Memory card internal pics - which is best?

[pepsi_max2k]

Hey all, thought someone here might do the curtosey of enlightening me. Old product, presumably not a new question, but it's electronics related and I know nowt about them (well, not much...) and as I'm the kinda guy to always ask "why" I ain't gonna let it rest til I do so...

Xbox memory cards. (I guess it's relevant to any flash memory but meh) There's always comments about official being better than third party. I've gone through afew in the last couple months (don't ask...) and I've witnesed the same thing. And yet I ask myself "why?". This is where you lot come in.

Official Microsoft 8 MB card (sorry, no rear, have no actual ones to hand right now, K9F6408U0C - TCBO (http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheets/560/265049_DS.pdf))

http://www.inaudible.co.uk/temp/ebay/officialmem.jpg

Thrustmaster 8 MB card ("officially licensed", layout looks v similar to official, K9F6408U0B - TIB0 (http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheets2/42/426008_1.pdf))

http://www.inaudible.co.uk/temp/ebay/scthrust4.jpg
http://www.inaudible.co.uk/temp/ebay/scthrust5.jpg

InterAct 8 MB card ("officially licensed", layout quite different, the only type i've had fail with large files so far, K9F6408U0C - TCB0 (http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheets/560/265049_DS.pdf) or ...U0B - TCB0)

http://www.inaudible.co.uk/temp/intermem1.jpg
http://www.inaudible.co.uk/temp/intermem2.jpg


I'm kinda hoping for something obvious in terms of dos and don'ts in flash memory device design. Anyone see anything, like is any of them more obviously better in terms of design, or are they all pretty similar when it comes to component choice/layout? The only difference I've found in the samsung mem chip datasheets is the Thrustmaster one has a greater range of operating temps. Other than that, the very different design of the IA one is the only thing I can think of that make it worse than the others, other than the odd dud memory chip. Basically it's just be good to know what's good quality and not just by looking. And I have nooo idea, really, I don't know what I'm looking at at all (other than obvious mem chip, few resistors, circuit board, something below some black goo, and some processor type looking thing). So, anyone? Thanks.

[jonnyGURU]

These are nothing more than USB Flash drives.

They're all using Samsung Flash Memory and the first two are using Cypress USB memory controllers.

The third one may or may not be, but there's a black turd covering the IC. Maybe it's failing because it's NOT using the Cypress controller and that could be what Microsoft programmed the Xbox to interface with.

[pepsi_max2k]

well like I said in the context of the question it doesn't really matter what they are & used for :)

maybe i'll try take the goop off the last one and see what it is as it's useless for what i need it for, it does work but not when you're trying to max out the apparently available space. strangely, transfers look fine when transfering via a custom file browser on the xbox as it gets files on and off perfectly (checked the bit count at least), but the same files when transferred using the original ms dashboard (their xbox interface) they become corrupted once moved over to the hd or other cards (actually, i never check bit count, can they actually be the same size but still corrupted?) so it's more like a bug or something with the ms interface than anything else (go figure). it also does something weird with reported space, not having less like you'd think but reports having more space available than other cards do when using the same file. irrelevant too i guess but anyway...

i actually have one of the same make and virtually identicle (other than u0b instead of u0c) that appears to work fine. so i don't know if the way they're set up/component choice is just more prone to failure/incompatibility, or if the dud one is just a one off or what.

anyway, nothing else seem dodgy? by rights they should all be just as good as each other? in that case i better check all my official / good ones incase they're bad too :(

[jonnyGURU]

If the memory and controller are the same... yeah... then the only difference beyond that is the PCB layout and the housing they're contained in.