Muskin's Atom USB 3.0 Drive is Teeny Tiny

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onover

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0.9.5 W at load you say. I don't think numbers have multiple decimal points unless you wish to confuse people with minor updates and revisions.
 

InvalidError

Titan
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I'm a little surprised thumbdrive manufacturers have not designed products where electronics are built directly under the USB contacts, encapsulated in the connector's "tongue" with only a short strap to pull it out instead of a hard external protrusion.
 

wemakeourfuture

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If this was apple branded, 8GB = $99, 16GB = $199 and 32GB = $299

Please do elaborate on this?

You mean like Apple charging more for storage on their ultrabooks? Oh the 800MB/s speed that no PC ultrabooks offers?

Or you mean the 1.2GB/s speed in the new workstation that is a fraction of the size of most workstations that have PCI-E SSDs ?

Or do you mean in their mobile devices where their internal flash storage is magnitudes faster than Micro-SD? Hence each subsequent internal memory upgrade is the same as most other Android manufacturers?

Also, if Apple made something like this, it would be more expensive but would provide speed that the market has not seen, just like what they have done in their ultrabook lineup.

P.S. I'm not an Apple stan/fanboy, nor am I hater of PC/Android. I look at things objectively. I bought my wife a Yoga 2 after considering the Macbook Air. No question Apple has the best storage speed, the Yoga 2's Sata III speed needs a 50% increase to match Apple's flash memory speed. mSata III drives are cheaper, so there's a trade-off. If it wasn't for the Yoga 2's display, the Air was the best option for her.

 

Cerunnos

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There are actually a few PCI-E SSD options available out there, for example the Vaio Pro 13 has been launched with Haswell and does have (I believe the same Samsung SSD) those speeds. Workstation wise, if you stay with consumer grade drives you will obviously be limited by SATA. Looking up, you get some SAS drives that do actually cap at 1.2GB/s. Seagate for example (and I'm sure there are other enterprise options), has such drives. 1200MB/s peak, 750 sustained over SAS 12Gb/s. What people are referring to is most likely the price of flash storage on phones or tablets that Apple definitely overcharges for. 16->32, 32->64? +$100 each. Those aren't even high performing parts.

Apple didn't make those parts themselves, and they aren't proprietary. However, they do often charge a large cost for nearly ALL of their flash storage solutions regardless of speed.
 

qlum

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While having a tiny drive looks nice I much rather have one I can actually won't lose, maybe attaching something with a cord can fix it but that kind of ruins the point for me.
 

wemakeourfuture

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@Cerunnos: I have seen Android manufacturers charge 60-100 for extra internal memory. Also, something like the S4 doesn't even come in more than one size in some jurisdictions. So you're stuck with 16GB and an expandable memory.

Many people think that expandable SD card is an exact replacement of internal flash memory. First it isn't, there's numerous use cases for this.

1. Performance, its slower. I have loaded from an Android tablet hi-res DSLR pics, versus keeping them on a MicroSD as opposed to putting on the internal flash is a very noticeable lag.

2. Backing up. It's a lot harder to properly back up your entire smartphone with software and refresh a new phone to the old phone's state if you're installing apps and keeping media on numerous storage sources. For techies its not a problem, for the other 99% of end users it is.

There's other use cases, but at the end of the day, other manufacturers have and continue to charge a lot for extra internal storage, and many don't even offer the option for it to keep their manufacturing low.
 

Dan Nelson

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PQI has had a whole line of dinky USB 3.0 drives out for almost a year now: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/PQI/i-mini_usb_3_32gb/

And they include a pull chain so it won't get stuck in your laptop's USB port :)
 

none12345

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Thats just too small, too easy to lose. The standard flash drive sizes are pretty perfect. Id rather have more capacity then make them micro.
 

vern72

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It's a good size to use in some devices like a router or Smart BD box but the write speeds are just too low for a USB 3.0 device. It doesn't even break USB 2.0 speeds.
 

wemakeourfuture

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It's a good size to use in some devices like a router or Smart BD box but the write speeds are just too low for a USB 3.0 device. It doesn't even break USB 2.0 speeds.

Early USB 3.0 drives had similar, if not worse speeds. This is designed to be small and sleek, not for performance.

Its really great for people with ultrabooks that want to leave a drive semi-permanently attached to their ultrabook for extra space. Or someone who wants to keep a USB in their wallet or tiny purse.
 

InvalidError

Titan
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To fit all the electronics in a package that small, they have to choose the USB microcontroller for minimum space and cannot afford to put extra chips like RAM cache that SSDs need to cache, pack and re-order writes for high performance. As others have said, this thing is built for compactness; not speed.

That said, 155MB/s read speed could be nice for ReadyBoost and SRT if the read latency is less than 5ms.
 

Only 800 MB/s? Asus has a year-old model which hits 1 GB/s.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-Zenbook-UX51VZ-U500VZ-Notebook.84246.0.html

It's also worth pointing out that there's really not much point to these super-fast speeds. People's perception of quickness or slowness is measured in seconds. MB/s is the inverse. Consequently larger MB/s figures represent smaller changes in time. Going from 250 MB/s to 500 MB/s is double the speedup in seconds of going from 500 MB/s to 1 GB/s. Not the other way around.

If the technology is capable of the higher speeds without much effort, by all means we should take advantage of it. But there's little point to pushing the technology to the limits for something which only gains you a few microseconds.


Not sure why being small is a plus for a workstation. If there's any place where function should trump form, it's a workstation.


The vast majority of Android users put write-once, read-many files on their SD cards (music, movies, pictures). I suppose if you really want, you can use fast, expensive memory for these things. You know, so you can watch that 2 hour movie in 20 seconds.


You're aware that Apple doesn't actually make anything? They buy stuff from other companies, and pay yet other companies to assemble it for them. Then pack it in one of their boxes before selling it to you. The flash memory in Apple products is usually made by Samsung or Toshiba. But if you think it's worth twice as much if you buy it using Apple as a middleman, then more power to ya.
 

wemakeourfuture

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Solandri

Only 800 MB/s? Asus has a year-old model which hits 1 GB/s.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-Zenbook-UX51VZ-U500VZ-Notebook.84246.0.html

First off, it's not an ultrabook! YOUR article even says it,
"The UX51VZ can't be officially called an Ultrabook - but not because it doesn't meet the specifications as far as the size is concerned. Intel specifies a maximum thickness of 21 millimeters (0.83 inches) "

Solandri
It's also worth pointing out that there's really not much point to these super-fast speeds. People's perception of quickness or slowness is measured in seconds. MB/s is the inverse. Consequently larger MB/s figures represent smaller changes in time. Going from 250 MB/s to 500 MB/s is double the speedup in seconds of going from 500 MB/s to 1 GB/s. Not the other way around.

If the technology is capable of the higher speeds without much effort, by all means we should take advantage of it. But there's little point to pushing the technology to the limits for something which only gains you a few microseconds.

You have no clue, you’ve never used on. Transferring files, OS load times, page file times, etc, etc are all noticeable. I use nothing but 500MB/s sata III SSDs, and have used colleagues Mac’s for work purposes and can tell a distinct difference in speed. Now, cost-benefit is something else and depends on each person. But raw speed difference is observable.

Solandri
Not sure why being small is a plus for a workstation. If there's any place where function should trump form, it's a workstation.
And you know all businesses and their use cases ? You don’t even understand that people and companies might have limited space ?
Solandri
The vast majority of Android users put write-once, read-many files on their SD cards (music, movies, pictures). I suppose if you really want, you can use fast, expensive memory for these things. You know, so you can watch that 2 hour movie in 20 seconds.
SD Cards, even the most premium ones aren’t fast as internal flash memory. Google made an announcement during the Nexus 4 as to why they don’t offer expandable memory on their flagship phone. Last time I checked Nexus 5 did the same, ie. Copy Apple’s lead on this.

Solandri
You're aware that Apple doesn't actually make anything? They buy stuff from other companies, and pay yet other companies to assemble it for them. Then pack it in one of their boxes before selling it to you. The flash memory in Apple products is usually made by Samsung or Toshiba. But if you think it's worth twice as much if you buy it using Apple as a middleman, then more power to ya.

You’re aware Apple Engineers alter ARM design to meet what Apple wants. You’re aware Apple has bought out memory and other companies and then take designs and requirements to fabricators to make. If I design my house or car but pay labour to make it, guess what, I have the intellectual knowledge, they just are the labour to build out what I am visioning. Apple presents the design and requirements and they just make it. You do understand Apple has been doing this for decades right? They engineer and design their components closely with the manufacturers they work with, then send them out to fabricators like Samsung to mass produce what they need to put in the devices.
Also, double? I just have seen first-hand experience Android manufacturers charge $60-$100 more for additional internal memory storage. Is Apple more at the high end, yes. But then again, as I explained most Android devices don’t even offer the option since it increases the cost of their phone. When they do offer it, it’s $60-$100 more which isn’t a whole lot different than Apple’s $100.
 

Xajel

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I just bought the 32GB version few days ago, costed me almost $23.8 where I live, which is better than what I expected as we normally have higher prices...

faster my SanDisk nano usb I have also ( USB 2.0 ) but I still didn't tested it, as at work I only have an iMac, and you know no Apple product support USB 3.0 yet...
 

KnightShader

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This is nice for people like myself who pop theminto their USB port of their car (in the arm-rest) and don't want it to catchon anything. I added a Sandisk Cruzer FIT 16GB to my Wrangler 18 months ago and it works great.
Read/Write is perfect for this task to, dump all the files to it overnight, and then in the morning plug it into your car/laptop/etc and then it reads/indexes quickly on that device. Sure you want read/write to be similarly fast, but if I had to pick one for them to focus on then Read speed would be it.
 
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