Novachips Express 400GB CFexpress Type A 4.0 Review - 400GB for Just $140

Back in May I reviewed the Novachips Express 1.6TB CFexpress Type A 4.0 card, which turned out to be one of the best performing and least expensive Type A cards that I’ve reviewed.

At the time only a 1.6TB and an 800GB Express version were available, but now we also have a smaller 400GB version which is priced at just $140.00 in the US or £129.00 in the UK.

Compared to the larger 1.6TB and 800GB cards, the 400GB card has a slower sustained write speed of 800MB/s compared to 1300MB/s and 1200MB/s respectively for the larger capacities.

Therefore I’ve decided to review the 400GB card as well, just to see if this lower write figure makes any difference in-camera.

Novachips Express 400GB CFexpress Type A 4.0 Review

Founded in 2009, the South Korean company Novachips are a leading provider of flash-based storage processors and drivers.

Build Quality & Specs

Just like the larger 800GB and 1.6TB cards, the 400GB card is constructed from a metal case with a sticker free label to help with heat control. It is also VPG 400 Certified so it can sustain a minimum write speed of 400 MB/s.

“All of our cards have a custom-developed architecture for maximum heat dissipation, which is crucial for stable recording on cameras,” Novachips says. “The faster the card is, the hotter the card gets, therefore, good memory cards must have an architecture to dissipate this heat effectively.”

The 400GB card also features the latest CFexpress 4.0 standard which unfortunately none of Sony’s current line-up of camera actually support.

However, the 4.0 standard is backwards compatible with 2.0 which means that you can still use it in all of Sony’s cameras that support Type A cards, but there’s no speed benefit in-camera over using a 2.0 card.

You can still take advantage of the faster 4.0 speeds when transferring files to your computer, providing you use a 4.0 reader.

The 400GB card features a sustained write speed of 800 MB/s and sustained read speed of 1700 MB/s.

In-Camera Tests

Testing the cards in-camera provides a much more accurate idea of how they perform in the real world as opposed to simply using benchmarking software.

I tested the Novachips Extreme 400GB card in my Sony A1, Sony A7R V and Sony A7 IV.

I test how many shots can be captured before the buffer is hit then how long it takes to clear the buffer. Slower cards will typically capture fewer shots and take longer to clear the buffer.

Camera	Uncompress RAW Images Before Hitting Buffer	Time to Clear Buffer
Sony A1	90	10.52s
Sony A7R V	407	6.55s
Sony A7 IV	500+	< 2.00s

These results are very similar to the results from the 1.6TB card that I tested, so the reduced 800 MB/s write speed makes very little difference in-camera. This could change with newer camera models however.

This makes the Novachips 400GB card one of the fastest that I have tested so far for my CFexpress Type-A Card Guide.

Blackmagic Tests

Although I prefer the in-camera tests I did also run the card through Blackmagic. I used the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test software together with the Novachips CFexpress Type A 4.0 Reader.

Just like with the 1.6TB card, the results were very impressive. The write speed is only around 400MB/s slower than the faster 1.6TB card whilst the read speeds were very similar.

Novachips Express 400GB CFexpress Type A 4.0 BlackMagic Results

I also ran the same test using AJA System Test which achieved similar results to Blackmagic using the same 5GB test file.

Novachips Express 400GB CFexpress Type A 4.0 AJA Results

Conclusion

The slower write speed of the Novachips Express 400GB CFexpress Type A card compared to the 800GB and 1.6TB cards makes very little difference in-camera.

So if the 800GB and 1.6TB cards were either too large or too expensive, the 400GB offering is definitely worth considering.

It’s one of the fastest cards that I have tested from over 21 Type A cards, and also one of the least expensive.

I’ve been using the 1.6TB in my A1 for shooting motocross and wildlife for the past couple of months now and it has performed flawlessly.

The smaller 400GB card is definitely a welcome addition because personally I rarely need or want a larger capacity card than this.

Currently Novachips are only distributing their cards in North America through Amazon and Memory Wolf in the UK, which as some of you know already is an online store that I run.