USB Flash Drives

ham_mcfist · 12 Dec 2008 at 16:43

Just a quick question guys.

I'm after a USB flash drive, for around £20-25. I want the largest capacity and best performance, for my money. What brands should I be looking out for and are there any I should avoid?

Cheers.

chainy · 12 Dec 2008 at 17:50

ham_mcfist said:
Just a quick question guys.

I'm after a USB flash drive, for around £20-25. I want the largest capacity and best performance, for my money. What brands should I be looking out for and are there any I should avoid?

Cheers.

I have a couple of Corsair Flash Voyagers. One did go pear shape (Vista stopped seeing it) but they have got a massive 10 year warranty so just sent it back and got a brand new one. Cant say fairer than that.

dangerstat · 12 Dec 2008 at 17:57

Personally I normally go for Sandisk ones, avoid Sony ones like the plague I've had bout 6 of them fail on me.

MeatLoaf · 12 Dec 2008 at 18:05

I got a Sandisk Cruzer 8Gb one the other day for £18, pretty good performance and decent capacity

addylad · 12 Dec 2008 at 18:11

Sandisk Cruzer Micros!

Stonedofmoo · 12 Dec 2008 at 18:22

chainy said:
I have a couple of Corsair Flash Voyagers.

Another vote for those, I have a 8Gb drive.

Only two things, the write speed is much slower than the read 15Mb/sec write Vs 32Mb/sec read. Also the 16Gb models are slower than the 8Gb drives, this may or may not be important to you.

helmutcheese · 12 Dec 2008 at 18:26

I would have said Corsair but since the GT is now EOL and the 16GB GT is slowest of them all I cant recommend.

The 8GB GT was fastest out of all manu's, I have the 2GB and 4GB but never managed to find a 8GB after EOL.

ham_mcfist · 12 Dec 2008 at 18:38

Thanks for the swift replies.

Sandisk and Corsair seem popular and the 8GB sticks fall into my price range.

What about Samsung and Kingston? They do 16GB sticks within my budget.

premist · 12 Dec 2008 at 18:53

I bought a Patriot Xporter XT 8GB from a competitor back in the summer for £17.99 and have been very happy with it, the read and write speeds are pretty amazing, I would highly recommend it.

Nanobot · 12 Dec 2008 at 20:12

MeatLoaf said:
I got a Sandisk Cruzer 8Gb one the other day for £18, pretty good performance and decent capacity

Have two of these now. £9.99 each.

MikeHunt79 · 12 Dec 2008 at 21:34

I got a sandisk 16gb one a while back for £20 - it works well

Moonrise · 12 Dec 2008 at 23:45

I'm going to order a couple of Neon Turbo Slides to try. They got a good review in this weeks Micromart for being very small with good build quality and fast. Only 2 years warranty though.

Skidilliplop · 13 Dec 2008 at 00:04

Corsair's arn't the Fastest but they're very reliable. I have me a 16GB Corsair Survivor, rather neat piece of kit. Milled arcraft aluminium screw on case, waterproof to 200m

ran over it with my car and it still kept it's shape

not a small car neither - BMW3 series with very low profile tyres.
Don't rate the rubber coated ones tho, the lids keep falling off which is a bit of a design flaw and increases the chance of failure leaving the contacts exposed to the elements

Craig321 · 13 Dec 2008 at 00:08

I've always had a Corsair, first 2GB failed on me (I'm the only person one has failed on :rolleyes:

) - got it replaced under warranty for a 4GB

They're fairly cheap now as well, my Dad recently paid £14 for £8 for his Asus EEE

GSDog · 13 Dec 2008 at 00:09

addylad said:
Sandisk Cruzer Micros!

+1

I just bought one for £9.99 inc delivery. Bargain.

ham_mcfist · 13 Dec 2008 at 22:00

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

Found myself a 16GB cruzer micro within my budget

chainy · 13 Dec 2008 at 22:24

Skidilliplop said:
Corsair's arn't the Fastest but they're very reliable. I have me a 16GB Corsair Survivor, rather neat piece of kit. Milled arcraft aluminium screw on case, waterproof to 200m ran over it with my car and it still kept it's shape not a small car neither - BMW3 series with very low profile tyres.
Don't rate the rubber coated ones tho, the lids keep falling off which is a bit of a design flaw and increases the chance of failure leaving the contacts exposed to the elements

snap. I ran my rubber coated one over with my BMW M3. I didnt know I lost it until a week later when I found it by the side of the kerb I parked up next too when visiting a friend. It looked fine but was dead. Sent it back under RMA and got a brand new one lol (wasnt from OC by the way)

Mattus · 14 Dec 2008 at 03:55

Skidilliplop said:
Don't rate the rubber coated ones tho, the lids keep falling off which is a bit of a design flaw and increases the chance of failure leaving the contacts exposed to the elements

Yep... infuriating. Got the 4Gb Voyager - lost one lid, emailed Corsair for a replacement, only to lose it a week after it came. That alone is enough to stop me from buying another. Could argue that I should be more careful, but these things are designed to be carried around everywhere - surely it wouldn't kill them to attach the lid to the body with a little piece of plastic?

Plus it may be reliable, but it's also quite slow. The only Corsair product I've ever been unimpressed with.