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Mini Thumb USB 3.0 Flash Drives

I put a 32 gig Patriot Tab in my 2013 MBA. It doesn't stick out as far as the MagSafe2 T-connector when attached, and fits in the socket so snugly that I'd almost feel confident putting a wrist strap onto the drive and carrying around the computer by it. I'm not the benchmarking type, but it has been holding my scratch files for about a month and seems bearable in terms of write speeds after being formatted in HFS.

Out of curiosity, I also dropped a few more bucks and bought a mini Leef 16 gig USB2 drive. It is lower profile than the Tab, and drum-shaped on the end like the PQI you sent the link for. Leef didn't put metal around the connector though, so there's nothing to retain it in the socket. Even the slightest bump from typing too hard seems like it could knock the thing out of the USB port. I'm probably going to use it as a boot drive on a handheld PC that I'm configuring, but this particular drive is useless in an MBA unless you take it out before moving the computer.....
 
vreihen said:
I put a 32 gig Patriot Tab in my 2013 MBA. It doesn't stick out as far as the MagSafe2 T-connector when attached, and fits in the socket so snugly that I'd almost feel confident putting a wrist strap onto the drive and carrying around the computer by it. I'm not the benchmarking type, but it has been holding my scratch files for about a month and seems bearable in terms of write speeds after being formatted in HFS.

Out of curiosity, I also dropped a few more bucks and bought a mini Leef 16 gig USB2 drive. It is lower profile than the Tab, and drum-shaped on the end like the PQI you sent the link for. Leef didn't put metal around the connector though, so there's nothing to retain it in the socket. Even the slightest bump from typing too hard seems like it could knock the thing out of the USB port. I'm probably going to use it as a boot drive on a handheld PC that I'm configuring, but this particular drive is useless in an MBA unless you take it out before moving the computer.....
Click to expand...

Thanks is this the 3.0 version or 2.0? Amazon shows 3 star average rating, but I may buy if the PQI turns out to be a dud.
 
I've got the USB3 version of the Patriot Tab, and bought it from Amazon.

If you look at the reviews, you can dismiss a new negative ones where people were whining about not having a key ring attached to the device out of the package. This is about USB3 and staying in the MBA 24/7, not hanging from a keychain (which it doesn't even have a dust cover to do safely). Likewise for the benchmarking against other USB3 drives that are larger form factor devices. Having personally done a 25 gig VM image copy in about 8 minutes to my HFS-formatted Tab with no heat problem, I have to question whether the complaints about overheating or 25-minute copies aren't due to the computer being used only having USB2 or using a defective USB hub.....
 
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