USB Flash drives - 120x 180x 200x, etc

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Valnar

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Does a chart exist anywhere of the different memory types and speeds used in most of the major USB Flash drives? xbitlabs.com does a great review of read/write speeds every few years, but I'm wondering if there is a "bigger" chart somewhere. Maybe somebody is keeping track? On another note, do faster ones last longer or less? Knowing what it used in each flash would help (MLC, SLC, 10K, 100K, 1M write cycles, etc)

If I'm going USB flash drive hunting, I might as well get the best ones.
 
For posterity, I'm updating this thread. I found this site below, but after using his test program, I can tell you that some of the results may be incorrect. I use HD_Speed and Simpli HD Tach RW to test mine.

http://usbspeed.nirsoft.net/
 
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Good thread.

I have also looked for a list of SLC thumb drives, but have not found any yet.
If anyone has it, that would be very valuable information.
 
spectrumbx said:
Good thread.

I have also looked for a list of SLC thumb drives, but have not found any yet.
If anyone has it, that would be very valuable information.
Click to expand...

I have discovered that SLC drives are a thing of the past. I've hunted eBay for them, but people don't sell them. They topped out at 4GB. Everything is MLC now because shrinking SLC down made it too expensive - even more than it already was.

Here's the scoop.
http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67674
 
Interesting thread/info... I think if several manufacturers had somehow gotten together and decided to market SLC USB drives a bit more effectively (rather than all this 100x nonsense), they might've created enough demand to keep 'em alive... Altho at the end of the day they'd still be at the mercy of Samsung which probably doesn't care to alter it's production around niche products.

I'm fine w/the 24 MB/s read speeds that I can get out of standard SDHC cards in a small flash drive-sized reader, even sequential writes aren't too bad at 15 MB/s or so... But small random write speeds usually stink (3-5 MB/s at best). I dunno how much better drives like the Corsair GT fare in that regard (they just quote a single 16-17 MB/s write spec, which I imagine is sequential), I'd hope it's substantially better to justify the price premium.

What I'd really love to have is a small e-SATA or USB 3.0 SSD (no larger than a 2.5" drive, smaller if possible) that has really good sequential and random write speeds (100 MB/s sequential at 'least); and is tuned to perform well over time as a removable drive.
 
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I bought a SuperTalent Pico USB 4Gb from ebay for a test!
It does reported 30MB read and 8-10MB/s writes! same as on the page you posted!

Just ordered a 16GB!
 
Sequential writes, what about random/small writes tho? That's where many USB flash drives will really falter. Write speeds can drop all the way from 10 MB/s to 1 MB/s w/small files. :eek:
 
I have a bunch of USB drives and I mark all of them with a small magic marker with two numbers so I know what speed they are. I use the two programs I mentioned above.

read/write in Mb

Lexar, Corsair and Patriot make some fast MLC ones these days, but you'll pay for it.

Here are some of mine, but I don't have their actual part numbers handy.

Lexar 2GB - 16/8
Patriot Xporter XT 4GB - 32/10
PQI 8GB - 35/9
Supertalent 2GB - 14/11
Sandisk Cruzer 2GB - 25/11
Verbatim 2GB - 22/6
No name 1GB - 11/4
Old 128MB - 1/1 <--- Yes, this is a USB 1.1 flash drive!

I'm not posting these necessarily as recommendations for people to buy (especially since I didn't give you part numbers). It's to illustrate how different they are.

For Linux recovery or BartPE discs that emulate CD's, I'll use one with a fast read but not a fast write. I have one (the PQI) that I use for a Linux read/write OS boot drive. I'll be splurging on a super fast one that goes up past 20Mb on write and move that application to that drive. For the others, I just use them to store files.

The point I want to make is....even if you want to buy a USB drive just to store files, and are willing to pay a "regular" price, make sure you shop and get a good one. Yes, you can pay 2x or 3x to get a super fast one, but even for an average priced UFD, the speed difference is quite large. I bought a crappy 1GB off eBay to save like $1 over NewEgg and it ended up being 6Mb read and 1.5Mb write. Wow, that was slow. It also died after using it for only a couple days. I ended up returning it.
 
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Speeds seem to vary amongst SD and other flash memory cards just as much... The fastest microSD card I've got is some Toshiba-branded 2GB card that came in a PNY package, I'm not sure it even has a a class rating but it's faster than my M2 Sony cards and some of my older <4GB SD cards even. The 16GB Transcend Class 6 card is pretty peppy at about 24/15, gonna be getting a second one soon to act as supplemental storage w/my new SSD (waiting on a Newegg gift card, grr).
 
Does anyone know how long a USB flash drive will retain it's data? I've been googling for "usb flash longevity" but all I pull up are articles about how long a flash drive will last if you hammer it with writes. What if you just wanted to store some data on there and leave it alone for 10+ years?
 
Valnar said:
Does anyone know how long a USB flash drive will retain it's data? I've been googling for "usb flash longevity" but all I pull up are articles about how long a flash drive will last if you hammer it with writes. What if you just wanted to store some data on there and leave it alone for 10+ years?
Click to expand...

Those using NAND processes of 90nm or higher (which would be most old USB drives) can retain data 10+ years.
Those in the last two/three years were at 50nm and are good for 5+ years.
The most recent ones are questionable not just on the smaller process but on that low quality manufacturers are creating them out of really bad NAND chips (those rejected from being used in SSDs).
 
spectrumbx said:
Those using NAND processes of 90nm or higher (which would be most old USB drives) can retain data 10+ years.
Those in the last two/three years were at 50nm and are good for 5+ years.
The most recent ones are questionable not just on the smaller process but on that low quality manufacturers are creating them out of really bad NAND chips (those rejected from being used in SSDs).
Click to expand...

Wow, I did not know that. Google didn't bring up any of those facts.

For every company out there looking to make a buck, there is usually somebody who rises to the top and shoots for quality over quantity. Does anyone know if there is a particular Flash manufacturer who fits that ideal?
 
Not really, as mentioned throughout the thread... Manufacturers making cheap flash drives (and even not-so cheap ones) are at the mercy of the flash manufacturers, there's not much they can do. Why would you need to retrieve data off a flash drive 10+ years later tho? Are you creating some sorta time capsule? :p Data that's stored in any one device is always at risk, regardless of medium.
 
Impulse said:
Not really, as mentioned throughout the thread... Manufacturers making cheap flash drives (and even not-so cheap ones) are at the mercy of the flash manufacturers, there's not much they can do. Why would you need to retrieve data off a flash drive 10+ years later tho? Are you creating some sorta time capsule? :p Data that's stored in any one device is always at risk, regardless of medium.
Click to expand...

Pictures man....pictures.
 
Why do you need to put those pictures away on flash drives tho? (for 10 years) What's wrong with keeping them on multiple HDD and/or DVDs? A good DVD can probably last longer (no clue about BD), and keeping 'em on multiple HDDs means you can check on their integrity relatively easy and migrate 'em to future/larger HDDs just as easy.
 
Valnar said:
Wow, I did not know that. Google didn't bring up any of those facts.

For every company out there looking to make a buck, there is usually somebody who rises to the top and shoots for quality over quantity. Does anyone know if there is a particular Flash manufacturer who fits that ideal?
Click to expand...

Kingston and Crucial (OCZ maybe) still make quality drives (mostly higher end models).
 
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