Summer 2006 Memory Stick Fashion Show

Very good review. The SuperTalent Fireball thing performs great, I just wish they'd change that cheesy fireball. No offense, but I prefer something more, eh, formal. I'd pick the tiny OCZ drive if it performed better, it is reminds me of the Motorola Razr: Tiny and it is "hip", but it falls rather short on performance.

Since asthetics are rather important on these drives, I wish you included a picture of the drives next to their names in the benchmark...It makes it easier to pick which one then having to go back to the find the page where it was and compare it to another after you see the benchmarks.

I'm kind of scared of those non-flash drives, aren't they prone to vibrate or get damaged when you drop them? What about magnets? Or are they protected from that? 1" 8GB is cool, but it has its cons, which to me, outnumber the pros. What about power consumption? Does that thing chug power like an OC'ed P4? Heat?

I've got to learn more about this U3 thing. Sounds like a very interesting program. Would solve many techs from carrying 15 CDs with diagnostic software, just this one drive with all of them on there. And he could have a few good, recommended anti-virus software programs that he could give to his "client".

Excellent round-up and keep up the good work!

~Ibrahim~

Ugh! I cannot believe the Sandisk Cruzer actually got top marks from Tom's when clearly the Crucial Gizmo Overdrive 2gb got the top overall. Look at its average (3rd highest access, highest read, 3rd highest write).. bloody no-brainer. I have the OCZ Rally 2gb and damn I look at its benchmarks there and am dumbfounded.. Damn man its a joke how bad it is over the Gizmo 2gb! Ughhhh! :?

Hope someday we can get 8gb the size of the current 2gb. I can dream..Then again.. 25gb would be nice.. hehe.. Maybe in 10years..

What the gawd damn!!?!!? 8O 8O 8O 64gb Flashdrive the same size as my current OCZ 2gb Rally? WOW! $2799 though but wow.. that has got to be a fake but I guess its not. Wow!

I've been waiting to order my 1st usb flash drive. This review got me motivated and I just ordered the Super Talent Fireball 2gb from NewEgg. Despite it's cheezy appearance, I opted for performance and price. Not to mention it has a lifetime warranty. I actually think the flames help it stand out should you drop it on the floor or especially in grass.

One thing I think is over looked is how to carry the thing. I like to keep it on my key ring but I don't want to have my keys hanging off my drive while I'm using it.

I have Lexar Sportser that I think has the best solution of this but is is a monster in size compaired to some of the new stuff. Also it only comes in 1 GB.

Hmm, I noticed that you guys overlooked a very nice flash drive in the Patriot XPorter XT. I have a 2GB model and it is very, very fast- I see 20-22 MB/sec transfer rates on this stick.

I ordered this yesterday.


I think I am going to like it, 2GB, with password protection.
SHOCK proof and water resistant, also with 5 yr warranty
something that can be thrown around. and don't have to worry about it getting wet.

http://www.imation.com/products/fl [...] _clip.html

hmm
thanks for posting that.
just did'nt click that it could be that bad.
mine is shipped anyways..so time will tell.

Hi there - welcome.
The more I think about it...its just a memory stick.
and pretty much aynthing should get the job done as long as it works.

This is the 2nd review I have seen where the Reviewer reported slow speeds by the OCZ Rally. I have the 2 Gig version and it is much faster that what is reported on both reviews.

I mean this thing writes and writes fast. I did not see what kind of files they were copying, large, small, blend, etc. Some people copy just large files, some copy a lot of small files.

Has OCZ answered as to why there product would be this much slower in tests but not the real world? I have used pen drives back when the biggest was 32mb. I currently have a 1gb PNY Attache and the OCZ is at least 300% faster using the exact same computer and USB Port.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Looking for a low cost 8GB drive.

We use virtual machines at work and I would like to be able to bring them home, but I can't hook up my laptop to the primary domain at work and my connection is too slow when I log in from home. These VMs are 4GB-10GB unzipped.

The cheapest thing I have found is the US Modular 8GB Monstor USB Portable External Drive which is $70 after rebates at some sites like Buy.Com. This is a mini disk drive at 4200 RPM. I have seen reviews of the 4G version that talk about slow data transfer.

I have also found the A-Data 8GB flash drive for $135. But the tests Tom ran on the 4GB version indicate Slowwww write speeds.

Thoughts on which to get?

Or another drive?

Other ideas for getting the data home?

I've read that Flash memory isn't especially good for multiple rewrites and would wear out quickly if used as a swap drive. Is this no longer true (has it ever been?), or will most (all?) USB sticks gracefully mark worn-out blocks bad and while it's effective size will diminish it will anyway last "long enough" to be a good idea?

I have looked for non-flash USB sticks since I need a USB swap stick for a NAS that will run Slimserver for a Squeezebox, but not found any. But maybe a standard Flash stick would work then...?

It also seems like Flash memory can stand a much higher amount of rewrites than a few years ago. I read in a 6 year old article that the standard then was a lifetime of 100,000 rewrites, and better quality memory had been starting to up the ante to 1 million. A lot seems to have happened, maybe we now are up to around 100 million which would make it usable as a swap. But I never see any specs for that on USB memory sticks, they want us to believe they last forever.

The Vista application for USB sticks is a bit different, since it will cache applications which then wil stay on the stick. Few writes, a lot of reads. Faster than HD only because of fast seek times and "leaving the HD alone to do other stuff" - USB2 still isn't very "hot" at transfers.

Waiting for eSATA flash memory sticks and internal SATA flash solid-state disks...