Anyone tried running games of a USB memory stick ?

Buckster · 20 May 2008 at 09:16

just was wondering whether for games like FSX which have LOTS of small files to read - that the instant seek time would improve things ?

Memory stick

35MB/Read
0.1ms Access

Hard Drive

65MB/Read
8ms Access

any ideas - anyone tried it ?

AbsenceJam · 20 May 2008 at 18:54

STR of USB2 is 30MB/s, many keys are actually slower than that so no.

Dutch Guy · 21 May 2008 at 10:36

I doubt you get anything close to 35MB/sec from a USB stick, I think I read some tests a while ago and some sticks couldn't even get 10MB/sec

Buckster · 21 May 2008 at 10:47

this is my hd-tach results from my 20 ish quid 8gb Buffallo drive

Dutch Guy · 21 May 2008 at 10:54

Buckster said:
this is my hd-tach results from my 20 ish quid 8gb Buffallo drive

Nice speed, I did not know that USB drives were that fast nowadays.

But they are much slower with small files than 35MB/sec: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/adata-4gb_3.html#sect1

FrenchTart · 21 May 2008 at 12:37

Dutch Guy said:
But they are much slower with small files than 35MB/sec: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/adata-4gb_3.html#sect1

Isn't that kind of speed difference true of all hard drives?

Dutch Guy · 21 May 2008 at 12:50

Looked at some more examples, this is a review of an older 16GB SSD drive: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3133&p=6

Supreme Commander's test plays to the strengths of SSD devices: the large number of smaller files required to start the first campaign level means that the lower access times associated with flash memory carry the day. In this benchmark, both the Transcend and the Super Talent SSD devices edge out the Seagate and WD drives - not that the 2-3 second performance advantage is all that significant, considering the price.

So you are right that a USB or SSD drive might be better but this test is done on a IDE/SATA interface and not the slower/CPU power dependant USB2 interface.