USB flash drive showdown

It's easy to forget, but all USB thumb drives are not created equal. There's a difference between the plastic cheapies tech companies are constantly ennuggeting and then crapping their press releases into and, say, a Super Talent 200x... and even amongst the big boys, different file systems get wildly different results.

Kristofer Brozio took nine of the best USB flash drives around and put them in a head-to-head performance test. Overall, the OCZ and Super Talent drives come out ahead. This may all seem pretty useless: you usually don't need a flash drive to do more than transfer a document or two between colleagues. But as someone who has been installing a good chunk of OSes on his Asus 1000HA netbook lately (more to come!), this has me looking to pick up a Super Talent.

USB Flash Drive Comparison [Test Freaks via Engadget]

[#1 posted by danilo , January 28, 2009 7:21 AM]

The only useful flash drive is one tiny enough to fit in your wallet to be carried at all times. I've got an 8 GB drive about the size of a trident gum piece -- looks like a less gaudy version of the Super Talent. Handy as hell. So small, though, I had to attach a tab of plastic tape I wouldn't lose it.

The ultimate Netbook USB drive would be built like a VX Nano receiver:

http://www.appleotaku.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/logitech_vx_nano3.jpg

No snapping off.

[#2 posted by shutz , January 28, 2009 10:40 AM]

I bought a 16GB USB flash drive so I could copy HD TV shows and movies (usually in MP4 format) onto it and plug it into my XBox360, which plays them flawlessly.

I rarely take that thumbdrive with me anywhere, I don't need to. It's usually either plugged into my 360, or on a USB hub that's connected to my PC.