Fastest FMCB 1.7 MC Tests

[urbigbro]

After searching and reading for a couple hours I have decided to make this thread as a way to collect information about which memory card can boot FMCB the fastest. I only have official 8mb and 16mb, 64mb datel cards so your help is requested.

If you can use a stopwatch, or similar program to time how fast these two things happen it would be great. Please limit this to the 1.8 final release and not the test versions.

1. how long it takes to autolaunch ule 4.30 (make sure pad delay is set to 0 in FREEMCB.CNF and that only a fresh install of FMCB and ule 4.30 is on the card, no other saves should be present)

2. How fast you can copy ule 4.30 compressed elf from an official Sony MC to the MC being tested
(using already installed ule 4.30 of course)

Please post a detailed report with the brand, size, and approximate date you bought the card. Some designs have changed recently, notably Datels. Thus date you bought the card is relevant.
I do realize that Datel cards are slower at saving, and bigger cards are always slower. I have posted a few threads that relate to this one that mention why this is so.

Here are a few MC brands and models that I know of already.

8mb size
Nyko
Madcatz
Chinese clones

16mb, 32mb, 64mb (non partitioned)
Datel
Chinese clones

128mb
Chinese clones

16mb-32mb (partitioned)
Nyko (link)
Katana (link)

Test Results so Far
FMCB boots a little over 2 seconds Faster if the FREEMCB.CNF is loaded from a reasonably fast USB device. Below are some test results of how long it takes from pressing the reset button till you can see the OSDSYS. (Timed with a stopwatch on a v9 PS2 connected to NTSC CRT TV via composite cable. Times are averages of 5-6 test times.)

Sony 8MB Official
From Standby mode- 15.8 seconds
From OSDSYS or PS2 game- 15.5 s
From Standby W/ Lexar 8GB Flash drive and FREEMCB.CNF on root of drive- 13.3 s
From OSDSYS or PS2 game W/ Lexar 8GB Flash drive and FREEMCB.CNF on root of drive- 12.9 s
From OSDSYS or PS2 game W/ Kingston 8GB Flash drive and FREEMCB.CNF on root of drive- 13.4 s
**Note- Certain Kingston drives may require the use of the newer IRX files from uLE in the SYS-CONF folder of the MC with FMCB installed. (see link below)

http://psx-scene.com/forums/freevast...d=1#post452017


Datel 16MB (newest PCB design)
From Standby mode- 16.9 s
From OSDSYS or PS2 game- 16.6 s
From Standby W/ Lexar 8GB Flash drive and FREEMCB.CNF on root of drive- 14.2 s
From OSDSYS or PS2 game W/ Lexar 8GB Flash drive and FREEMCB.CNF on root of drive- 13.8 s

Anyone else who can do similar tests with USB drives they know to be even speedier than mine may find it is even faster. I did test with a slower USB drive and it was a second or so slower.
If for any reason my testing methodology is flawed, you have a better way to test this, or I'm lacking some critical information, let me know. It's also possible that this information is already available. I couldn't find it after hours of searching. Please direct me to the posts that do have the info and I'll gladly organize it here.

Related threads
3rd party MC reliability
fmcb 128mb MC success
Datel Max 64mb

Thanks to the FMCB team, dlanor, radad and all who offer test results in the future.

[erak]

If anyone has the Chinese Clones that are 64 -128MB feel free to post your speed comparison with other cards you own.

I have a 128 MB card that I bought from Hong Kong.

It took 17 seconds after pushing the power button to see "-> Browser <-" with my original Sony 8 MB and 18 seconds with my 128 MB.

I have v3 PS2 and FMCB 1.8.

[TnA]

Yes, that is right.
If it´s on USB it loads a bit faster.

Another thing, which can affect how long FMCB needs for a reboot is the length of the CNF.
How longer it is (more OSD-Items for example), how longer it needs to parse the CNF and check all (ELF-Paths for OSD-Items as an example).

Also if the ELFs are on USB, it needs less time than they would, if they where on MC.


Btw.: The CNF is a bit compare-able with the "Registry" in Windows.

[urbigbro]

Added new info about Kingston 8GB drive speed, and link about how to get them to work with FMCB.

Thanks to TnA's info I will also test multiple .CNFs configured to have all .ELF files load from USB, as well as a extremely small .CNF with the minimum text needed to make it work.