HD v DDS v USb Stick

[Elf_Boy]

Was out doing some shopping. My nephew keeps asking for my USB memory stick so I was looking at them to get him one with his Christmas loot.

I noticed they are up to 64 gigs now. Saw a 32 for about $30.

This is big enough for a full OS install, though not my steam directory unless I uninstall some stuff I dont play regularly.

Both were USB 2. Didnt see any USB 3.

I got to wondering, how does the speed on these compare to a HD or SSD? I doubt seriously it would compare to a SSD, but a hard drive? How about for windows temp files and the page file? Or for that matter how fast could you boot with one of these, would it be batter then a sata 3 HD?

 

[Xeth]

SSD >>> HD >>> USB Stick. We're talking about a 3x performance difference between each type (20mb/s for USB, 60mb/s for HD, 180mb/s for SSD). There are exceptions of course but that's generally the case. And getting an OS installed on a USB stick is usually very tricky.

 

[Elf_Boy]

Thank you,

I've been doing some more research, found a Patriot USB 3 stick for about $65



USB 3.0

Capacity 32GB

Features
USB 3.0 compliant

Quad-Channel technology for fast read/write performance

Up to 100MB/s read*

Up to 70MB/s write*

* based on internal testing

*Edit Just found this too (price might be scary though): http://patriotmemory.com/products/g...8&prodline=7&group=Supersonic Magnum&catid=92


If formatted NTFS instead of Fat32 why cant windows see them just like any other drive?