USB Flash Drive Roundup - 10/2005
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 4, 2005 11:28 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Write Performance
For the write performance tests, we used the exact same file sizes, but instead of reading them from the drives, they are written to the drives.
Every time you write to a NAND flash block, you must first erase that block, thus it should be no surprise that NAND flash memory writes a lot slower than it reads, so don't expect to see the same performance levels that we saw with the read tests.
512-byte File Write Performance
In our read tests, we found that all of these drives read small files very slowly. Well, they also happen to write small files even slower:
The performance advantage of these three drives is nothing short of incredible, but let's see if it is a fluke...
32KB File Write Performance
Just as seen with the read performance tests, the larger the file size, the higher the performance. With 32KB files being written, we are now able to classify performance in MB/s; although, even the fastest drive here posts a speed of less than 5MB/s.
What is truly interesting here is that, with the exception of the Kingston Elite, SanDisk Cruzer Titanium and Lexar Lightning, the drives with the fastest read rates are the ones with the slowest write rates. Note that the Memina Rocket falls to the very bottom of this list while Corsair's Flash Voyager, which had mediocre read performance, floats much closer to the top.
OCZ's 512MB Rally is also a bit of an exception to the rule, as it had very high read speeds, and manages a greater than 1MB/s write speed in this test.
For the write performance tests, we used the exact same file sizes, but instead of reading them from the drives, they are written to the drives.
Every time you write to a NAND flash block, you must first erase that block, thus it should be no surprise that NAND flash memory writes a lot slower than it reads, so don't expect to see the same performance levels that we saw with the read tests.
512-byte File Write Performance
In our read tests, we found that all of these drives read small files very slowly. Well, they also happen to write small files even slower:
The performance advantage of these three drives is nothing short of incredible, but let's see if it is a fluke...
32KB File Write Performance
Just as seen with the read performance tests, the larger the file size, the higher the performance. With 32KB files being written, we are now able to classify performance in MB/s; although, even the fastest drive here posts a speed of less than 5MB/s.
What is truly interesting here is that, with the exception of the Kingston Elite, SanDisk Cruzer Titanium and Lexar Lightning, the drives with the fastest read rates are the ones with the slowest write rates. Note that the Memina Rocket falls to the very bottom of this list while Corsair's Flash Voyager, which had mediocre read performance, floats much closer to the top.
OCZ's 512MB Rally is also a bit of an exception to the rule, as it had very high read speeds, and manages a greater than 1MB/s write speed in this test.
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BJL - Monday, October 16, 2006 - link
Do the read and write speeds change for the 1gb and above models? Would I get the same performance, or should I stick with the 512mb?NeoZGeo - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link
what kinf of benchmark are you guys using? How come some of those drive write speed is sooooo low!? Like Trenscent, OCZ Rally, i've seen some reviews out there which says other wise.NeoZGeo - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link
here's the review by tom'sif you look at the trenscend jet flash, it actually has the highest write speed average out at 23.3 mb/s vs anandtech's 8.7 mb/s !? what the hell?
NeoZGeo - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link
haha oops, forgot about the link :Dhttp://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20050520/usb_f...">linky
quanta - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
It looked like Tom's test is testing the write speed between USB host and flash drive's controller's memory buffer, instead of actual write speed, which can only be verify by doing a read after writing is completed. There are also reports that http://www.auphanonline.com/articles/view.php?arti...">cluster size may affect the write access behaviour. BTW, Tom's http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/10/two_fast_an...">later review has simultaneous reads and writes benchmark, which slows Memina Rocket to a halt.quanta - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
In addition, even when using buffered write in SiSoft Sandra, it is extremely unlikely that Transcend Jetflash 110 can write anywhere near 23.3MB/s. http://www.oc.com.tw/article/0510/readparticle.asp...">This benchmark shows that when doing random write with Kingston DataTraveler ELITE, write speed dropped more than a half compared to sequential write.gaintstar - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
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I'm the in-house support for a university building and I've had absolutely horrible luck with Lexar drives. Lexar often fails to detect entirely on somewhat older machines (the Latitude C840, for example) and has also displayed a relatively high failure rate for me. I don't have any positive or negative impressions of Kingston drives, so I can't say anything there, but I will say that I've had by far the best luck with Sandisk drives. I've never had one fail on me, and I've seen them go through wash cycles, get run over by a car, and get left out in the rain. Compatibility has been universal as well. They may not be the fastest drives but they really are the only ones I've ever trusted.gaintstar - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
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i work for a flash memory controller maker and in all honesty the most meaningful performance test is random write. and no one really advertise that since sequential read speeds seem much more appealing and marketable. i can get a dual-channel & interleaving enabled usb 2.0 pen drive with micron or samsung nand-type flash to go up to 34mB/s in sequential read, but the engineer who designed this still tells me that he'd rather use and-type flash from renesas (formerly hitachi) since and flash has a better random write than nand flash.and knowing what i know, if you use your pen drive very often, and i suspect some of you may be in that boat, i'd check out some of the burn-in testing results especially since companies are not entirely using only samsung nand flash. certain new flash whether nand-type or ag-and-type and even some high-density samsung flash seem to be displaying a need for extra care in ecc. data-verify errors are fatal, especially if it's the only copy you got...
anand, perhaps a little visit to some of the design houses for these controllers the next time when you're in taiwan is in order. computex is only 9 months away.