Flash Thumbdrive with Performance Rivaling SSD?

Boris_yo

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 22, 2011
Messages
224
I am interested to know what's so special about thumb drive that lets it challenge SSDs. Are these comparable to external SSDs maybe? Are these thumb drives with similar longevity as SSDs? Sounds too good to be true.

The one on picture is BlitzWolf brand
 

Attachments

  • 57f84cc7-777f-40d8-a347-d0f9b65a25a9.jpg
    57f84cc7-777f-40d8-a347-d0f9b65a25a9.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 0
usually they are usb 3.2 and my sandisk extreme pro is very close to ssd speed, ive seen 450/350+ from it. dont know about longevity though, only have it for a year or so.
 
I have a couple of the top of the range Lexar Professional series that I bought a few years ago. They hit 400MBps+ and still working fine since 2017.

Buying decent midrange USB sticks is the hard part. You just want one that will do say 50MBps writes or even top USB2.0 write speeds of 35MBps seems hard for Amazon to manage. They cant all be fakes made from factory floor sweepings?

How hard would it be to make a USB stick that just does 100MBps Read and Write all day long for a decent cost? That will do me for most cases.
 
I would not call that one in the pic rivalling SSD's, reads are semi decent, writes are bad, but for the form factor they may be decent, question is how long will it last, a lot of thumb drives seem to have a tendency of dying all of a sudden.
 
I bought three straight disappointing flash drives. The Samsung Bar 32 and 64GB, at the same time, and the Gorilla USB3 64GB. All three have good read speeds of 150MBs or so but the write speeds are pathetic at 18-25 MB/s plus all three have an annoying pausing every couple of seconds while writing. I finally scored a good flash drive with the Samsung FIT Plus 128GB with a write speed of about 60MB/s, which is acceptable to me.
 
I bought three straight disappointing flash drives. The Samsung Bar 32 and 64GB, at the same time, and the Gorilla USB3 64GB. All three have good read speeds of 150MBs or so but the write speeds are pathetic at 18-25 MB/s plus all three have an annoying pausing every couple of seconds while writing. I finally scored a good flash drive with the Samsung FIT Plus 128GB with a write speed of about 60MB/s, which is acceptable to me.
look for pro, extreme or both in the naming for higher speeds and expect to pay a bit more.
 
try doing multiple things to a flash drive, copy and writing and such, performance sucks and tanks. USB are good for 1 task at a time, so to rival an SSD..not really.
 
You just want one that will do say 50MBps writes or even top USB2.0 write speeds of 35MBps seems hard for Amazon to manage. They cant all be fakes made from factory floor sweepings?

Yep, they can, and usually are. Amazon is the counterfeit capital of the world, I avoid them like the plague because I've been burned far too many times by counterfeit or bait and switch garbage from them. All Amazon cares about is their cut of the sale profits, it's no skin off their back if a customer returns something, the seller eats it all.

With how easy it is to get reject flash chips from the back alley dumpsters of Shenzhen and Huaqiangbei and the prevalence of cheap flash controllers that can be programmed to mask out the bad areas of flash chips, it's easy for scummy sellers to pedal garbage flash drives for high prices, while only paying pennies on the dollar for the materials.
 
Amazon is the counterfeit capital of the world, I avoid them like the plague because I've been burned far too many times by counterfeit or bait and switch garbage from them
Don't buy from 3rd party sellers. Buy from Amazon. However there have been news where Samsung were selling fake thumb drives.
 
I use a Corsair Flash Voyager GTX and when moving MP3s around I generally get 300-400MB/sec read speeds and ~250ishMB/sec write speeds between it and an SSD.

I believe the ones that achieve much higher write speeds use a more SSD-style controller (and probably better memory), IIRC
 
I bought three straight disappointing flash drives. The Samsung Bar 32 and 64GB, at the same time, and the Gorilla USB3 64GB. All three have good read speeds of 150MBs or so but the write speeds are pathetic at 18-25 MB/s plus all three have an annoying pausing every couple of seconds while writing.
Sounds like occurrence on SSDs that don't have DRAM... Are SDs supposed to have DRAM though?

I use a Corsair Flash Voyager GTX and when moving MP3s around I generally get 300-400MB/sec read speeds and ~250ishMB/sec write speeds between it and an SSD.

I believe the ones that achieve much higher write speeds use a more SSD-style controller (and probably better memory), IIRC

Could be DRAM controller?
 
Could be DRAM controller?
Unsure. Seems difficult to find any real details about these drives online. I have the 2nd gen (3.1), most info online is for the 3.0 and is pretty sparse. Seems to be a Phison PS3109-S9 (SSD) controller in the 3.0, and 3D NAND, but that's about all I can find. They definitely had to make the drive physically big/fat to fit whatever was necessary.
 
xx0xx Check this out:

fotor_1639414341482.jpg

Is Voyager GTX 128GB superior to 256GB non-GTX that it's worth adding $4 bucks and yet get less storage but better controller?

Also I don't understand why both 64GB and 128GB non-GTX cost the same...
 
Flash Voyager - Regular flash drive, expect low speeds, old drive
Flash Voyager GT - Regular flash drive, newer revision of non-GT drive, faster (think like 150 read / 75 write, probably not great 4K-Random performance)
Flash Voyager GTX - SSD-controller flash drive, acts like an SSD, much faster reads, writes, and 4K reads/writes

Prices can differ based on seller, availability, sales, etc... lots of factors there

If you want SSD-like performance in a USB drive form factor, GTX is the option to go with (maybe there are other competing products in this space, but I'm not aware of them and haven't used them). All the non-GTX drives are going to be comparable to other flash drives in performance and price.

Consider them two different products, really. The GTX is really just an SSD, its just the "shape/size" that is similar to a flash drive. The GTX's competition is more along the lines of external SSDs, because that's what it truly is
 
Consider them two different products, really. The GTX is really just an SSD, its just the "shape/size" that is similar to a flash drive. The GTX's competition is more along the lines of external SSDs, because that's what it truly is

Reliability is more important to me than speed. Is GTX still more reliable than GT?
 
Don't buy from 3rd party sellers. Buy from Amazon. However there have been news where Samsung were selling fake thumb drives.
You still have to be careful though, because Amazon commingles its inventory with marketplace sellers ("Fulfilled by Amazon" or FBA).

Edit: what is everyone using for OS installs and such these days, where neither performance nor capacity is paramount?
 
Last edited:
ElementDave They still commingle inventory despite sellers choosing option to not commingle? That's irresponsible but I guess paying warehouse staff minimum wage and expecting the world from them is the consequence.
 
ElementDave They still commingle inventory despite sellers choosing option to not commingle? That's irresponsible but I guess paying warehouse staff minimum wage and expecting the world from them is the consequence.
No, they don't. However most sellers opt for comingling due to the lower costs.
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
You still have to be careful though, because Amazon commingles its inventory with marketplace sellers ("Fulfilled by Amazon" or FBA).

Edit: what is everyone using for OS installs and such these days, where neither performance nor capacity is paramount?
I am using the Sandisk Extreme Pro I posted above, Windows 10 install takes something like 5 minutes on a modern PC.
 
I don't have either but interested if there something faster
Kingston datatraveler max - thumbdrive
SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD
 
I have one of the Sandisk Extreme Pro thumbdrives that has excellent read speed and very very good write speed.
I think this 128GB one was $40.
There is a newer one, https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-128GB-Extreme-Solid-State-dp-B08GYM5F8G/dp/B08GYM5F8G

Transfer Speed**​

Up to 420MB/s Read, 380MB/s Write

View attachment 422204
I am using the Sandisk Extreme Pro I posted above, Windows 10 install takes something like 5 minutes on a modern PC.
thats the one i mentioned, fastest normal thumbdrive ive ever touched. those look like the speeds i get, slightly better read, slightly lower write but close enough for no complaints.
and yeah on a modern usb 3+ system with nvme, installs are stupid fast.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I bought a 10Gbps USB NVME adapter with heatsink + USB/USB C adapters, and put a Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVME drive in it.
It maxes around 800MB/s and will far exceed the reliability of flash.
Oh, its also far cheaper than an equiv USB drive!

USB 3.2 cant match or exceed onboard NVME, it doesnt use enough PCI-e lanes.
 
ElementDave They still commingle inventory despite sellers choosing option to not commingle? That's irresponsible but I guess paying warehouse staff minimum wage and expecting the world from them is the consequence.
GoldenTiger's answer matches my understanding, and certain items may also be excluded from commingling for other reasons. Amazon doesn't make the details of their product-laundering operations public as far as I know, so the probability of receiving a counterfeit is a mystery to me.
 
thats the one i mentioned, fastest normal thumbdrive ive ever touched. those look like the speeds i get, slightly better read, slightly lower write but close enough for no complaints.
and yeah on a modern usb 3+ system with nvme, installs are stupid fast.
How fast to create bootable media w/Rufus?
Some of the slower ones remind of the days of burning a CD at 2X! ;-)
 
How fast to create bootable media w/Rufus?
Some of the slower ones remind of the days of burning a CD at 2X! ;-)
i havent used rufus since the first 11 leak, i just use the ms usb creator, but iirc it only took a couple/few minutes, after the iso creation that is. coming off an ssd or better it will sustain the 375+ write speed no prob.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I have this one but I haven't used it yet.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RVFQXQ6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It was pricey at $55 though.
I wanted to go with that too but at the time didnt appear to have any way for heat to escape, being sealed and no mention of a heatsink.
They didnt say what the case was made from either.
Your advert has an image showing it is aluminium which would have satisfied me.

Also, at the time they were using an Asmedia chip which has problems, I was looking for the Realtek RTL9210 and couldnt find proof this was what I could get.
I see Sabrent now also use RTL9210.

With the RTL9210 chip it looks like a great NVME caddy :)
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
GoldenTiger's answer matches my understanding, and certain items may also be excluded from commingling for other reasons. Amazon doesn't make the details of their product-laundering operations public as far as I know, so the probability of receiving a counterfeit is a mystery to me.

Is this term a thing or you just coined it? Should be illegal, just as money laundering is. The difference is liquidity but still...
 
I wanted to go with that too but at the time didnt appear to have any way for heat to escape, being sealed and no mention of a heatsink.
They didnt say what the case was made from either.
Your advert has an image showing it is aluminium which would have satisfied me.

Also, at the time they were using an Asmedia chip which has problems, I was looking for the Realtek RTL9210 and couldnt find proof this was what I could get.
I see Sabrent now also use RTL9210.

With the RTL9210 chip it looks like a great NVME caddy :)
It's a giant block of aluminum. the entire thing is a heat sink

Industrial Quality Industrial Quality​

Built to protect your data this unique aluminum housing with a high-efficiency thermal pad is designed to absorb the heat from the NVMe drive to protect it from overheating, ensuring a long life expectancy from your drive.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Nenu
like this
Back
Top