The Fastest Flash Drive

Gas Prices vs. Summer Vacation (39) How Much is Gas in your Part of the World? (45) Energy Efficient Cars: What you Don’t Know (44) How to Save Gas without Gas Savings (34) America, Iraq, Gas. amd Linux (4)The Fastest Flash Drive (16)

Hi Chris:

I haven’t heard of Apacer before but the 2G drive has a five rating (based on 4 people who rated it) at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820180016

I have been looking at the A-DATA 4GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) Model PD8 2.0 4GB BLUE at http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820211240 .

When I couldn’t find the specs to be specific enough to make the purchase, I emailed A-Data in Taiwan. They sent me an email asking me for more info which I sent them this morning.

With the dearth of information available, I posted the following ReadyBoost Info Request over at : “Anybody care to share which USB keys (model and sizes) they are using with ReadyBoost and what kind of results they are getting? I see from http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/04/14/576548.aspx. that there are some specific specs for the cards and from the comments to that post, I see that many people have USB keys that don’t work. I’d like to know which keys do work and approximately what kind of boost
they give.�?

I’m on a similar quest with regard to which desktop wireless cards work. Dlink sent me an email that says, “D-Link till now have not arrived with the vista drivers. So we would advise you not to use it with Vista OS.�? Is that great or what?

If you want the info I discover when it comes in, let me know and I’ll sent it to you.

Keep up the great posts. Let us know what you find out.

The 2GB is faster than the 4GB. I haven’t heard about any quality problems with either one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?SrchInDesc=HT203&Page=1&N=50001841&Submit=ENE&Manufactory=1841

So here’s the thing guys. You are not looking for amazing data transfer speeds on these flash drives. Vista is going to treat these as Random Access Memory and so if you can find the Random Access Times, that is what you will want to base your purchase off of. Fixed discs have a much higher data transfer speed then most flash drives but accessing any file at random on a HD is a much slower process which is why ReadyBoost is so genious. I would recommmend a drive liek the “Kingston Data Traveler Elite.” It boasts one of the fastest R-Access times that I have seen. Toms Hardware Guide also has a forum on fast flash drives. Definately concentrate on the RA times when reading it:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/10/two_fast_and_functional_usb_flash_drives/page9.html

Hope that this may help you guys.

Thanks for the link! Lots of great investigation work there. :)

[...] The Portable Freeware Collection is a great collection of all kinds of different software that can be loaded onto a USB key. Haven’t got a USB key yet? Don’t forget, Windows Vista can take advantage of USB memory keys as “pseudo” system RAM, increasing the speed of vista, and according to Chris Pirrilo, one of the best choices is the Apacer Handy Steno 2GB or 4GB model. I own a 512mb version of this same unit, so I just hope that it is sufficient (fast enough) for Windows Vista. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

[...] Re: Ubuntu on a USB drive? http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/…ves/index.html The article is a little old, so perhaps there’s something faster now. Here’s a more recent article: http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/06/02/…t-flash-drive/ [...]

[...] Re: Ubuntu on a USB drive? http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/…ves/index.html The article is a little old, so perhaps there’s something faster now. Here’s a more recent article: http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/06/02/…t-flash-drive/ [...]

[...] Daim (Bruger) skriver: Hej allesammenJeg overvejer at købe mig en ny usb-key. Udover min. 2 gb plads så vil jeg også gerne have den er klar til Windows Vista Readyboost. Hvor man kan bruge usb nøglen som ram istedet for den normale harddisk.http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/04/14/576548.aspxDer er åbenbart nogle krav til hastighed på usb-nøglen:The USB Key must be at least USB 2.0 The device must be able to do 3.5 MB/s for 4 KB random reads uniformly across the entire device and 2.5 MB/s for 512 KB random writes uniformly across the device. Et andet sted skriver de dog ( http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/06/02/615199.aspx ): 2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writesMen er der nogen som ved hvor henne jeg kan finde ud af hvilke usb-nøgler som har de nævnte hastigheder. Selve read/write hastigheden er vist ikke så vigtigt sålænge det er usb 2.0 selvfølgelig.Jeg har læst på http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/06/02/the-fastest-flash-drive/ at Apacer Handy Steno – the 2GB version er et godt valg. Men her kommer spørgsmålet! Findes der en god side med sådanne informationer om usb-nøgler?Er der noget officelt fra windows om hvilke nøgler der understøtter Readyboost i Windows Vista. Tak på forhånd.Jesper Oversigt over tråden [...]

[...] Aero, on its own, is absolutely outstanding – but the half-assed platform implementation is what leaves such a sour taste in my mouth. Vista runs fast enough, so long as you have a high-speed memory stick acting as a ReadyBoost device. Is Vista better than XP? I guess that all depends on how you choose to define “better” at the end of the day. microsoft, microsoft windows, operating system, windows, windows vista, windows xp [...]

I have the 4GB Apacer and I have experienced no issues. It out performs every other stick I have purchased (Much to my wife’s dismay) and has worked flawlessly since I recieved it.

[...] The Fastest Flash Drive – The Fastest Flash Drive ~ Chris Pirillo Don�t ask me why this isn�t documented anywhere, but I have it on good authority that the best USB memory stick to use for Vista�s ReadyBoost is an Apacer Handy Steno – the 2GB version. Apacer also has a 4GB version, although it�s been reported that the 4GB model has reliability issues (though I don�t know how �reliablity� is defined or charted). No matter, Microsoft is apparently using Apacer USB sticks for the ultimate speed boost (ReadyBoost) in Vista. [...]

this is out now and seems faster (32MB read)
http://www.patriotmemory.com/products/groupdetailp.jsp?prodgroupid=64&prodline=4&group=USB%20-%20Extreme%20Performance%20Flash%20Drives&catid=8

My 4Gb Apacer just died after 2 weeks. So bummed.

Apacer sent me over the low level format utility tool (xp only) within 30 minutes of my request and it worked! It’s as good as new now. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Corsair FlashVoyager GT 8GB 36/34

You can find a list of ReadyBoost compatible USB flash memory here http://www.readyboostmemory.com/