After getting frustrated with a slow memory card reader for a number of years, I recently bought a SanDisk Extreme FireWire compact flash memory card reader, which is rated at 40 MB/s read and write performance.

I've always been happy with the SanDisk memory cards I've used in various cameras, and decided that a genuine SanDisk memory card reader would be a good option.



The SanDisk card reader comes well packaged, and with a clean design showing just a SanDisk logo on the top of the actual card reader, it looks very business-like.

Build quality is just what I would expect from SanDisk - the card reader is well-built, robust, with good quality cables, and clean styling.



Two FireWire cables are provided with this card reader - one with a FireWire 400 connector (IEEE 1394-1995), and the other with a FireWire 800 connector (IEEE 1394b-2002).

FireWire cables provided with the card reader
(FireWire 800 connector on the left, FireWire 400 connector on the right)

Both the 6-pin FireWire 400 and 9-pin FireWire 800 connectors provide power to the card reader, so no external power supply is required.

FireWire connector on the back of the card reader

I was hoping to be able to use the card reader with my laptop, which has a 4-pin FireWire connector (IEEE 1394a-2000). However, the 4-pin connector on my laptop doesn't provide power, and thus cannot power the SanDisk card reader.



I've been using a multi-function USB card reader for a number of years, but have always been unhappy with its slow transfer speed.

generic USB card reader

SanDisk Extreme FireWire card reader

The SanDisk FireWire reader was very noticeably faster than the generic USB card reader, so I decided some speed comparisons were in order, to determine just how much faster the FireWire device was.

Using HD Tach, I did some read testing with a 16GB SanDisk Extreme III compact flash card in both readers. The screenshots below (click image for full-size image) show the results.

16GB Extreme III CF card in generic USB card reader

16GB Extreme III CF card in SanDisk Extreme FireWire card reader

The generic card reader had an average read speed of just 2.8 MB/s, while the SanDisk card reader managed a much more respectable 29.4 MB/s.

Note that the SanDisk card reader specifications indicate it's capable of 40 MB/s, but my testing only managed ~30 MB/s. This is due to the SanDisk Extreme III CF card used for this test, which is rated at 30 MB/s. In other words, I'll need to get some faster CF cards in order to be able to push the SanDisk card reader to it's specified throughput!



With a 10x increase in read speed of compact flash cards, the SanDisk Extreme FireWire card reader was a worthwhile purchase.

My only complaint is that the FireWire cables provided with this reader are a little too short.