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USB Flash Drive Life Varies Up To 10 Times

Posted by timothy on from the that's-worse-then-the-spread-for-people dept.

Lucas123 writes "Differences in the type of memory and I/O controllers used in USB drives can make one device perform two or three times faster and last 10 times longer than another, even if both sport the USB 2.0 logo, according to a Computerworld story. While a slow USB drive may be fine for moving a few dozen megabytes of files around, when you get into larger data transfers, that's when bandwidth contrictions become noticeable. In 2009, controller manufacturers are expected to begin shipping drives with dual- and even four-channel controllers, which will increase speeds even for slower drives."

4 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Dual Channel is already available by clarkn0va · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I recently bought one of these. hdparm said it's reading at 26 MB/s. Then it said it was reading at 17 MB/s. Not sure why the variance.

    Then I copied a 700 MB file onto it from a local hard drive in gnome, which reported initially that it was transferring at 20+ MB/s, but that dropped steadily until it levelled off around 6.1 MB/s.

    Far from scientific, yes, but I wonder a)why the inconsistencies, and b)how these results compare with other products.

    db

    --
    I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
  2. Re:Flimsy construction by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Whoops, typo :) But your response was funny.

    This does remind me of what a geek I am though. I think I must be the only person in the world who often daydreams (when I have the time and inclination to daydream) that I've gone back in time and taken some piece of modern computer equipment to shock and amaze people from the early days of computing.

    For example, I'll daydream that I've taken my laptop (which is now a few years old and not impressive to anybody, but with 768 MB of RAM, a 40 GB disk, and 1.4 Ghz Pentium M, would have blown the socks off of a computer enthusiast from, say, 1969) back in time and am showing it off to a group of scientists like at say that famous "mother of all demos" where the mouse and graphical interface were first demoed.

    Can you imagine showing up and being like, hey check this out. That 64 KB PDP-11 that you have running your demo is cool and all. But let me show you my computer, which has 768 MILLION bytes of RAM! And a 1400x1050 32 bit color flat panel LCD display! With built-in keyboard!

    It's not that I would lord it over anyone. But it's fun (for me) to daydream about the conversations you'd have with someone from 1969, explaining to them the advances of modern technology and how they are used in our world.

    Anyway, your comment reminded me of that, because although a 2 GB flash drive today is totally ho-hum, if you could sneak one of those back in time to the 1970's, you'd have something that governments would probably go to war over :) Of course you'd have to take the USB 2.0 spec back with you too ...

    Like I said, I am a total geek ...

  3. Re:Flash MP3 player by EEPROMS · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Cowon A3, it supports more media formats than any MP3 player out (ogg, flak, mkv) there and you can read directly from a USB thumb drives. As a MP3 player the Cowon A3's audio quality blows the iPOD right out of the water, even has a 10 channel equaliser built in.

  4. Thumb Drive with flexible neck by EEPROMS · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have always wondered why no one has mad a USB thumb drive with a flexible/swivel neck. Ive seen a few laptops with the USB sockets damaged after a user has connected the thumb drive then forgotten about it and then knocked it (thus cold soldering the laptops USB socket).