Blazing Dual Channel Thumb Drive

Anonomisk Howard writes "The speed results from Big Bruin's review of OCZ's latest flash drive have me lusting for a new thumb drive. From the review: 'The OCZ Rally drive is not a radical new design, it does not look significantly different than any other USB 2.0 drive on the market, but then you plug it in and begin to use it. This thing smokes! The transfer times shown in the charts are what this drive is all about. If you want the fastest, sleekest, and most extreme drive currently on the market, this is the one to get.'"

Comments

pe

[uberjoe]

If only my wife were this interested in speed.

Re:pe

[physman_wiu]

Well I glad I don't have that problem. If it took me 6 seconds to "transfer" I think I would kill myself

Re:pe

[eclectro]

Nerds are not married. I agree, you need to be modded down!

Re:pe

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm so fast my transfer finishes before I even plug it in. Yeah baby. Hey? Where you going?

Re:pe

[paranode]

Well you woulnd't want her to pop would you?

Re:pe

[jtorkbob]

I disagree.

I had 'nerd' in my job title once. There is a light saber in my car. I laugh at things like 'OCT 31 = DEC 25'. I have read User Friendly daily for 7 years. I alternate between science fiction and science fact in my reading. I have a room containing approximately 1400 feet of spare cables. I throw parties (by myself) for important milestones in the up-time of my servers.

My wife is not a nerd. She's a social genius who works with old folks - kind of the opposite of a nerd. She watches "Top Model". She owns a hair straightening device. Perhaps most importantly, she is unaffected by caffeine.

We met online, of course, and have been married for almost six years. Nerddom doesn't preclude marriage - it just makes it harder to achieve.

Re:pe

[Anonymous Coward]

I laugh at things like 'OCT 31 = DEC 25'.

That's pretty neat... but it's not really funny.

I have read User Friendly daily for 7 years.

Then again, this explains a lot.

Re:pe

[bhiestand]

We met online, of course, and have been married for almost six years.

Then I think you're missing that although your wife is less nerdy than you, she was, by definition, a bit of a nerd to be online meeting guys over SIX years ago. That's pre-1999, bub.

Re:pe

[maotx]

That's pretty neat... but it's not really funny.

I disagree. I find it pretty damn funny.

Re:pe

[rpresser]

That's pre-1999, bub.

Oooh, ancient history!!! They met online in the last millennium! How could THAT happen, huh?

Fucking newcomers. I was meeting dates online in 1984.

(Well, all right, I didn't get that many dates.)

Re:pe

[bhiestand]

I'm not a newcomer. I'm saying the internet wasn't popular and mainstream until around 1999-2000, and online dating DEFINITELY wasn't socially respectable yet, so anyone who was online at that time meeting potential partners instead of trying to find porn was a nerd.

I'm not saying your wife is a complete nerd. I'm saying your wife must have a little bit of nerd in her because she was doing things like that online before it became the best place to buy a Coach purse.

Please excuse the long sentences and bad grammar, I just woke up.

Re:pe

[rpresser]

No offense meant ... well, not much anyway. :) I was mostly trying for a Funny upmod.

BTW, I'm not the poster who met his wife online.

What They're Not Teaching In Sex Ed...

[__aaclcg7560]

... lusting for a new thumb drive ...

Ok, someone has a problem. :P

Re:What They're Not Teaching In Sex Ed...

[garcia]

I thumb my nose at your joke!

Re:What They're Not Teaching In Sex Ed...

[Rude Turnip]

So that would be an IFIA then.

Burn, baby, burn!

[Anonymous Coward]

"This thing smokes!"
Isn't that the reason people stopped using those xbox cables?

Re:Burn, baby, burn!

[McSnickered]

... and it's "the most extreme"! But how does one gauge "extreme"? Is there such a thing as an "extrem-O-meter"?

Re:Burn, baby, burn!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but does it support the SONY rootkit?!

Re:Burn, baby, burn!

[Tripkipke]

I just got me this one, corsair, this one is on fire :) http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1 706&page=2

Re:Burn, baby, burn!

[shawb]

The is a classic unit of extreme that can be called out here: the base unit is equal to the amount of extreme in slamming one can of ice cold Mountain Dew.

Just what I need.....

[physman_wiu]

...another USB pen drive to loose the cap off of.

Re:Just what I need.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, aren't those fuckers tight at first?

Re:Just what I need.....

[physman_wiu]

yeah, but they wear out just like a woman

Re:Just what I need.....

[physman_wiu]

I guess you could use fishing line and glue.
But what kind of girl dates a guy with fishing line on his pen drive???

Re:Just what I need.....

[The Angry Mick]

You may want to check out one of the Apacer "Steno" drives. The cap is strung through a braided cable loop that's molded into the sides of the drive. I've had mine for awhile now looped onto my keychain and its holding strong - lettering has worn off, though. It's also a pretty fast drive, as well, and quick Froogle shows the 512MB model is going for around $40.

Re:Just what I need.....

[Anonymous Coward]

>...another USB pen drive to loose the cap off of.

You're good.
This morning the cap was the ONLY thing I found. The drive is still missing.

Re:Just what I need.....

[b00stA]

Only on /. a post like that is modded +2, Insightful.

Re:Just what I need.....

[physman_wiu]

well, it seems slashdot readers know what real knowledge derives from. ;)

but why

[JustNiz]

Why do they make these usb key drives so friggin' big? THe electronics inside is probably like 1cm square.

Whats with all the redundant plastic?

Re:but why

[fembots]

Maybe to make sure you don't misplace it too easily?

I'm sure James Bond uses the same thing but with a smaller form factor.

Re:but why

[iethree]

if every thumb drive was 1cm square, you would lose within a week. the drives right now are just the right size to slip in a pocket or on a key ring, if they were any smaller they'd just be impractical.

Re:but why

[Minwee]

They could probably make it as big as a Tic-Tac, but then people would either lose or swallow them.

Getting USB 2.0 compatability _and_ a fresh minty flavour would drive the prices through the roof so it's just not going to happen.

Re:but why

[Zone-MR]

For the majority of users there wouldn't be much advantage in making the drive smaller - it would just be a lot more inconvenient to handle. I wouldn't want to have to resort to tweezers to pry the pendrive out of the USB socket :p

Re:but why

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd probably like this one.

Re:but why

[petermgreen]

ok i've seen some huge ones in my time but my current verbatim one (pic at http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardwa re/VerbatimUSBDriveReview.php) isn't too bad and the stick i had before that (still in use as a backup but the case usually falls apart when unplugging it and the connector is a bit bent after an incident when i kicked it whilst plugged in) is even smaller (think its a canyon one) and the one i gave to my sister a while back was somewhere in between.

the smaller ones are small enough to get in a port with other stuff next to it yet big enough not to easilly lose. going much smaller would probablly mean abandoning normal IC packaging (which is possible but i would guess expensive except in very large quantities and/or moving to a single chip soloution). Some very small drives do exist though although they often sacrifice the polarisation of the plug to do so)

Re:but why

[Red Flayer]

Others have pointed out that it's easy to lose a very small item.

Another factor is ease of use. I personally have sausage-fingers, so something 1-cm square is very awkward to handle. I'm sure other slashdotters have the same problem. Throw in the fact that I enjoy the occasional adult beverage (or three) in the evening, and that teeny drive is almost impossible to use.

Also, many USB drives are recessed, it's hard to grasp something that doesn't stick out past the surface of your case at least a cm or two.

Finally, a rectangle is much better than a square, it's easier to figure out which is the business end. And since you're going rectangular, it makes sense to use a shape that's visually pleasing -- slimline, not clunky.

So, to sum up: don't wanna lose it, ergonomics, and product acceptance.

P.S. The drive reviewed has an aluminum casing, not plastic.

Re:but why

[absinthminded64]

Geeks buy things that are smaller than the ones they already have. Vendors have given themselves room to un-grow and make more profit later on by reducing the size.

Re:but why

[Anonymous Coward]

For everyone saying it would be useless to make it any smaller, I say not. I have a PQI i-Stick which is my fourth USB drive and the smallest by far. I lost the first three because I had to keep them in my pocket. This one is so small that I can keep it in my wallet without noticing it's there. I've never lost my wallet, so I doubt I'll lose this anytime soon.

Re:but why

[Anonymous Coward]

Geeks buy things that are smaller than the ones they already have.

BUTTHEAD: He said, "things". Huh huh.

BEAVIS: Heh heh.

Re:but why

[Randall311]

If you want a small USB drive (size of 2 pennies next to each other) that holds up to 1 GB, and comes with a credit card holder that can fit 2 memory sticks in your wallet, then check out the intelligent stick by PQI. You can find it on newegg here. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16820214009. I swear by this thing, it is so convienent to fit in your wallet with the credit card sized holder that it comes with. I have had mine for almost a year now and I absolutely love it. Like you said, these thumb drives could be a lot smaller then the're being made to be. PQI seems to be the only company that makes them this small. You can find a review here complete with specs. http://www.extrememhz.com/Intellistick20-p1.shtml (I'm probably gonna get modded down for being offtopic, but I figured since we're talking about thumb drives, I might as well mention it. Cheers.

Re:but why

[josh.loomis]

Do you really want to drop the thing and have it break, destroying all your precious data?

Give me that rubber cushion, baby.

Re:but why

[mongus]

I'll second that. I've got the 512MB version and I carry it in my wallet. When I bought it about a year and a half ago it was not only the smallest but also the fastest USB flash drive available. I've had no problems with it at all.

Re:but why

[paranode]

Although other posters have already pointed out the practical reasons for having them a certain size, you do raise a point about some of these USB drives. They are a bit bigger than they need to be and take up so much space that you can't plug anything into a USB port next to them (especially an issue with laptops). When I was shopping for one my main requirements were that it would not block another port, that it would be usable in Linux (generic mass storage driver-compatible), and that it has reasonable speed. I ended up with the Mini Cruzer but there were some other choices out there too. Maybe I'm missing something but I don't get why they make some of them so large.

Re:but why

[Anonymous Coward]

They could probably make it as big as a Tic-Tac...

You mean like this?

http://gprime.net/video.php/ipodflea

Re:but why

[TheRaven64]

if every thumb drive was[sic] 1cm square, you would lose within a week.

And then they could sell you another one the next week...

Re:but why

[dlZ]

Plus it would really help to grow my army of "zombie robots."

Re:but why

[stienman]

THe electronics inside is probably like 1cm square.

Not necessarily.

48 pin TSOP chips are often used for Flash memory, and are 1.2 cm x 2 cm. It's easier and cheaper to assemble a flash drive with TSOP chips rather than BGA. TSOP has the pins along two sides of the paackage. BGA has all the connections on the bottom in a grid, but without pins - just solder balls. Other technologies (such as COB) are not a good fit for the product (quantity, price point, manufacturing capacity, turn around, lead time, etc).

Then you've got the microcontroller that's handling all the USB, error detection, correction, and wear leveling. In this particular device I imagine this part has many more pins than usual since it talks to several flash chips simultaneously (that's how they've increased the speed - it's a mini striped RAID). This part is likely to be only a little smaller than the flash chips themselves.

So I can easily see having a device that's nearly 3" long x .75" wide with up to three flash chips, one microcontroller, and the support components.

The USB connector itself adds .75" to the length. It wouldn't be too difficult to make a stick just under 2" long including the connector. If you want really small then use the PCB as the connector (one flash stick does this already) and you'll end up with about 1.5" long. Use BGA or COB and you might be able to get it down to 1" long total.

-Adam

Re:but why

[vexx0]

I use the PQI intellistick (http://www.pqi1st.com/products/istick.asp) and its the smallest flash drive that I have seen. Its the best flash disk that I have ever used. It's about as easy to keep up with as any other flash drive IMHO.

Re:but why

[BigWhiteGuy_27]

Getting USB 2.0 compatability _and_ a fresh minty flavour

Thanks for making me spew Diet Pepsi all over my monitor.

Re:but why

[erich.keane]

I have the exact same memory key, and LOVE it. The only problem i found was that the wallet holder flexes WAY too much, and mine ended up snapping in my wallet. Luckily the key didnt break/get harmed.

PQI said they couldn't replace the holder, so im stuck w/o one.

Re:but why

[Anonymous Coward]

You beat me to it. I was going to say, "Sleek... if by sleek you mean not as sleek as the PQI Intellistick." An alternate vendor (since NewEgg seems to be sold out) is Surplus Computers. I bought my my 512MB USB 2.0 Intelligent Stick from them over a year ago (before NewEgg stocked them) and it has been running like a champ ever since. I keep it in the plastic credit card holder (just one stick though there's room for another) free in my pocket. Have never had a problem. It is the ultimate in portability and very easy to connect to computers with poorly layed out USB ports (i.e., it fits in tight spaces).

Re:but why

[Tack]

if every thumb drive was 1cm square, you would lose within a week

As long as they could still be attached to a keyring, it could be as small as physically possible, and I would lose it about as often as I lose my keys. (Which has never happened yet; knock on wood.)

Jason.

Re:but why

[Tim Browse]

if they were any smaller they'd just be impractical.

Speak for yourself! I have a PQI I-Stick, which is teh tiny. It comes with an optional housing so you can carry it like a normal USB drive, on a keyring, etc, but it also comes with a credit-card sized plastic holder that can hold two keys, and slips into your wallet. It's great. I always have my wallet, so I always have my USB drive. I don't particularly want something else hanging off my keyring either.

And I've had it over a year without losing it :-). And it's 512Mb. Fast, too. I like it big time ten dollar.

(The USB consortium don't like it, as it breaks their rules for USB connectors/packaging, but never mind.)

The only real problem is it needs a powered hub (or a direct computer-powered USB socket, obviously). So I can't stick it into the back of my MS keyboard. But I can live with that.

Re:but why

[John Muir]

Small makes impractical? Sure, that's what motivated me getting an iPod nano...

Re:but why

[Doppler00]

It's people like you that made MiniSD and xD cards sellable. Come on people, there is a limit to how small something gets to where it becomes impracticle. Thankfully they stopped at somepoint with cellphones right?

Re:but why

[v1]

Some are just designed poorly. The first large flash drive I had was a JetFlash 512. It was 1/3" thick, a good 5" long, and about 1 1/2" wide. It was a cow. Would block any adjacent port beside or above/below it, and would not even FIT into some computers with recessed USB ports.

Now I have a 4gb SanDisk Cruzer Mini. 4gb, largest you can get, usb 2.0hs, huge activity light, and incredibly small profile. Won't block any adjacent ports. Everyone that uses a flash drive should have one of these. Only complaint I have is it lacks a write protect switch. OK one other complaint - being USB 2.0hs, it requires a powered hub, and that means no plugging it into a keyboard where it would be most handy. But that's forgivable.

Re:but why

[aniceyoungman]

I've got this drive as well. I've inspired some serious memory-envy with it.

Re:but why

[Anonymous Coward]

I definitely agree with the size point. The 'redundant plastic' is usually just the crazed idea of "design enhancement" of some guy in a Chinese factory. The IC for most of these drives is tiny, and also in most cases, identical across different brands. And these days I reckon there's simply no point in getting a USB drive only: why not get something the same size that will also play music and tune into the radio? I just got one of these direct from China http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/ mp3-player-1gb-fm-tuner-ebook-telephone-book?osCsi d=b8747c23ff8bbd5fedb4a315568016ec/// from an online store for basically the same price as a boring plain pen drive back home.

Re:but why

[Spoing]

Whats with all the redundant plastic?

I honestly do not know.

I'm a happy owner of two of the older PQI Intelligent Stick drives, and they easily tuck away in my wallet. They are reasonably priced too...sometimes they even cost less!

Re:but why

[Spoing]

Not true. I haven't lost any of my PQI Intelligent Stick drives. They are about as big as a small flash drive for cameras and people don't loose those drives every week either.

Re:but why

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't know about losing it, but having a thumb drive attached to my key ring has greatly increased my chances of locking myself out of the house. Before the only time the key ring left my pocket was when it was inserted in a lock, now it is out whenever I use the thumb drive.

Re:but why

[Heembo]

1cm square seems like a great size for a cerebral implant!

Re:but why

[TClevenger]

My 256MB i-Stick works fine on my keyboard. Problem is that it's so thin that it doesn't always make correct contact, so it sometimes shows up as an "unknown device" (if it shows up at all.) I end up using it with its housing all the time. Nice concept, though.

Re:but why

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?produc tId=2111626

They have small ones.

Re:but why

[chaoaretasty]

Well at least tiny thumb drives don't need displays...

Gonna Order One Today

[RapidEye]

I love my thumb drives, but trying to do "disk" intensive work like BIG spreadsheets can be a bit pokie. It looks like this is just what the Dr Ordered!

Re:Gonna Order One Today

[temojen]

Or just drag the spreadsheet to your desktop, then drag it back when you're done.

Re:Gonna Order One Today

[Anonymous Coward]

Make sure to mention that you saw their advertisement on Slashdot, and you'll get a free set of steak knives.

Re:Gonna Order One Today

[RapidEye]

Yup - that is what I do now.
Not the end of the world, I know, but sort of a PITA...

Re:Gonna Order One Today

[Anonymous Coward]

You'll wear the thing out by writing to it constantly. Flash memory has a finite amount of write cycles.

Re:Gonna Order One Today

[masklinn]

Remember though that working directly on a flash device (and repeatedly writing to it, very noticeable if you're suffering from heavy Savitis and can't prevent your fingers from reaching the CTRL+S keys every 15s or so) could heavily lower it's life expectancy.

Re:Gonna Order One Today

[gorbie_geek]

The OCZ is *not* all its cracked up to be. checkout the USB drive shootout from anandtech There are better drives to be got.

Re:Gonna Order One Today

[Anonymous Coward]

Or just drag the spreadsheet to your desktop, then drag it back when you're done.

Yes. I would do this regardless of how fast my thumb drive was. A friend of mine just recently lost much of his recent assignment work because he was in the habit of working from the thumb drive itself. Went to college and found that he could not see his files there, then when he tried at home he found he could not see them there anymore either. Since I work in Comp forensics, I imaged his thumb drive to try to get his files back (intending to run the image under a few file recovery applications), which would have been a miracle since... there were nothing but zeroes on the WHOLE drive! The drive also would not allow reading from "sector" zero.

I had to run the Apacer Steno low level formatter to make it work again. Which took a very long time in a USB 2.0 port.

Beware. Use them for transporting and maybe as a backup. But I've seen them (other thumb drives) fail a few times before. I've not had a problem with my Steno... so far.

Re:Gonna Order One Today

[Shanep]

Remember though that working directly on a flash device (and repeatedly writing to it, very noticeable if you're suffering from heavy Savitis and can't prevent your fingers from reaching the CTRL+S keys every 15s or so) could heavily lower it's life expectancy.

I wonder how well thumb drives stack up against CF cards, as far as durability goes. I have been using San Disk and Lexar CF cards in some firewalls (OpenBSD, pf) for more than 6 months without issue. I use noatime and softdeps on each partition. I know of other people who have done the same for years.

San Disk released a flash memory durability calculation document which is interesting. So I wonder if thumb drives use wear leveling too?

Although that link implies this is regarding MMC, the document looks exactly like the CF related document, which is currently a 404. The document also seems to be regarding flash memory generically, so maybe San Disk thumb drives at least do employ wear leveling?

Anyone?

Re:Gonna Order One Today

[petermgreen]

so will copying a big file on and off all the time. Afaict what matters most with modern (wear leveled) flash devices is how many blocks you write in total.

e.g. copying a 100 megabyte file to your hdd and back would be worse than editing the same megabyte of it directly 10 times.

News? How?

[Anonymous Coward]

Must be another slow day if this passes for news...

How much?

[ArchieBunker]

How much do advertisements like this cost? Sure could use some publicity like this for my business. That summary sounds like it was pasted from some webstore. The most extreme thumbdrive? Please.

Re:How much?

[Evro]

Slashdot frequently gets spamvertisements like these, but it seems that the product being spammed is more the website than the stupid drive itself - judging by the fact that the submitter's URL is the same as that of the story, this is clearly just a ploy to drive people to his site to spike his ad revenue.

1. Write review of stupid product/service.
2. Submit to Slashdot
3. Profit
4. Goto 1

Slashdot's story queue is probably overflowing with trash like this "article." I can't believe that the one they accepted was about a "blazing" thumb drive. How fast can a fucking thumb drive be, and who fucking cares?

Re:How much?

[Homology]

How much do advertisements like this cost? Sure could use some publicity like this for my business. That summary sounds like it was pasted from some webstore. The most extreme thumbdrive? Please.

On top of that it was just plain stupid, and as usual the "geeks" of /. just fell for it.

Re:How much?

[Man Eating Duck]

...who fucking cares?

The 1337 haxx0r that, after social-engineering your receptionist, your security people and your colleagues, wants to get a copy of your customer database and your shadow file before you get back from getting another coffee :)

Re:How much?

[Anonymous Coward]

How fast can a fucking thumb drive be, and who fucking cares?

Gee, I think I know this one... Faster than other thumb drives, and "Not you"?

Thanks, what do I win? I'm hoping for a day without your comments!

Re:How much?

[timeOday]

What was stupid? The drive benchmarked at twice the speed of the competition, who cares if they use a dumb word like "extreme." If the thing is that much better, it's worthy of positive press.

Now if it turns out the benchmark was intentionally skewed (i.e. other existing competitive products were excluded from the test), then I agree with you.

Re:How much?

[Anonymous Coward]

Its a fucking advertisement. Its written like a circular for my local computer store, not an objective review/analysis.

Re:How much?

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course this shows the advantage of editors, Slashdot is not like Digg to post any shit on their first page only because people voted for that.

Re:How much?

[TheRaven64]

as usual the "geeks" of /. just fell for it.

Hahaha! You don't think we actually clicked on the link and read TFA do you? You must, as they say, be new here...

Re:How much?

[Homology]

Hahaha! You don't think we actually clicked on the link and read TFA do you? You must, as they say, be new here...

Some actually read more than the slashdot headlines, but you don't, but hey, you probably fight for f!rst p0st!

Re:How much?

[TubeSteak]

My shadow file & customer db are read protected.

lets see mr. 1336 haxx0r deal with that

Re:How much?

[bano]

I created a login for slashdot specificly so I could filter out the shitbag editors.
I haven't seen a Jon Katz post in years.

Re:How much?

[Man Eating Duck]

My shadow file & customer db are read protected.

Haha, you got me for a second there. Want to have a look at my Write Only Memory as storage for your high security data? :)

Re:How much?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't filter out any editors and _I_ haven't seen any Jon Katz posts in about two years either. Guess what... they don't run his stuff anymore. There was a problem with Roland Piquadilly and his annoying little blog for a while, but he seems to be pretty much gone now. Slashdot editors do eventually listen to the complaints that /.ers have, although simply not reading the article or posting any responses would probably show a much quicker feedback, as posting the comment counts as ad hits.

uuhh.. beavis..

[jrexilius]

lusting after "sleek extreme thumb drives" and "drooling over transfer speeds" speaks of serious lack of girlfriendage...

Re:uuhh.. beavis..

[Anonymous Coward]

you should be happy, more crabby, whiney, sarcastic once a a week pussy for you

we should all be so lucky?

Re:uuhh.. beavis..

[Anonymous Coward]

Make that "once a month".

Re:uuhh.. beavis..

[Anonymous Coward]

Whereas the use of words like "girlfriendage" speaks of a rich and varied social life.

But but

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Isn't the point of USB keys to make it easy to exchange files with other people? unless you're in a real hurry (like, say, you want to give photos to a friend, he's not home, you break in anyway, proceed to the computer, but your friend's rottweiler saw you and is coming at you) who really cares if it takes one more minute to transfer those files?

The only things important to me are data integrity (a non-issue with 99% of the drives, even the cheapest ones), and a housing solid enough to make the thing survive the odd collection of objects it live with in my bag. Most other people who use these drives don't want anything else from them either.

Re:But but

[Red Flayer]

"Isn't the point of USB keys to make it easy to exchange files with other people? unless you're in a real hurry (like, say, you want to give photos to a friend, he's not home, you break in anyway, proceed to the computer, but your friend's rottweiler saw you and is coming at you) who really cares if it takes one more minute to transfer those files?"

When my office does blanket installs of (certain) software, it's done via USB key -- for 90+ PCs. At a minute saved per install, wouldn't you prefer more speed? It costs our company less, and makes the technician happy.

Ditto for our graphic designers, who need to share files across multiple unconnected networks.

Re:But but

[docbrown42]

Some of us aren't "most people", and would like more/faster thumb drives. Personally, I run Portable Thunderbird off of one of mine, and I wouldn't mind a bit faster transfer speeds...especially when I have to backup 100+megs of email. Not to mention that opening a large pdf file off of a thumb drive can be a slow process.

Just because you use your thumb drive one way, don't assume everyone else uses theirs the same way.

Re:But but

[Mark_Uplanguage]

Turn in your geek card if you don't want the fastest, coolest, not necessarily worth the money but if I was rich I'd have it, gadgets?

Re:But but

[Fweeky]

And in what way does better transfer rates not make it easier to exchange files? If it takes 30s to fill my thumbdrive instead of 3 minutes, well, yes, I would kind of care, especially when I'm about to shoot out the door and remember I was going to bring a GB or two of photos for a friend to see. I don't want to be thinking "damn, I don't have time", and hell yeah I'd be willing to pay a bit more to not have to do so.

My HD's for the past few years have pushed 50M/s STR. I'm sorry you can't see why I might want my portable storage to at least vaguely keep up.

Re:But but

[kaoshin]

If your purpose is to portably exchange files with other people, the flashpoint sharedrive is an all-in-one device that will allow you store files and transfer them directly to someone elses thumbdrive, but with the disadvantage that you are stuck sending a fixed set of files stored in your outbox directory. Also, if your source files are larger than the destination drive then I believe it is supposed to stop and give you an error light or something.

One solution with greater versatility is the Aleratec USB Copy Cruiser, which will allow you to flexibly copy the files you want from one thumbdrive to another, but with the disadvantage that it is not a thumbdrive itself and is of course one extra device to carry. Tactical vests are unfortunately against corporate dress code and my laptop bag is already heavy, so carrying a minimal number of devices is one of my primary needs.

Re:But but

[slashdot.org]

The only things important to me are data integrity (a non-issue with 99% of the drives, even the cheapest ones)

I totally agree. What surprised the hell out of me was that one day (for some odd reason) I copied a large file from a USB stick to the HD twice (different names). I was totally baffled when I found out that the files didn't compare 100%. Tried it several times, and everytime I copied the file off, it was different by 5 or 6 bytes (a 64MB file or something).

This was on a 128MB PQI Intelligent Stick, which granted, should make you wonder when you see it's size.

what's most worrysome to me is that this thing fails silently...

Anyways, perhaps the OCZ will be better, because it's Extreme!

ps. why did Rosco's post get moderated funny??

Re:But but

[v1]

For some of us, a flash drive means data portability. I maintain a large network of computers, and having 4gb of storage in my right pocket when I'm on the move is incredibly handy. Smaller than a CD, holds more, and is writable in any machine. Perfect for machines that lack internet access and need updates or software installed. If it was bootable, it'd be perfect.

Re:But but

[petermgreen]

hmm the flashpoint sharedrive looks like a bloody fat usb stick. certainlly not one i would wan't to carry all the time and you'd probablly have to bring a usb extention with you to connect it to many pcs.

Re:News? How?

[SpacetimeComputing]

Perhaps someone's trying to match digg...

(No insult to either side intended... ;) )

I had an extreme thumbdrive once

[temojen]

The USB connector was only held on by solder circuit connections. It broke extremely fast.

Sponsors?

[Valiss]

Actually, my boss is looking to get in more advertising for our company. Appearantly, he wants me to do the web ad stuff. Is it actually possible to sponsor an article on /. or do we have to use the banners?

I figured you were being sarcastic, but honestly I've seen so many 'articles' on this site, that maybe you were being serious.

Re:Sponsors?

[Anonymous Coward]

All it takes is an email to Roland Piquepaille....

There it is.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been looking everywhere for the most extreme thumb drive, thanks.

Um, so what

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

I mean, unless this kind of performance is built into a camera, video or music player then who cares that it takes 20 seconds less time to transfer a few hundred megs of file to a flash drive. I have never found myself wishing my thumb drive was faster for transfering content.

Also, probably a big also, most systems hard drives significantly underperform, so are you even going to get that much improvement by a faster USB drive? No matter what I have done, I have never gotten sustained 48MB/s transfer from any IDE hard drive.

Well, if your a performance queen, then I guess you need the fastest and bestest, but its kind of wasted R&D to make a USB drive smoking fast. How about putting them skills into making desktop hard drives smoking fast instead of smoking hot and underperforming.

Re:Um, so what

[jpop32]

No matter what I have done, I have never gotten sustained 48MB/s transfer from any IDE hard drive.

I get that when transfering GB-sized files from one disk to the other (SATAATA133), but that's far from typical transfers, like those when you're starting and application up. Slow random (track-to-track) HD read speeds ensure you don't get more then 10MB/s at best. And, if you by accident start up two big apps at once... go for a coffee break.

On the other hand, random access on flash is almost as fast as sequential access. And this is why this high-speed flash chips are so significant (not necessarily this particular model, but that generation of flash technology). If you install your OS on a flash drive that does 28MB/s on random reads, you could cut your boot and app startup times in half, which would be rather a big deal, at least for me.

Of course, there's always the issue of limited number of writes on a flash, but I guess that will get better over time, too.

Aluminum vs. Plastic

[Red Flayer]

The review makes a big deal of the casing being made of aluminum, not plastic, and the unit having some heft to it (making it feel more solid).

I don't know why this is an advantage, however, other than cosmetically. Aluminum cases are a tiny bit more mechanically stable than plastic, especially cheap plastics... but since I'm not hitting my flash drives with a hammer, it doesn't matter to me. Proper design would prevent flexion from being a problem too, if I accidentally left it in my back pocket and sat down or something.

I'm also guessing that manufacturing costs for aluminum are less, not sure about materials cost.

Anyone out there who could shed some insight into why aluminum is preferred over well-designed plastic?

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Anyone out there who could shed some insight into why aluminum is preferred over well-designed plastic?

To lull stupid reviewers into writing good reviews?

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

Anyone out there who could shed some insight into why aluminum is preferred over well-designed plastic?

Aluminum tends to bend in situations where plastic would crack or shatter.

But, that said, we're talking about a light, farily small product here. I throw my iPod Shuffle accross the room at the wall to freak people out, and it has held up fine.

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[ottffssent]

> Anyone out there who could shed some insight into why aluminum is preferred over well-designed plastic?

Because aluminum is more EXTREME.

The last thumb drive I read, which did a much better job, indicated that performance increased with block size even out to several MB blocks. If my thumb drive usage is any indication, we're mostly dealing with smaller sizes. I would have liked to have seen in the review some more scientific methodology regarding this issue.

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I doubt aluminum is necessarily cheaper than plastic as a manufacturing process, except in very specific unusual cases. If it were, I don't think so many cheap devices would use plastic.

I think aluminum looks and feels nicer in many cases, and anodizing helps it maintain its appearance and gives it pretty colors in a shiny part.

"Flexion" doesn't seem to be a term that applies to this, so I don't know what you mean.

I would think that if you want a part to survive a hit with a hammer, polycarbonate would be the material you want because it doesn't shatter, even with a bullet, it just flexes. However, polycarbonate scuffs readily.

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[Anonymous Coward]

"Anyone out there who could shed some insight into why aluminum is preferred over well-designed plastic?"

Aluminum is light and compared to plastics, thin. Plastics can have a good strength to weight ratio, but they have a horrible strength to volume ratio. So plastic drives have to be bigger.

That and plastic holds heat in while aluminum is a great thermal conductor.

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[Red Flayer]

Not sure if the cost savings for plastics is in materials cost or production costs, but it's pretty obviously cheaper.

Re: flexion, sorry for applying my physiology vocab to mechanics... what I mean is 'bendyness,' dunno the ME term.

And my point is that I'm not going to hit it with a hammer, which is why I don't need ultra-tough casings. :)

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[billjank]

Anyone out there who could shed some insight into why aluminum is preferred over well-designed plastic?

Same reason that tin-foil hats are preferred to plastic hats?

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[woolio]

Anyone out there who could shed some insight into why aluminum is preferred over well-designed plastic?

Aluminum makes people exclaim, Ooooh! Shiny!!!

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[Prophet of Nixon]

I would prefer full aluminum casing over most plastics so that I don't have to worry about the thumb drive breaking off of my keyring. Granted, I'm a bit behind the times and only carry a 128 MB thumb drive, but its one of the nicer Lexars and has a metal post and metal ring for its keyring connection. The drive I had prior to that one was a Sandisk (actually higher capacity), and had a metal ring on a plastic post (as do most plastic models I see), and didn't last a week on my keys.

Some cheap plastic things age in nasty ways or have very poor surface hardness too, so if I can get metal instead of plastic I tend to. There are some exceptions, like the Zytel (I think) that Cold Steel uses in their cheaper knife handles... that stuff is awesome.

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[Frangible]

Aluminum is stronger by volume and harder by volume and weight and will flex quite a bit before it breaks. What this means to the user is an aluminum shell makes the device thinner. Further, anodized aluminum doesn't scratch as easily as plastic, especially some of the better anodizings available (like type III mil-spec).

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[TubeSteak]

"The Rally Drive excels when managing a wide range of media, and is optimized to more rapidly transfer today's larger (5MB and up) files."

From teh OCZ Website

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[Anonymous Coward]

OCZ also gold plates the heat spreaders on RAM, and they have some of the fastest sticks. Coincidence, I think not - obviously the aluminum conducts electricity and so give the drive its performance edge.

Re:Aluminum vs. Plastic

[v1]

Anyone out there who could shed some insight into why aluminum is preferred over well-designed plastic?

Answer: because many of the manufacturers use cheap plastic or poor construction to keep the size down. I know my drive bends where the usb port meets the plastic case if I don't pull it straight out.

17MB/sec != "blazing speed"

[kilgortrout]

I think it's really stretching things to refer to anything that writes at 17MB/sec as having "blazing speed". Sure it's faster than most thumb drives but that's like bragging about being the world's tallest midget.

Re:17MB/sec != "blazing speed"

[zenneth]

I wouldn't have guessed you for a Danny DeVito fan...

Re:17MB/sec != "blazing speed"

[Red Flayer]

"Sure it's faster than most thumb drives but that's like bragging about being the world's tallest midget."

I'm a shortness-challenged little person, you insensitive clod!

Re:17MB/sec != "blazing speed"

[MS-06FZ]

That's faster than my 4x CD-ROM drive. (MPC2-compliant, baby!)

Re:17MB/sec != "blazing speed"

[myz24]

Wouldn't that make you extremely tall then?

Re:17MB/sec != "blazing speed"

[maglor_83]

No, that would make him tall. For a little guy.

Re:17MB/sec != "blazing speed"

[v1]

It's all a matter of perspective. 28 seconds to duplicate a 140k floppy used to be awe-inspiring. I still remember waiting half an hour for a friend of mine's trash 80 to load a chess game off cassette. :P

Re:17MB/sec != "blazing speed"

[Anonymous Coward]

being the world's tallest midget

You freaking moron, we prefer the term "Troll"!!!

This would be nice

[nkntr]

For Linux based DNS servers, Routers, reverse proxy web servers, proxy servers, and other mostly static disk content Linux based devices --- boot from Linux, give you the ability to change on the fly (unlike live CD's), and be cheap and effective in most scenarios (as long, of course, as you kept /var and /tmp in a ramdrive to prevent overusing your flash media (save both volumes to a .tgz and store them to flash at shutdown, and restore to ramdrive at bootup))

Re:This would be nice

[Slashcrap]

(as long, of course, as you kept /var and /tmp in a ramdrive to prevent overusing your flash media (save both volumes to a .tgz and store them to flash at shutdown, and restore to ramdrive at bootup)

Or alternatively you could just discard the contents of /tmp at the end of each session on account of the files being, you know, temporary. I find it's a good idea to clear /tmp at each boot anyway - for the reason why, see contents of /WINNT/Temp/ on any Windows box.

Re:This would be nice

[petermgreen]

umm why the hell would you save /tmp accross shutdowns? /var i can understand but not /tmp

"Fastest" I will grant them.

[GungaDan]

"Sleekest," though? It looks like every other usb flash drive. Maybe if they mounted a spoiler on it, or added some racing stripes. Or speed holes. Speed holes make everything sleeker.

Re:"Fastest" I will grant them.

[Anonymous Coward]

>Speed holes make everything sleeker.

Oh, so THAT's why my PowerMac G5 is so blazing fast!

Re:"Fastest" I will grant them.

[Anonymous Coward]

You could install Gentoo on it.

Re:"Fastest" I will grant them.

[Jerry Coffin]

"Sleekest," though? It looks like every other usb flash drive. Maybe if they mounted a spoiler on it, or added some racing stripes. Or speed holes. Speed holes make everything sleeker.

You mean like the heat spreaders on these?

--
The universe is a figment of its own imagination.

Re:"Fastest" I will grant them.

[Anonymous Coward]

"We will give it a mohawk and a wheel chair..."

Re:"Fastest" I will grant them.

[EvanTaylor]

no its not the speed holes, its the quad spoilers.

Depends on what you use them for

[Sycraft-fu]

Mine is for systems maintenance. We are always dealing with broken systems of one variety or another at work and you can't gaurentee net access since often they are infected and thus why we are daeling with them. So my key has things like 2000 SP4, XP SP2, a virus scanner, patches, etc.

Well, espically for the service packs (I have one of these particular USB drives) the extra speed is really nice. Takes long enough as is. Also very nice for if I need to grab another program to install. Say they need Eclipse installed. Well I don't keep that on the drive, but I can put it on there, nearly as fast as an HD copy.

It's not critical or anything, but it's nice. The less waiting, the better.

Swallow?!

[DaedalusLogic]

What are you doing putting computer peripherals in your mouth? ...on second thought... I don't want to know.

Re:Swallow?!

[saskboy]

" What are you doing putting computer peripherals in your mouth? "

Kinda brings a new and disturbing meaning to "blowing a capacitor".

Shocking behaviour actually.

This will be really useful...

[cybergibbons]

... the next time I bypass the alarm systems, break into someone's office, hack into their PC (which is running a previously unseen user interface which is some bastard child of XP and OS/2 Warp), and begin copying their hard drive to my uber-leet turbo thumb-drive.

Every time I have done this before, they have come back with about 30 seconds left to finish, leaving me with little option but to hide in the filing cabinet.

James Bond

(Has anyone else noticed that the time remaining in films is always accurate, and doesn't jump around like the real life ones?)

Basic questions

[spitzak]

Okay, I guess I'm not a big enough geek to directly recognize whether something is fast or slow. Need some basic questions answered:

1. What is the transfer rate of this thing?
2. What is the fastest that could be done based on the USB port design?
3. What is the transfer rate to a typical internal hard disk?
4. What is the transfer rate of a typical USB thumb drive?
5. What is the transfer rate of a typical large external USB drive?

Printing a few ratios would go a long way to knowing whether this really is a big deal.

Re:Basic questions

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus christ man, why don't you just read the fucking article? With the effort that you put into your post you could have found the answers yourself. Because you actually did put in the effort to post I am going to assume that you are not too lazy to find the information on your own. You are just to stupid.

Re:Basic questions

[BushCheney08]

1) reasonably fast
2) faster than this
3) very fast (compared to this)
4) slower than this
5) faster than this, but slower than 3. also, not quite the theoretical limit of 2.

Hope these answers help!

Re:Basic questions

[Surt]

1. 17MB/sec. http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews05/review.php?item= oczrally&file=1
2. 60 MB/sec. http://www.usb-2-0.com/what-is-usb-2-0.html#2.%20H ow%20fast%20is%20USB%202.0
3. 60 MB/sec. http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200511/HDS72 5050KLA360_2.html
4. 11 MB/sec. http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20050520/usb_f lash_drives-09.html
5. 35 MB/sec. http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2515

It's 1.5 times as fast as your average flash, and only half as slow as your typical USB hard drive.

Re:Basic questions

[Valiss]

Hope these answers help!

Ah, so you work for AOL tech support I see.

Re:Basic questions

[v1]

For comparison, a SanDisk Cruzer Mini 4gb USB2.0HS flash drive in a powerbook g4 with USB 2.0HS ports:

read 224mb: 17.2 seconds (13mb/sec)
write 224mb: 26.3 seconds (8.5mb/sec)

Those are for copying a single large file.

Now for me anyway, that's plenty fast and I wouldn't be able to justify buying a faster drive. Considering the capacity of the drives, (2gb max on the double speed one) there comes a point where faster isn't better because you can only go for so long before something runs out of space or data to copy.

These things rock

[jambarama]

If you google around you'll find this thing really is freaking fast . This isn't just an ad, it is the fastest flash drive around. And you can get them for $25 + S/H . I've got one and I must say, they are solid (metal casing) and noticably faster than any other flash drive I've used.

Not as strange as you think..

[cliveholloway]

... when you consider this guy :)

Re:Not as strange as you think..

[mattjb0010]

or this guy

Just like having 144 floppies in your pocket!!!

[RingDev]

That was the tag line on the last thumb drive I purchased. If this thing isn't like having more then 144 floppies in my pocket, I'll have nothing to do with it. -Rick

Re:Just like having 144 floppies in your pocket!!!

[game kid]

The title of TFA states 512MB, and (for so-called "1.44MB" floppies anyway) Mother Brain states (512 megabytes) / (1 440 kilobytes) = 364.088889 floppies, so will you still have something to do with it?

Re:Just like having 144 floppies in your pocket!!!

[RingDev]

364.089 floppies in my pocket? I'm so going to the beach!

-Rick

Re:Just like having 144 floppies in your pocket!!!

[maglor_83]

They sure must have gone out of their way to make that thing big.

Re:Just like having 144 floppies in your pocket!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that 144 floppies in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Re:Just like having 144 floppies in your pocket!!!

[game kid]

I guess you should attribute that quote to Mae Western Digital.

This is nothing new...

[sarge apone]

I took two flash drives and tied them with a rubber band - Dual Channel!

Re:This is nothing new...

[Hoi Polloi]

Forget that, connect both of them up and run them in raid 0!

YOU WON'T LOSE THE CAP

[Anonymous Coward]

I bought one of these things yesterday at a computer store in Ottawa. $89 (cdn) for a 1-gig dual channel Rally flash drive and a short USB cable.

(1) It's small. About as small as any thumb drive I've seen.

(2) The outer shell of the drive AND THE CAP is made of thin metal and hard plastic. The cap contains a PLASTIC PLUG which mimics the shape of a USB port. The result is that the cap fits very snugly onto the drive's USB connector and has virtually zero chance of falling off.

In addition, the loop for hanging the drive around your neck is on the thumb part, NOT on the cap like some brain-damaged designs. Its made of hard plastic and seems unlikely to break under any normal circumstances.

Re:YOU WON'T LOSE THE CAP

[Anonymous Coward]

Whenever I see some goon walk around with a thumbdrive hanging from his neck i can't help but laugh...out loud...and point. You should be shunned from society.

"real world speeds"

[j1mmy]

I like how his "real word" test involved copying cd images of commercial software. Just what does he use this thing for?

Drive is defective

[Anonymous Coward]

I just copied Ubuntu Live onto one of these drives, plugged it into my XBox 360, cycled power, and all hell broke loose. This thumb drive is a piece of junk.

Re:Drive is defective

[__aaclcg7560]

The XBox 360 has a stripped down version of Windows. It knows DOOM when it's loaded on a USB drive. Of course, all hell will break loose. ;)

Lexar Lightning

[JLester]

Wonder why they didn't test it against some of the other high speed flash drives? We use the Lexar Lightnings at work. They are rated about the same as this one. I haven't benchmarked them myself, but they are noticeably faster than any others we have tried, plus they come with very nice sync and encryption software.

Jason

Re:Lexar Lightning

[Slashcrap]

I haven't benchmarked them myself, but they are noticeably faster than any others we have tried, plus they come with very nice sync and encryption software.

Is that very nice as in "nice GUI" or very nice as in "thoroughly audited by 3rd Parties and provably secure"? You don't want to laugh in the face of the FBI agents only to find out that all your data is encrypted with ROT13. Trust me - it's quite embarassing. How I laughed as they shipped me off to Guantanamo Bay in shackles.

Re:Lexar Lightning

[JLester]

Heh, well I haven't audited it myself. I work for a school system and want to be sure if I leave it somewhere that documents with sensitive info will be safe.

Jason

AnandTech flash drive roundup

[fizzyl]

AnandTech has a more comprehensive review of many flash drives, and the OCZ is far from being the fastest.

Although it could be considered the cheapest fast drive in a way...

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=254 9

Re:AnandTech flash drive roundup

[coutch]

Another good roundup at Ars Technica (without the OCZ unfortunately). The Verbatim Store 'n' Go Pro doesn't look too bad for the price, but I'd probably go with the Kingston Data Traveler Elite myself...

Re:AnandTech flash drive roundup

[djaxl]

AnandTech has a more comprehensive review of many flash drives, and the OCZ is far from being the fastest.

The AnandTech review shows that the OCZ is not far from being the fastest.

The OCZ places 2nd or 3rd for reading 256kb or 2mb files.
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=254 9&p=25

Where it fails is writing, placing 5th or 6th for 256kb or 2mb files.
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=254 9&p=27

Still, "far from the fastest" is misleading.

Re:AnandTech flash drive roundup

[imsabbel]

Well, "5th place" does hide abit that its 2-3 times slower than the fastest drives while writing....

What, no love for the Pocket Rocket?

[gethorizontal]

C'mon, the Memina Pocket Rocket, using faster SLC memory, can beat these write times and keeps up pretty well in read speeds too. I bought several for our office and they're great performers, noticeable difference compared to other drives we've had, and the price is almost exactly the same as any other flash drive. http://www20.tomshardware.com/storage/20050322/ind ex.html

Okay, dual channel is great, but...

[merreborn]

Why not take this further? If you can write data twice as fast by simultaneously writing to two internal flash chips, why not use 4? or 8? Hell, then you can even internally RAID 5 'em!

And don't even start with the "What, aren't flash drives fast enough already!?" line. My company was tasked with setting up a accounting firm to cheaply work from home, via USB thumb drives. Copying 3 meg spread across a few thousand small files took something on the order of 15 minutes. It's pretty hard to get people to synch nightly on their way out the door with times like that.

Re:Okay, dual channel is great, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a good point. If they're more like hard drives than DRAM, then why not put them in a striped RAID Also, I have heard that flash has a limited write life cycle which means it can't be used as swap. How can they offer a lifetime warranty if that's the case?

Re:Okay, dual channel is great, but...

[Dwedit]

That sounds more like a horrible write caching system to me.

Re:Okay, dual channel is great, but...

[v1]

It sounds like you were just drag and dropping an entire folder each time, so you have to copy all the files even if few were changed. Get something like rsync (it's free!) and use that instead - it only copies what's necessary. I sync my 4gb flash drive (2gb used) once a week and it takes rsync about 10 seconds to complete the updates. It syncs my entire laptop to my server (55gb used) in about 8 minutes, over the network.

Re:Okay, dual channel is great, but...

[PapaZit]

The problem is the set-up and tear-down time for each new file. I wonder if you'd be able to do something like put all of the files into a .zip file and then copy the .zip file to the device. That'd probably be a few orders of magnitude faster.

You could even use something like WinZip Jobs to automate the process for the less technical users.

Re:Okay, dual channel is great, but...

[Mr. Roadkill]

Also, I have heard that flash has a limited write life cycle which means it can't be used as swap. How can they offer a lifetime warranty if that's the case?

Exactly the same way floppy disk manufacturers did/do, would be my guess. In a nutshell, something like:

For as long as you own this item, and as long as it exists, we warrant that it will be free from defects in materials or manufacture. You drop it in hot coffee, rub it with steel wool, break it accidentally, wear it out, or change its ownership or lose your proof of purchase and we don't owe you a cracker. We're reasonably confident that if our product fails, it will be outside the statutory warranty period in your location. We're also reasonably certain that by the time it fails for reasons that might be covered by this warranty, you'll have (a) scratched it up pretty badly and will think it's probably your fault, and (b) you can't be bothered organising an RMA and posting your dinky little one gig stick back to us when McDonalds are handing out Terabyte sticks with every Transformers cartoon ever made on them in Happy Meals.

In short, it's probably not worth very much to anyone... apart from the fact that it means that the manufacturer is confident that very few people will take them up on the offer. That in itself is possibly a reasonable indicator that they're not using the cheapest crap to build them, as you don't make promises like that unless you're reasonably confident that it won't cost you a bundle when the things start dropping like flies. Hell, Iomega didn't make promises like that and it cost them a bundle anyway.

How reliable are these benchmarks?

[click2005]

The results seem to disagree with the review of the Transcend Jetflash here http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20050520/index .html

"At 27 MB/sec maximum read transfer rate, Transcend has set the bar pretty high for its competition."

Re:How reliable are these benchmarks?

[Hoi Polloi]

I have this thumb drive and it is very fast. The only catch here is that those transfer rates only apply to the Jetflash 2gb model. The 512k model is about half as fast. The OCZ drive seems to be the fastest for 512k drives. I just want to know why OCZ short-changes you on utility software for it.

I noticed in AnandTech's USB roundup that they compared against the Jetflash 512K model, not the 2gb. They also tested the OCZ 512k "Rally" drive and it was much slower than the numbers quoted in the /. article but this may be a new model.

Engineering

[everphilski]

Aluminum is very cheap, however plastic is easier to heat to a liquid and mold. Aluminum for an application like this you would most likely have to mill, which is a more expensive process.

-everphilski-

"Most Extreme"

[Cr0w T. Trollbot]

"If you want the fastest, sleekest, and most extreme drive currently on the market, this is the one to get."

I'm sorry, but due to the terms of the Federal Hype Reduction Act of 2001, use of the phrase "extreme" in any technical product review is punishable by a mandatory 1 year sentence in a Federal DeHyping Educational Camp. Enjoy hours of knitting and watching PBS from within the soothing pastel confines of Club Fed, my friend...

Crow T. Trollbot

Dual channel

[TubeSteak]

And since nobody has asked this question yet:

WTF is Dual Channel USB 2?

Then the question is.. why?

[Animaether]

Why is it so much faster than other pen drives ?

Does it simply employ much faster memory ? Extra-fast memory that acts as a buffer ? Does it do away with things like integrity checks - taking a bet that their memory is fine, and the writes are fine ?

I'm going to guess the manufacturer won't tell us :)

Missing Favorite Thumb Drive Feature

[sconeu]

My favorite feature on a thumb drive was on my PNY Attache 256MB.

It had a manual write-protect switch.

English improvement suggestion

[Shinzaburo]

Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English, please correct my errors! :)

I think it's great that you're trying to improve your English. I only wish more native English speakers would the same! :p

Although many people combine two sentences with a comma, doing so actually creates a run-on sentence that is grammatically incorrect. You can correct this by either saying:

I'm trying to improve my English, so please correct my errors!

...or...

I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!

...or...

I'm trying to improve my English -- please correct my errors!

Hope this helps! :)

Re:English improvement suggestion

[Man Eating Duck]

Hope this helps! :)

It does! I wasn't aware of that :)

Gadget Consumer != Geek

[Dogtanian]

Turn in your geek card if you don't want the fastest, coolest, not necessarily worth the money but if I was rich I'd have it, gadgets?

Depends what you mean by 'geek'; personally, I consider myself a geek, but that doesn't apply to me in a number of cases. In fact, it can also apply to a number of people (mainly men) who aren't "geeks" by any real measure.

Your view is very consumerist and reminds me of "Think Geek", who sell "stuff for smart masses" by flattering those who like to assert their geek identity. Stuff consisting generally of overpriced gadgets and toys which- let's be honest- are often no more than gimmicks. That bloody "Das Keyboard" thing was a triumph of this sort of marketing.

Fun if you like that sort of thing? Yeah. I'm not immune to buying tech stuff because it looked interesting, but I'm not that much into overpriced boys' toys. Those who kid themselves that buying that sets them apart from uber-consumers in other fields need their heads looked at. This sort of geek "identity" is just consumerism, plain and simple.

It all depends how you want to define "geek" though. If you consider that "geek" includes some hacker-ish traits, then (for example) buying a pretty computer case or some new Star Wars stuff doesn't make you a geek in itself. More importantly, if comparing that case with the type of guy who doesn't feel the need to buy lots of SHINY, NEW techno-stuff, but will do original things with old computers, network them together, write his own software, yadda yadda; the latter guy is far more a "geek" IMHO than the former.

Of course, real "geeks" are a mixture of both. Just don't tell me that being a geek is primarily defined by how much money you spend on gadgets.

More like a 110x CD-ROM

[tepples]

That's faster than my 4x CD-ROM drive.

A device that transfers 17 MB per second is faster than almost anyone's ...kin' CD-ROM drive. With 1x = 153.6 KB (150 KiB) per second, this drive is closer to 110x.

Re:More like a 110x CD-ROM

[mmj638]

For reference, a 16x DVD burner can easily outperform 17 MB per second.

Oh shit...

[Graymalkin]

that's extreme!

Re:How much? (-1 off-topic)

[Anonymous Coward]

This really is ridiculous. Can we add in a way to moderate.. well, I guess "rate" stories... thus generally improving the quality of stories over time? in theory. :P

USB Hard Drive Enclosure

[bytor4232]

I know they're big and bulkey, but I dig my USB hard drive enclosure. Works with any IDE hard drive, and my 80 gig Seagate Barracuda gets over 25 MB/s transfer rates. This is my little baby:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16817146052

Cheap, fast, and as much storage as I want to put in it.

so who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

just wondering if anyone (besides absolute freaks that kick on any stat they can brag with) would upgrade to this stick if they have a usb2 usb drive already...
i got a small 1Gb iomega flashdrive (a lot smaller, i bought it because it's so small :) ), and even if lets say this new drive is double as fast, why would i care? any transfer i make happens in less than a minute, except when im transferring huge files (a divx movie or so).
i might win a minute of transfer time on huge files, but that's hardly a reason to upgrade, or especially go for that drive.

it might be impressive from a technological point of view, but lets be honest, which consumer is gonna notice? it's like buying a ferrari instead of a bmw, you'll probably end up having less comfort, and the extra possible speed is totally useless....

If you're looking for fast/small/portable storage

[Anonymous Coward]

forget USB flash drives. Get a Compact Flash card (or a micro drive) and a CF-to-IDE adapter. Not only are CF cards cheaper per gigabyte (just over $100 for 2GB at the moment, but the relationship is non-linear for larger cards), if you use the right adapter/card combination, you get fast DMA transfers over good old IDE/ATA (SATA adapters also exist).

For Comparison

[fredistheking]

Data Stolen From Storage Review:

Transfer Rate - Begin (MB/s)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 (400 GB SATA) - 69.8
Western Digital Caviar WD3200JD (320 GB SATA) - 66.5
Maxtor MaXLine III (300 GB SATA) - 65.7
Western Digital Caviar WD2500JD (250 GB SATA) - 60.6
Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 (400 GB SATA) - 60.4
Samsung SpinPoint P80 (160 GB SATA) - 60.2

Transfer Rate - End (MB/s)

Western Digital Caviar WD3200JD (320 GB SATA) - 40.8
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 (400 GB SATA) - 39.9
Western Digital Caviar WD2500JD (250 GB SATA) - 37.8
Maxtor MaXLine III (300 GB SATA) - 37.2
Samsung SpinPoint P80 (160 GB SATA) - 36.5 |
Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 (400 GB SATA) - 32.9

Looks like the flash drives still have a way to go to compete with current hard drives data rates.

There are little things, you just ask 4 it in shop

[Anonymous Coward]

c-pen AFAIR
http://www.ixbt.com/storage/flashdrives/p12/pretec /open.jpg

http://www.ixbt.com/storage/flashdrives/p12/pqi/is /ready.jpg

http://www.ixbt.com/storage/flashdrives/p12/pny/cl ose.jpg

This is new?

[tomstdenis]

Striped storage? I could swear there is a RAID mode for this ;-)

Tom

Naah, THIS is a real "thumb" drive...

[und0]

This is what i would call a thumbdrive: http://sa-store.com/shop.php?category_id=43&item01 _id=67

rice it.

[Deitheres]

My USB key is the fastest around.

I've got a bolt on spoiler, a folgers can (spray painted gloss black), and NOS stickers.

Hell, the NOS stickers alone get me an extra 2MB/s.

However...

[Anonymous Coward]

... whenever a bomb is going to go off in a film, that time never descends linearly, thus restoring order to the time-space continuum.

What?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Aw man, and I just blew my last $30 on a Bare Naked Ladies Flash Drive...DAMNIT!

Live USB

[Propaganda13]

How well does Linux on USB work with older PC's(that have USB)? I thinking was thinking of using it as recovery/anti-virus/toolkit drive, but didn't think older PC's would boot from it.

USB memory - RAID1 on a stick!

[blankoboy]

I think more than this I would rather have RAID 1 on a stick!
Think how sweet it would be to have a 1GB Raid1 USB stick.
Sure, the price would be almost double but you have higher degree
of data integrity. This, to me, is far more valuable than speed!

Re:USB memory - RAID1 on a stick!

[v1]

The advantage to raid1 is that, if one slice fails, you replace it and image the data back onto the new slice from the one that's still good. No data loss, and you only have to replace 1/2 your gear if you have a failure.

If you use 1/2 of a flash stick for each slice, and one slice fails, you what? Sure, the data is safe, but you still have to throw the whole stick away and get a new one. If it's an electrical failure, it's likely to take out the whole stick anyway since even though it's redundant memory it's still using one controller. Good way to increase read speeds tho, given proper controller design.

What? No "Bone Crushing" Speed?

[Anonymous Coward]

DAK

I smell "Free Advertising"

[Electr!c_B4rd_Qu!nn]

....no wait, that's my laundry.

Meh, saw in on digg...

[JourneyExpertApe]

... no, wait, I didn't. It's only /. that has paid advertisements disguised as news. BTW, is there a discount on Slashvertisements posted this close to a holiday, when many people will be away from their computers?

Re:Meh, saw in on digg...

[Slashcrap]

... no, wait, I didn't. It's only /. that has paid advertisements disguised as news. BTW, is there a discount on Slashvertisements posted this close to a holiday, when many people will be away from their computers?

Yeah, Slashdot sucks. But Digg? I don't think I've ever seen so many retards in one place. The comments are mostly AOL level "Me too!" crap. Great stories though - apparently you can use public key authentication for OpenSSH instead of typing passwords. Who would have thought it? Apart from anyone that's ever read the man page.

No digg, motherfucker.

Removable cap

[PhilHibbs]

That's another way of saying "losable cap". Tether it to the unit, or provide a way of fixing the cap to the back of the stick (like the cap of a biro), and I might consider it.

HOW DO YOU KNOW?

[Anonymous Coward]

the cap fits very snugly onto the drive's USB connector and has virtually zero chance of falling off

For those of you who don't have degrees in mathematics, "virtually zero" = not quite zero = it's still possible.

the loop for hanging the drive around your neck is on the thumb part, NOT on the cap like some brain-damaged designs

Why doesn't the loop go through *both* pieces? Then it would be still possible for the cap to fall off in your pocket, but you wouldn't lose it. Brain-damaged design, indeed.

I don't understand why USB flash drives have caps at all -- that seems like really brain-damaged design to me. A few companies (like this) make drives that don't have covers, because the plug retracts into the case.

Why hasn't anybody else figured this out yet?