Garmin GPS - How Much Memory In A Garming 660?

Author

How Much Memory In A Garming 660?

phil@phil's.place.com

2007-11-26, 10:33 pm

I'm wondering how much memory there is in a new Garmin 660 that I just
bought. I'd like to have some idea as to how many MP3s & pix I can put
in one.

Jack Erbes

2007-11-27, 10:33 am

phil@phil's.place.com wrote:
> I'm wondering how much memory there is in a new Garmin 660 that I just
> bought. I'd like to have some idea as to how many MP3s & pix I can put
> in one.
>

The "detailed specs" links on some of the Garmin products usually have
that kind of info:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/a...uvi660_spec.pdf

If they have it right, the 660 has 2 GB of internal (flash) memory. I
think if you plug that into a USB port and then look at its properties
(it will appear as an external or removable drive) you can see how much
free space is on the internal memory.

If you have SD card in it, that will appear as another removable drive
too. And the SD card is really your best choice of a place for storing
*.mp3 files.

The 660 specs don't say if it is SDHC capable or not but it will take 2
GB SD cards if it is not. If it is SDHC capable, it will take 4 GB or
larger cards.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

The Drifter

2007-11-27, 10:33 am

It takes the 4GB card with the latest firmware update.

On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:02:14 -0500, Jack Erbes
<jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote:

>phil@phil's.place.com wrote:
>
>The "detailed specs" links on some of the Garmin products usually have
>that kind of info:
>
>https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/a...uvi660_spec.pdf
>
>If they have it right, the 660 has 2 GB of internal (flash) memory. I
>think if you plug that into a USB port and then look at its properties
>(it will appear as an external or removable drive) you can see how much
>free space is on the internal memory.
>
>If you have SD card in it, that will appear as another removable drive
>too. And the SD card is really your best choice of a place for storing
>*.mp3 files.
>
>The 660 specs don't say if it is SDHC capable or not but it will take 2
>GB SD cards if it is not. If it is SDHC capable, it will take 4 GB or
>larger cards.
>
>Jack

Rich

2007-11-27, 10:33 am

On Nov 26, 7:13 pm, phil@phil's.place.com wrote:
> I'm wondering how much memory there is in a new Garmin 660 that I just
> bought. I'd like to have some idea as to how many MP3s & pix I can put
> in one.

It's around 600 MB on mine, plus the SD card. Firmware version 2.6
added support for 4 GB cards. But you might want to check this out...

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/...?TOPIC_ID=81055

Rich Owings
http://gpstracklog.typepad.com

Joel

2007-11-27, 12:33 pm

Jack Erbes <jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote:

> phil@phil's.place.com wrote:
>
> The "detailed specs" links on some of the Garmin products usually have
> that kind of info:
>
> https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/a...uvi660_spec.pdf
>
> If they have it right, the 660 has 2 GB of internal (flash) memory. I
> think if you plug that into a USB port and then look at its properties
> (it will appear as an external or removable drive) you can see how much
> free space is on the internal memory.
>
> If you have SD card in it, that will appear as another removable drive
> too. And the SD card is really your best choice of a place for storing
> *.mp3 files.
>
> The 660 specs don't say if it is SDHC capable or not but it will take 2
> GB SD cards if it is not. If it is SDHC capable, it will take 4 GB or
> larger cards.
>
> Jack

From my understanding the Nuvi 660 is same with Nuvi 680 except the FM
Traffic vs MSN Traffic, cuz Nuvi 660 firmware is same with Nuvi 680. And if
so, then I have 8GB SDHC on my Nuvi 680 and it works well.

Except I haven't installed additional map to know what to do with HUGE
amount of space <bg>

phil@phil's.place.com

2007-11-27, 3:33 pm

On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:02:14 -0500, Jack Erbes <jackerbes@adelphia.net>
wrote:

>phil@phil's.place.com wrote:
>
>The "detailed specs" links on some of the Garmin products usually have
>that kind of info:
>
>https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/a...uvi660_spec.pdf
>
>If they have it right, the 660 has 2 GB of internal (flash) memory. I
>think if you plug that into a USB port and then look at its properties
>(it will appear as an external or removable drive) you can see how much
>free space is on the internal memory.
>
>If you have SD card in it, that will appear as another removable drive
>too. And the SD card is really your best choice of a place for storing
>*.mp3 files.
>
>The 660 specs don't say if it is SDHC capable or not but it will take 2
>GB SD cards if it is not. If it is SDHC capable, it will take 4 GB or
>larger cards.
>
>Jack

Thanks for the info. I'll have to do more checking now that I have this
info. Thanks again.

And - thanks to all others who answered.

Lakro Mani

2007-11-28, 4:33 am

8GB SD card dow also work.

<phil@phil's.place.com> wrote in message
news:2qvmk3pqubk8pfa
rjqggquntsshqq5l7vg@
4ax.com...
> I'm wondering how much memory there is in a new Garmin 660 that I just
> bought. I'd like to have some idea as to how many MP3s & pix I can put
> in one.
>

Jack Erbes

2007-11-28, 7:33 am

phil@phil's.place.com wrote:
<snip>
> Thanks for the info. I'll have to do more checking now that I have this
> info. Thanks again.
>
> And - thanks to all others who answered.

Here is another consideration on having large number of mp3 files.

I remember that someone said here in the past that if you put a lot of
*.mp3 files on the SD card in a nuvi, it slows the startup time down.

It is because it needs to read the card at every startup so that it will
know what tracks to offer for playing. And it took a fair amount of
time, like 30 seconds or a minute, to do it if I remember right. I'm
not too sure I'd like to have to wait for that at every startup.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

phil@phil's.place.com

2007-11-28, 10:33 pm

On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 07:50:56 -0500, Jack Erbes <jackerbes@adelphia.net>
wrote:

>phil@phil's.place.com wrote:
><snip>
>
>Here is another consideration on having large number of mp3 files.
>
>I remember that someone said here in the past that if you put a lot of
>*.mp3 files on the SD card in a nuvi, it slows the startup time down.
>
>It is because it needs to read the card at every startup so that it will
>know what tracks to offer for playing. And it took a fair amount of
>time, like 30 seconds or a minute, to do it if I remember right. I'm
>not too sure I'd like to have to wait for that at every startup.
>
>Jack

Well, I don't think a beginning wait time of 30" is too much. If it had
to wait between songs that long, forget it.

Question:
Will any company's SD cards work in a 660, or does it have to be
purchased from Garmin?

As for my first dumb question about how much memory one had, I asked the
question without seeing the unit. My wife had it the whole time. It
wasn't until I used it myself that I noticed it created a virtual drive.
Had I known that, I would have used Properties to check it out.

All in all, we are very satisfied with the nuvi 660. It does more than
we had expected, seeing as how I bought it 'blind' on an impulse.

Thanks again to all who answered.

Jack Erbes

2007-11-28, 10:33 pm

phil@phil's.place.com wrote:
<snip>
> Well, I don't think a beginning wait time of 30" is too much. If it had
> to wait between songs that long, forget it.

I just thought I'd mention it. I don't know how much of an annoyance it
is as I don't have one that does mp3 files. Maybe some one who has one
can put it in perspective.

> Question:
> Will any company's SD cards work in a 660, or does it have to be
> purchased from Garmin?

Any microSD card will work. For me, SanDisk cards have become the cards
of choice. They have a good warranty (5 years?), I've never had one
that did not work or quit working, and the prices are about as cheap as
any of the other if you shop sales. I bought some SanDisk 2 GB cards on
eBay a month or so ago and they were about $28 each shipped to me. You
can find similar prices on sales this time of year too.

> As for my first dumb question about how much memory one had, I asked the
> question without seeing the unit. My wife had it the whole time. It
> wasn't until I used it myself that I noticed it created a virtual drive.
> Had I known that, I would have used Properties to check it out.

The 660 is one of the newer GPS receivers that does not come with a
MapSource City Navigator on a DVD so that you can install the same
mapping to a PC. If you're interested in having that, many people have
called Garmin support (1 800 800 1020) and asked for it and Garmin sent
it to them for free. Sometimes Garmin will say you don't need that but
it you stand firm on wanting it you can probably get it.

It is convenient to have the mapping on a PC as it as it lets you browse
the mapping in the comfort of your home. And you can place waypoints at
locations, save them to a *.gpx file on the SD card, and then the nuvi
will read that file and add the waypoints to your Favorites on the nuvi.

Back in the old days you could build routes in MapSource and upload them
to the GPS receivers but Garmin has decided you don't want or need to do
that any more. That was all part a program of simplifying the receivers
and broadening the mass marker appeal.

> All in all, we are very satisfied with the nuvi 660. It does more than
> we had expected, seeing as how I bought it 'blind' on an impulse.
>
> Thanks again to all who answered.

Anyone's first GPS receiver is almost always a revelation. It always
seems like such strong magic and a giant leap forward from not having one.

But stay away from us who remember the "golden age" of GPS receivers.
That was back when they were harder to use but had many more navigation
related features for those of us that wanted to use them. Once we got
in the habit of planning routes on PCs, using multiple destination
routing to control routing, using route optimization for multiple stop
routes, being able to see and use track histories, and things like that,
the new "easy to use" models appear a little shallow in comparison.

If the stuff that was left off sounds like something of interest to you,
just wait a little longer. Garmin is now in the process of re-inventing
all the features they left off a few years ago and is starting to add
them back into the high end models. Pretty soon you will be able to buy
a newer more expensive model and do some of the things they previously
decided you no longer needed to do.

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if this is all corporate fumbling and
bumbling around or a masterful marketing scheme.

Jack

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