How to make your portable apps fly - yes even Firefox!
Google the above topic for details on Intel's latest.
For more down-to-earth realistic options see this:
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/patriot-supersonic-best-usb-flash-drive/
I have found WireCutter to be a reliable review site at least so far, just google any term as below:
>> yourSearchTermHere site:thewirecutter.com
For those willing to carry an HDD:
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-portable-hard-drive/
And I really LOVE the idea of swapping out the mechanical drive for an SSD, this one here looking to best value:
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-laptop-ssd-for-most-is-the-sam...
Anyone testing any of these - or any relevant experience - please reply here, could be a valuable reference thread for a common FAQ.
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That Patriot Supersonic article is out of date. It may have been accurate at the time (March 2012) but Sandisk has released the Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 drive since.
A 32 GB Extreme can be found for less than $50 and is faster than the Supersonic, especially in small file performance (see here) which has such a large effect on some portable apps - like Firefox, GIMP and Thunderbird.
I agree. Checked out the random 4K performance for the Patriot and the numbers are pretty bad (worse than some HDDs). While sequential performance is impressive (good for copying isos, mkvs, etc), the low small block performance isn't going to be good for running portable apps.
There's actually a thread here with user reviews on various flash drives: https://portableapps.com/node/7218
Re-posting my reply to that thread here:
Drive: Kingston SSDNow V 40GB in Rosewill USB2/eSATA enclosure
Capacity: 40GB
Rating: 9
Pros: very good performance
Cons: big, not very portable, higher power requirement compared to normal flash drives
Drive: Intel X25-M G2 in Rosewill USB2/eSATA enclosure
Capacity: 120GB
Rating: 9
Pros: very good performance, large capacity
Cons: big, not very portable, higher power requirement compared to normal flash drives
Drive: SanDisk Extreme SSD in Silverstone USB3 enclosure
Capacity: 240GB
Rating: 9
Pros: very good performance (excellent when connected to a PC with USB3), large capacity
Cons: big, not very portable, higher power requirement compared to normal flash drives
Drive: Kingston DT101 G2
Capacity: 8GB
Rating: 7
Pros: no cap, inexpensive
Cons: slightly chubby casing blocks adjacent USB ports with typical cramped spacing
Other thoughts: So-so performance (I've been spoiled by SSDs). The batch I got from Newegg (8 drives) has relatively decent random 4k write compared to other flash drives (1MB/s vs less than 0.1MB/s on most) however, I have an exact same model purchased from Amazon earlier, as well as 4GB and 16GB versions that only have random 4K writes of ~0.020MB/s.
Drive: SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0
Capacity: 16/32GB
Rating: 9.5
Pros: no cap, reasonably priced for USB 3.0
Cons: blocks adjacent USB ports
Other thoughts: Larger than your average USB 2.0 flash drive but less chubby compared to other USB 3.0 flash drives I've seen. Very good performance particularly when connected to USB 3.0. This drive isn't going to beat miniature SSD thumb drives such as the Super Talent RC8 but it definitely performs better than most mechanical disks connected via SATA. Very well suited for running PortableApps.