USB flash drive and motherboard chipset compatibility

a133x

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I am planing to buy a fast 4gb usb flash drive for the purpose of running a windows xp trough vmware. I was thinking to buy the Memina Rocket 4gb flash drive because it has the best features for me and also it is the fastest. I saw this review

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/10/two_fast_and_functional_usb_flash_drives/

and everything is great with the exception that they say it has some incompatibility with some chipsets. I have a HP compaq nc6000 laptop and the speed and acces time would be very critical for me. Could there be a posibility for the flash drive to have the same problem with my chipset ( Intel 855PM) because it would be a waste of money if the flash drive wouldnt work at its full capabilities. Thank you
 

Rabidpeanut

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Rather get a portable hard drive, ie a laptop hdd with a portable case, it will most likely be cheaper and you get a lot more space. ANd then you can get an adapter for it to use firewire and usb. Plus flash has slow access time compared, ever tried copying lost of small files onto a flash?
 

a133x

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I allready have that, a laptop hdd and a laptop hdd case. But i am a litle bit annoyed byt it because it makes alot fo sound and some time I get the impressions that my vmware windows runs slowly because of it. Space is not that important. So i still dont know what to do :(
 

Rabidpeanut

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The thing with flash drives is that the faster they are the more expensive they get, this relationship seems to be exponential. If you find something fast enough it will cost you an arm and a leg. Are you really willing to put down that much just to run windows under linux. Try these:

http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/flash_memory.html

http://www.flash-memory-store.com/4gb-apacer-handy-steno-ht203-133x.html

And then look for them on newegg.

But somehow i think that the hdd will still be faster, even through all the noise, you are kind of trying to push a square peg through a round hole. USB is not suited to such things, even usb 2 and flash memory is not good for much else but pure and simple storage.
 

a133x

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Thank you very much for you point of view. I think you are right ... il just stick to my hdd. I will just wait for the chance to test for free a fast USB and see if its worth it.
 

Rabidpeanut

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Soon enough prices will drop and you should be able to get something fast and cheap so if you wait a while you might just get what you are looking for.