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 Results

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.