Bought a fast USB Flash Drive

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Here it is in comparison to some other USB sticks I have...

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The all important speeds...

Connected to USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20Gbps Type-C port...

USB2x2.jpg


Connected to USB 4 port...

USB4.jpg


Connected to Thunderbolt 4 port...

TB4.jpg


Connected to USB 3.0 port...

USB3.jpg
 
I was looking for something like this about 18 months ago, but ended up going down the nvme enclosure route to get the required performance as i had an old gen3 drive I could use.
 
I've had an nvme encolsure for a while but I found power delivery to be an issue on some computers. I've recently been experimenting with a Kingston Datatraveller Max 512GB and have been impressed. I installed Windows on it to play games that don't like Linux and it's performed well. Load times are obviously slower than my internal nvme drive but not by a lot, and that's only a 1GB/s drive.
 
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Connected to USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20Gbps Type-C port...

USB2x2.jpg

I'd be curious to know how long it sustains that write speed before the cache fills up and what speed it can maintain after that. I have a Hikvision "Engine" drive that does 1GB/sec for about 2 seconds and then absolutely tanks to less than 100MB/s :(
 
Decent speed
But can't match a corsair ex400u
Though that's physically larger
And don't know what the cost comparison
Between both is

But if you want fast usb speed
And it's still relatively portable the ex400u
Is one of the best out there
It's conveniently magnetic too
Ideal to stick to rear of pc case
And believe it can be magnetically connected to the rear of some mobile devices
Expanding their storage

It's not maxing out on my pc
Windows issue, driver issue i don't know why
But still 3400 read 2800 write
Not too shabby
 
The 512GB drive I used in my tests above was £56.99, you can get a 1TB version for £89.99 but I didn’t need that much. The rainforest gave me a £25 gift card which I used against the purchase of the drive.

Don’t seem to be able to get any USB 4 Flash drives at all at the moment, they would be faster obviously.
 
Im a bit confused as 3 of the devices pictured above are wireless network adapters?

Only 2 devices are for storage and one of them is the new drive you are referring to.

Sorry if I am being a simpleton here.
 
I'd be curious to know how long it sustains that write speed before the cache fills up and what speed it can maintain after that. I have a Hikvision "Engine" drive that does 1GB/sec for about 2 seconds and then absolutely tanks to less than 100MB/s :(
I've transferred a 158GB file from my internal NVMe drive to the USB Flash drive. It does start out at 1.09GB/s but after a few seconds drops down to 600-700 MB/s but never goes much lower than 500 MB/s see here...


Not bad seeing you can fill the whole 512GB drive in about 12 minutes.
 
I've transferred a 158GB file from my internal NVMe drive to the USB Flash drive. It does start out at 1.09GB/s but after a few seconds drops down to 600-700 MB/s but never goes much lower than 500 MB/s see here...

Not bad seeing you can fill the whole 512GB drive in about 12 minutes.

Appreciate the test! That's not bad going at all.
Many cheap drives will have a fast cache so they can advertise the high speeds and then cheap out on the actual nand flash.
 
Appreciate the test! That's not bad going at all.
Many cheap drives will have a fast cache so they can advertise the high speeds and then cheap out on the actual nand flash.
Yeah on the box they say up to 2000 MB/s but that is the read speed. They don't really advertise the write speed.
 
Appreciate the test! That's not bad going at all.
Many cheap drives will have a fast cache so they can advertise the high speeds and then cheap out on the actual nand flash.
Have a cheap Kingston stick that does this, the first 1GB of data goes at about 100mb/s, but then drops to 2mb/s after that, ouch!
 
I had so much hassle trying to get consistent speeds on my USB flash drives. That I switched to external NVME for portable storage.

Hardly ever use flash drives anymore. Last time I might have needed one for an ISO for a OS install I used a retired SSD instead. I was thinking of scrapping all my my flash drives. Just using old SSDs instead. Kids occasionally need a flash drive for a school project.
 
If a flash drive only shows read speed
I tend to avoid those
As tends to mean the write speed won't
Be great

And yes a good use for old ssds /m2 drives
Is use for OS isos or
Bootable recovery environments
And any other Bootable tools
Ventoy works great with fixed disks/internal drives
Can just drag and drop as many isos
As the drive size can take on it

Saves hunting for the right flash drive
And of course an internal ssd is going to be
Faster than most flash drives
 
If a flash drive only shows read speed
I tend to avoid those
As tends to mean the write speed won't
Be great
Yeah but my one advertises a read speed of up to 2000MB/s and reaches up to 1590MB/s consistently in a read transfer test. The write speed reaches up to 680MB/s consistently in a write transfer test.

Most of the time you are going to be reading from a USB flash drive and those speeds aren't bad for a £59.99 drive.
 
Bought a Silkland 20Gbps USB C Extension Cable 1M USB 3.2 Gen2x2. The USB 3.2 Gen2x2 port is at the back of the PC which is on the floor meaning I had to keep pulling it out each time I wanted to plug something in or out. This extension cable brings the port to desktop level making it easy to plug things in and out.

fcEjMEx.md.jpg
 
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I've done real world read and write speed tests on my fanxiang FF951 512GB USB Flash Drive vs my fanxiang PS2000W 1TB External SSD as follows...

fanxiang FF951 USB Flash read speed...


fanxiang PS2000W External SSD read speed...


The fanxiang PS2000W is a bit faster but the fanxiang FF951 is no slouch.

Now...

fanxiang FF951 USB Flash write speed...


fanxiang PS2000W External SSD write speed...


The fanxiang PS2000W maintains a higher speed for longer before dropping down to the 750MB/s mark. Again a bit faster than the FF951, but both are plenty fast enough for my needs
 
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