Five USB 3.0 Flash Drives For Your Pocket

Features
By Thomas Soderstrom
published

Do you carry around large amounts of data? Do you need to transfer it between devices in a hurry? We're examining five new USB 3.0-based portable storage solutions that might fit your needs. This time around, the focus is on maximizing portability.

Benchmark Results: Repetitive Transfers And Access Times

Most builders wouldn’t think of using a USB drive to run programs, yet a few believe it’s a great way to enable the quick removal of data. That type of use puts emphasis on good sequential transfer rates and access times.

While hard drives typically use cache to boost repetitive transfers, the performance drop for these particular drives indicates that the data is most likely going directly to flash storage. Walton Chaintech edges out OCZ for the first time, while PQI’s S533-E finds its TurboHDD software to be a hindrance for the first time. Super Talent’s SuperCrypt drive continues to operate best using the Windows 7 mass-storage driver.

Slow write access times for the USB 3.0 Express Drive make the rest of our chart unreadable. Here’s what it would look like if we allowed the longer bars to run past the edge of the chart:

PQI was wise to use Intel’s X25-M in its S533-E, as its access times are far better than those of competitors. TurboHDD slows its access times slightly.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
16 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hardcore_gamer
    nice review..thanks toms
    Reply
  • tony singh
    Another proof of ever growing nature of techonology..
    Reply
  • rohitbaran
    The heavy-duty gaming hardware used for today’s test is coincidental, as it was already set up on the bench for an upcoming graphics test. It includes Gigabyte’s high-flying X58A-UD9 motherboard.
    Which is the mystery card?
    Reply
  • rohitbaran
    BTW, I liked Super Talent Super crypt, despite being slower than OCZ and PQI, it is the size I would be comfortable carrying in my pocket.
    Reply
  • huron
    I know these technologies are more toward the "bleeding edge," but it's nice to know that manufacturers see it as enough of a market to start making products. Maybe USB 3.0 will make it mainstream relatively soon.
    Reply
  • Would you be able to use the 128GB as a boot drive for win7 and how would they fall in price/performance between sata ssd and a VelociRaptor?
    Reply
  • justsayin
    Where's the hint on the upcoming graphics test?
    Reply
  • liquidsnake718
    can you play a game like crysis or even warcraft 2 well straight out of this ssd with a no cd crack?
    Reply
  • irh_1974
    reclusiveorcWould you be able to use the 128GB as a boot drive for win7 and how would they fall in price/performance between sata ssd and a VelociRaptor?I have been saying this to people for years, that one day you will have your whole PC installation on a flash drive. Just plug into a PC, boot from the flash drive and everything is there.
    Reply
  • bCubed
    Too bad it will still be some time before usb 3.0 will become mainstream and even longer for extremely good drives to come out
    Reply