I like to make it, make it
Welcome to the maker revolution – but first, get your Pi up to speed.
To become a maker, you need the right kit, and without a microSD card, the main Raspberry Pi models won’t even boot. So, to kick things off as quickly as possible, we’ve had our friends at Tom’s Hardware do a bit of testing and come up with the fastest microSD cards to power your Pi.
Now is an amazing time to buy a fresh microSD card as prices have tumbled and speeds have increased dramatically. Previously, we would have recommended 32GB cards, but it’s getting hard to find a 64GB card that costs much more than £7, while 128GB cards are regularly under £15. Much of this is powered by even larger capacity cards entering the market.
Theoretical speeds can top 140MB/s, with many advertising a healthy 100MB/s, as the old Speed Class measure tops out at Class 10 (10MB/s) there are now three new speed markings you now should look for:
UHS: Denoted with a U symbol and a number 1, 2 or 3 denoting 10MB/s, 20MB/s and 30MB/s respectively.
Video Class: Marked with a V and a number that denotes the MB/s, starting at V30, V60 and then V90.
App Class: The newest measure, which switches to IOPS (input/output operations per second), is denoted by A1, A2 and A3, although people have found Pi performance is less affected by IOPS.
Best for booting: All the big-name brands boot a Pi within 2.5 seconds of each other. The Kingston Canvas React came out first at 24 seconds, while the Samsung Evo Plus and SanDisk Extreme snuck in under 25 seconds, with the Samsung Pro Endurance and SanDisk Extreme Pro at just over 25 seconds.
Best for apps: All the main cards on test launched GIMP within 0.8 seconds of each other. The lesserknown Silicon Power 3D NAND being the fastest at 6.5 seconds, the Samsung Evo Plus, SanDisk Extreme Pro and Samsung Pro Endurance are just under 7 seconds, and the SanDisk Extreme at 7 seconds.
Fastest writes: Depending on your use case fast writes could be more useful than general performance. The
SanDisk Extreme Pro showed a clear lead on the rest at 38MB/s, the SanDisk Extreme came second with 32MB/s ,and the Kingston Canvas React at 27MB/s. The Samsung Pro Endurance posted 21MB/s and the Silicon Power 3D Nand was just shy of 19MB/s.
Now you can boot your Pi as quickly as possible, turn the page to find a range of hot projects. We also recommend installing your Pi in a case – we’ve listed the best to consider at the end of the feature.