Post them here!
Currently USB drives offer Read performance that varys between 2mbps and 33mbps. Latencies range between 0.4ms and +60ms. The purpose of this post is to gather information to help you pick the right drive because some drives are 20x faster than others and cost only a little more.
Nand flash is changing rapidly. Reviews are in reverse order by date published for increased relevance but may review older products.
Jan 2007 Corsair 8gb http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7704
Oct 2006 roundup http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/384/1
May 2006 roundup http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/321/1
Oct 2005 roundup http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2549&p=1
April 2005 roundup http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/flash2005.ars/1
June 2004 roundup http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/flash.ars/1
Why collect this information? The cost difference between slow USB flash drives and fast ones is not that great so you can get a lot more performance for a small premium if you make an informed buying decision. Good flash drives have random access times <1ms making them very useful for swap drives. SATA flash drives are not yet available and will be very expensive when they are, USB flash drives and arrays may make a good substitue offering increased performance for a lower price (and less capacity). If you're copying large files some flash drives have many times faster read and write speeds than others and may significantly affect user experience.
Other links related to flash memory performance and use:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000680.html
Corsair Voyarger destruction test http://www.hexus.tv/show.php?show=17
Post links to USB flash drive reviews and such and I will update the OP. Newer articles that test several drives under the same conditions are prefered.
Have a flash drive? Bench it and post here.
If you want something put up on the leader board plz have benches to back it up and link to somewhere people can actually buy it. Cost/gb is of minimal concern but drives under 1gb will not be considered for the leaderboard unless they are much faster than other drives available as smaller sizes aren't as useful.
Any suggestions on post format appreciated.
Currently USB drives offer Read performance that varys between 2mbps and 33mbps. Latencies range between 0.4ms and +60ms. The purpose of this post is to gather information to help you pick the right drive because some drives are 20x faster than others and cost only a little more.
Leaderboard:
Fastest USB flash drives currently available (AFAIK). Equal wieght was given to Read Speed, Write Speed, and Latency for drives 1gb and larger. If you are only concerned about one of those three stats read the reviews more in-depth to find the fastest solution for your application.
1. Corsair Flash Voyager 1100 8gb - 1.1ms, 32MB/s read, 20MB/s write, ~$135
2. ATP ToughDrive 1 GB - 0.9ms, 33MB/s read, 15MB/s write, ~$35
3. OCZ Rally 2gb - 3.4ms 23MB/s read, 14MB/s write, ~$37
4. Patriot Xporter XT 2 GB - 4.5ms, 29MB/s read, 12MB/s write, ~$38
The capacity of drives often reflects very different flash-chip arrangments and can have significant affects on performance. As such the leaderboard is being maintained by capacity sizes without any assumption that one size is indictive of performance of other sizes. Have a problem with that? Plz post below.
Nand flash is changing rapidly. Reviews are in reverse order by date published for increased relevance but may review older products.
Jan 2007 Corsair 8gb http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7704
Oct 2006 roundup http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/384/1
May 2006 roundup http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/321/1
Oct 2005 roundup http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2549&p=1
April 2005 roundup http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/flash2005.ars/1
June 2004 roundup http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/flash.ars/1
Why collect this information? The cost difference between slow USB flash drives and fast ones is not that great so you can get a lot more performance for a small premium if you make an informed buying decision. Good flash drives have random access times <1ms making them very useful for swap drives. SATA flash drives are not yet available and will be very expensive when they are, USB flash drives and arrays may make a good substitue offering increased performance for a lower price (and less capacity). If you're copying large files some flash drives have many times faster read and write speeds than others and may significantly affect user experience.
Other links related to flash memory performance and use:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000680.html
Corsair Voyarger destruction test http://www.hexus.tv/show.php?show=17
Post links to USB flash drive reviews and such and I will update the OP. Newer articles that test several drives under the same conditions are prefered.
Have a flash drive? Bench it and post here.
If you want something put up on the leader board plz have benches to back it up and link to somewhere people can actually buy it. Cost/gb is of minimal concern but drives under 1gb will not be considered for the leaderboard unless they are much faster than other drives available as smaller sizes aren't as useful.
Any suggestions on post format appreciated.