Recommended USB flash drive

[nightfly13]

I'm looking to upgrade from my pleasantly clicky but slow (2MB/s writes) 8GB flash drive. I tried searching for similar threads but there's so many names for these drives (pen, thumb, jump etc.) I quickly gave up.

16GB seems to be the sweet spot presently. I've read a few reviews/shootouts and am leaning toward this jobber. Any personal input would be appreciated.

Want to balance write speed and price point (value for money). The OCZ Throttle is interesting, but I have precisely 0 eSATA ports on any of the 6 machines I share flash drives with commonly, so doesn't seem like a fabulous option, as much as I like OCZ (Vertex in my MBP!!). The need for spare USB cable seems to kind of defeat the purpose.

No one makes firewire flash drives, do they? Sexy white plastic, I bet those suckers would sell

 

[illibball087]

iron key 8gb, you get what you pay for

 

[nightfly13]

Huh. Thanks for the info - interesting to know it's out there and if/when I go full-time into espionage/scuba diving I'll pick one up

 

[nanofrog]

Huh. Thanks for the info - interesting to know it's out there and if/when I go full-time into espionage/scuba diving I'll pick one up

I just narrow down the parameters on newegg (capacity, hopefully performance specs listed), and pick the one that seems to have a low price, and better reviews.

 

[nightfly13]

I just narrow down the parameters on newegg (capacity, hopefully performance specs listed), and pick the one that seems to have a low price, and better reviews.

Yeah that's how I normally operate, but curiously, there's no performance specs on Newegg for USB flash drives. Even more curiously, even the user reviews are pretty non-technical 'feels pretty fast.... but write speeds aren't all that great' whatever I could spend all day marking every one as non-helpful .... who is that helping

I'll probably go with the one I linked above, free shipping, $10 rebate, top tier write speeds - just wanted to see if anyone has one they LOVE and wanted to recommend.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

I personally like the Sony flash drives.

 

[nightfly13]

BTW, nanofrog, how are you always quick to respond (helpfully!) in every sub-forum, seemingly at once! I'm normally in Mac Pro - you're omnipresent there. Then I venture into MBP and there are you. Now in accessories? Stalking me?

 

[nanofrog]

Yeah that's how I normally operate, but curiously, there's no performance specs on Newegg for USB flash drives. Even more curiously, even the user reviews are pretty non-technical 'feels pretty fast.... but write speeds aren't all that great' whatever I could spend all day marking every one as non-helpful .... who is that helping

I'll probably go with the one I linked above, free shipping, $10 rebate, top tier write speeds - just wanted to see if anyone has one they LOVE and wanted to recommend.

I haven't looked that deeply lately, though I need to, as I need a few larger capacity models, and faster 4GB versions as well.

I like the SanDisk 2GB Cruzer's I've got, but I've never actually tested them for throughput. Maybe I should, as IIRC, Sisandra has a benchmark for it. The rest of them are too old (pre USB 2.0 compliant). Useful for small stuff though.

 

[nanofrog]

BTW, nanofrog, how are you always quick to respond (helpfully!) in every sub-forum, seemingly at once! I'm normally in Mac Pro - you're omnipresent there. Then I venture into MBP and there are you. Now in accessories? Stalking me?

I do Electronic Design Automation often (circuit simulations, and they can take hours or even days, depending on complexity), so I browse around MR while I wait to keep from being bored (shorter ones; long term is done overnight usually).

 

[nightfly13]

I do Electronic Design Automation often (circuit simulations, and they can take hours or even days, depending on complexity), so I browse around MR while I wait to keep from being bored (shorter ones; long term is done overnight usually).

While I can't say with great honesty that I understand what you just said, I do salute you!

Riddle me this, why aren't you a demigod like thegoldenmackid? You've got more posts, and way more posts per day (not that he's a slouch!)

nanofrog: Total Posts: 4,519 (9.45 posts per day)

 

[nanofrog]

While I can't say with great honesty that I understand what you just said, I do salute you!

Riddle me this, why aren't you a demigod like thegoldenmackid? You've got more posts, and way more posts per day (not that he's a slouch!)

nanofrog: Total Posts: 4,519 (9.45 posts per day)

EDA

Demi-god is a title thegoldenmackid selected (IIRC, it's default for a male) when you donate to MR. You have title options btw.

Most of the posts are RAID related I think, as they get rather involved as you know (details. always the details).

 

[fireshot91]

While I can't say with great honesty that I understand what you just said, I do salute you!

Riddle me this, why aren't you a demigod like thegoldenmackid? You've got more posts, and way more posts per day (not that he's a slouch!)

nanofrog: Total Posts: 4,519 (9.45 posts per day)

Getting a Demi-God/Demi-Goddess/Contributor title requires an annual membership of $25.

As shown here.

If nanofrog did contribute to MacRumors, and still has that title, he could've just chosen to keep the regular title. It varies based on personal wants.


Back on topic:
I'd recommend the Sandisk Cruzer line.

 

[cube]

I enjoy my Sony Micro Vault Tiny, but I didn't buy it for speed.

Next time, I'll be getting one of these:

http://www.supertalent.com/products/stt_usb_detail.php

 

[yoppie]

I have two SanDisk Cruzer USB drives and so far so good. It's been going on 2 1/2 years now.

 

[nightfly13]

Supertalent drives look pretty sweet - but both have lackluster (3-egg) reviews on Newegg. Haven't looked into why that is yet, just saying...

Seems bus-powered USB flash just sucks no matter what you do. There's the $100+ SSD with USB plugs sticking out the end, not really what I'm after.

Does anyone know if a SDHC card is faster? I have 2-3 card readers built into the machines I use..

 

[nanofrog]

No one makes firewire flash drives, do they? Sexy white plastic, I bet those suckers would sell

It turns out, there's one company that does. Kanguru Fire Flash

It's FW400 though, and it's specs are:

• read = 25Mb/s

• write = 10Mb/s

 

[nightfly13]

It turns out, there's one company that does. Kanguru Fire Flash

It's FW400 though, and it's specs are:

• read = 25Mb/s

• write = 10Mb/s

Neat! Too bad it doesn't write very fast. Modern USB sticks write at around 12Mb/s. That and 2 of my friends have older PC laptops - they only have 4-pin Firewire... and 2 MacBooks have FW400, but the new MBP has FW800, so plug-wise it's a disaster.

 

[mac&cheesey]

Flash drives

IronKey FTW!!! Great drives. I just wish they allowed more than just secure storage for Mac users the way they do for Windows (secure storage as well as onboard, secure FireFox, anonymous browsing, etc). I hear they're working on it though.

While they are expensive, they are worth it.

As for more mainstream drives, I too like Sony drives. Also, I like the look of these...
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11228
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11226
I heard from the guy at the local Mac store that they perform well too, but I have no experience to back that up. I haven't looked for stats either.

m&c

 

[SqB]

+ 1 for Cruzers. I've owned many. Mainly because I like the form factor, no cap to lose, fun glowing status light. They perform really well, but like the others I have no data on throughput.

 

[aafuss1]

I like and own a Sandisk Cruzer-a 4GB Cruzer micro in my case (retractable USB connector, U3 enabled-latter when used with a Windows system only).

 

[nanofrog]

+ 1 for Cruzers. I've owned many. Mainly because I like the form factor, no cap to lose, fun glowing status light. They perform really well, but like the others I have no data on throughput.

They're actually quite fast. Speed varies by capacity, but they seem to be in the top 3 or so, from what I was able to determine off SiSandra's USB benchmark comparison (pulls other product reference data, and kept the capacity the same on selections). The reference products can be user set, btw.

8GB model was the fastest as well, exceeding 8500 IOPS/min (reference data = source, as I was testing a 2GB model, which came in just under 6000 IOPS/min).

 

[Newmacer2]

Help

Help! Long story, but the Reader's Digest version is this. I just switched from PC to MAC. I have always had good luck with SanDisk flash drives, but can't get them to work on my iMAC. I removed the passwords on my flash drive using my old PC, but could get them to work on the iMAC. So, I bought a new 8GB flashdrive. Same story. On the PC it automatically asked if I wanted to create a password. Not on the MAC. It just sits there. It's like my iMAC is ignoring it. Thanks in advance.