even need anything more than 8GB?

[Milhouse]

that Samsung EVOs and PROs tend to have better random read/write rates which is what you want in a card running NOOBS or kodi (I'm guessing?)

Certainly for Kodi, good 4K random writes are considered beneficial. As far as "NOOBS" is concerned, although I'm using the "NOOBS" card I don't use the NOOBS software - I just wiped the card and put OpenELEC on it and I'd recommend that approach (other distributions are available, etc.) unless you really want to boot multiple operating systems (which will reduce the space available for Kodi etc.)

Also, do I even need anything more than 8GB?

Not really, not for a plain Kodi installation and almost certainly not for a frugal installation such as OpenELEC where almost all SD card space is dedicated to Kodi (other distributions usually require more space for OS files etc.).

The biggest consumer of space in Kodi is typically the texture cache and even with a moderately sized library this shouldn't need more than 2-3GB of space (however it can bloat over time, but there are tools that can be run every now and then to automatically prune cache items that are no longer required).

And if you need more space for large files (such as media) then you can always plug in a USB flash disk, as absolute performance is less of an concern when playing back media.

[tinpanalley]

Not really, not for a plain Kodi installation and almost certainly not for a frugal installation such as OpenELEC where almost all SD card space is dedicated to Kodi (other distributions usually require more space for OS files etc.)... And if you need more space for large files (such as media) then you can always plug in a USB flash disk, as absolute performance is less of an concern when playing back media.

Brilliant. I've switched the SanDisk 16GB to a Samsung EVO 8GB with much better 4K r/w rates. I keep all my media on my network shares and on an external HDD anyway.

[wrxtasy]

Yup Samsung EVO for the win. Good Value as well

[tinpanalley]

Just thought I would revive this instead of starting up a new thread. It would appear that my 8GB EVO I purchased back in August of 2015 has corrupted. The problem is, I can't find another 8GB anywhere. I know a 16 is fine technically but with all that unnecessary space are there any comparable 8GB cards out there for this OpenElec/Kodi use? Or does everyone just use 16GBs now?

[Milhouse]

Just thought I would revive this instead of starting up a new thread. It would appear that my 8GB EVO I purchased back in August of 2015 has corrupted. The problem is, I can't find another 8GB anywhere. I know a 16 is fine technically but with all that unnecessary space are there any comparable 8GB cards out there for this OpenElec/Kodi use? Or does everyone just use 16GBs now?

Maybe this? https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/noobs...7Qod88oB5g

Until recently I'd been using a NOOBS card (with LibreELEC) but when it corrupted I switched to a Samsung 32GB EVO+, and to be honest I think I preferred the performance of the NOOBS card. So if you're looking for an 8GB card I don't think you'll go wrong with a NOOBS card.

[tinpanalley]

Maybe this? https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/noobs...7Qod88oB5g

Unfortunately, I'm not in the UK. I'm in Canada.
I guess there's nothing 'wrong' with a bigger card, just seems like a waste that's all. But it is amazing to me how the industry just won't let us buy smaller amounts based on the assumption that we all need more. Shame.

[Milhouse]

Yes the link is just an example - I'd imagine those cards are available from Canada too, no? I found links on Amazon.ca but generally I'd avoid buying flash memory from Amazon and Ebay.