Thumb Drives: Introducing 128 GB USB And High-Speed eSATA

Test Setup And Access Time

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System Hardware
HardwareDetails
CPUAMD Phenom II X4 955 (45 nm, 3.2 GHz, 4x 512 KB L2 and 6 MB L3 Cache, TDP 125 W, Rev. C2)
Motherboard (Socket AM3)MSI 790FX-GD70 Revision: 1.0 Chipset: AMD 790FX + SB750 BIOS: 1.3
RAM2 x 2 GB DDR3-1333 Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D
HDDSeagate NL35 400 GB ST3400832NS 7,200 RPM, SATA/150, 8 MB Cache
Power SupplyOCZ EliteXstream 800W OCZ800EXS-EU
Benchmarks
Performance Measurementsh2benchw 3.13PCMark Vantage 1.0
I/O PerformanceIOMeter 2006.07.27Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-BenchmarkStreaming ReadsStreaming Writes
System Software and Drivers
DriverDetails
Operating SystemWindows Vista Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset Drivers9.1.0.1007
AMD Graphics DriversRadeon 8.12
Intel Matrix Storage Drivers8.7.0.1007

Access time is typically not a very interesting metric. However, Kingston’s new 128 GB USB 2.0 Data Traveler 200 takes the longest average time to physically access data (as we'd expect in a comparison of this sort). The three eSATA-powered thumb drives are quicker, and deliver their best access times in eSATA mode.

 Write access takes much more time and reveals the weakness of multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory, which is used by all of these devices.