flash drive speed test?

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student

Is there any test for the flash drive speed as in xfer rate? I found that when
the mfg states "usb 2.0" it only means that it will work on a usb 2.0
connection.

e.g. When at Fry's saw 2 different prices for a 2 gig flash drive from the same
mfg; one says 12 mbs max & the other say only hi-speed usb 2.0 (I think). The
price for the "hi-seed" 2.0 is much higher. Same with several mfg where there
were usb 2.0 flash drives of the same size but different different prices &
sometimes no speed spec is printed anywhere on the box/container.

Anyway check if the lower speed & prices would be sufficient for your use before
purchase & whether you want to use the windows vista "power boost" feature.
 
Is there any test for the flash drive speed as in xfer rate?
Click to expand...

yes there are many tests, but usually the transfer speed is
rated as "nnn" X, like 40X or 133X, 150X, etc.

Today a generic unrated drive might be about 40X or so, but
that's just very old or low end junk. Today anything decent
will be rated for 100X or higher read, and as high a write
speed as you can find (depends also on the capacity per $
you need, MLC chip based drives are slower to write but
cheaper per GB).

I found that when
the mfg states "usb 2.0" it only means that it will work on a usb 2.0
connection.
Click to expand...

Any and all modern generation flash drives are USB2
supportive, we might as well ignore this except to remember
it should always be USB2 supportive.

e.g. When at Fry's saw 2 different prices for a 2 gig flash drive from the same
mfg; one says 12 mbs max & the other say only hi-speed usb 2.0 (I think). The
price for the "hi-seed" 2.0 is much higher.
Click to expand...

Neither of these are the parameter to look at, seek the
"nnn" X speed rating for read and write, and whether it
states MLC or SLC (it is uncommon for a package to state
this, but the manufacturer's website might. If the
manufacturer does not give out this info, assume the product
is junk because these are primary factors that make one
product more valuable than another and what the manufacturer
would use to distinguish the product as being worth more
money (if they could honestly make the claim).

Same with several mfg where there
were usb 2.0 flash drives of the same size but different different prices &
sometimes no speed spec is printed anywhere on the box/container.

Anyway check if the lower speed & prices would be sufficient for your use before
purchase & whether you want to use the windows vista "power boost" feature.
Click to expand...

IMO, better to buy online where you can do more research
instead of it being an impulse buy. For Vista you would be
best off with an SLC chipped product with at least 150X
rated read speed and 1-2GB capacity or more.
 
student said:
Is there any test for the flash drive speed as in xfer rate? I found that
when
the mfg states "usb 2.0" it only means that it will work on a usb 2.0
connection.

e.g. When at Fry's saw 2 different prices for a 2 gig flash drive from
the same
mfg; one says 12 mbs max & the other say only hi-speed usb 2.0 (I think).
The
price for the "hi-seed" 2.0 is much higher. Same with several mfg where
there
were usb 2.0 flash drives of the same size but different different prices
&
sometimes no speed spec is printed anywhere on the box/container.

Anyway check if the lower speed & prices would be sufficient for your use
before
purchase & whether you want to use the windows vista "power boost"
feature.
Click to expand...

There are some ReadyBoost specs here.
http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/06/02/615199.aspx
For now to be safe you would need to buy a key that states support on the
packaging or take a punt, like I did and buy a known quality product.
In my case it was 4GB Kingston Data Traveller which works fine with
ReadyBoost
http://www.kingston.com/flash/datatraveler.asp?id=2
 
A USB1 flash drive will work on a USB2 port, and a USB2 flash drive will work on a USB1 port, but only at the USB1 speed. 12 mb/sec is USB1.
All rated speeds are theoretical e.g. USB2.0 is rated for 480 mb/sec but you won't reach that speed even with the fastest hard drives. The speed USB2.0 is capable of is much faster than the fastest flash drives so the transfer speed of any current flash drive on a USB2.0 port will depend on the flash drive and not the USB port. The read and write speeds of flash drives vary greatly, especially write speeds (flash memory is extremely slow compared to DIMMs). Large files will copy faster (higher MB/sec) than small files. You can easily test this by copying files between a flash drive and a fast hard drive (which will be faster than the flash drive). You might find that when copying a large number of small files the speed is severely degraded and you might be able to copy faster with the write cache turned off.
Vista will not use a flash drive for ReadyBoost unless it meets minimum read and write speeds, so you should get a drive that meets ReadyBoost requirements if you want good performance even if you aren't going to use it for ReadyBoost.
 
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