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USB Flash Drive Speed

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LordBill
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USB Flash Drive Speed

Hey- I'm a Portable app Noob

Does the speed of your USB flash drive improve performance of loading/running portable apps? Is it worth it to upgrade to a faster USB key just for that?

Thanks
Bill

John T. Haller
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Yes and Yes

The read and write speed of the RAM and the controller chip in a flash drive affect the performance of portable apps a lot. There is as much as a 40x difference between a fast and a slow one. All will be labeled USB 2.0 High Speed, though.

Both Ars Technica and AnandTech have done roundups in the past. Unfortunately, the larger drives with the same name are often different in terms of internal tech. So, even if a 512MB drive by a manufacturer had ok performance, the 2GB one might be a dog.

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LordBill
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Thanks

What do you think of this:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820233008

The Corsair 1GB Flash has read speed of 19MB/sec, write speed of 13MB/sec

This one should be able to hold all the port apps I want, some extra files, and have the speed I think I need.

Any opinions on it? Its really well reviewed and I like the price...

Nothing so fires ambition as resentment.

Nothing so fires ambition as resentment.

tanisthalon
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Corsair

I have a Corsair 1GB. Got it around this time last year for college. It has sered me very well and is quite quick, compared to others I was privvie to by other students.
The price I paid for the 1, £45, can roughly get me a 4 today though.

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jplaney
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ATP Toughdrive

I did a lot of searching myself and finally settled on an ATP 2GB Toughdrive. I am running portable firefox off of it right now, and it is shock and water resistant. Only cost me $70 from mwave.com. I have only had it a week, but if you are interested check out these sites:

ATP Product page:

http://flash.atpinc.com/products/view.php?product_id=1178

Reviews:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=344&num=1

http://www.creativemac.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=36223

Vendor:
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=3767881

Hope that helps.

LordBill
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Ordered The Corsair

I just ordered the Corsair 1GB flash Voyager. Its a heckuva lot faster (and larger) than anything I currently have, and the price at New Egg was too good to pass up. I'll let you know if I detect a real difference in performance here after I've had a chance to compare.

Peace,
Bill

Nothing so fires ambition as resentment.

Nothing so fires ambition as resentment.

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