USB Flash Drive Showdown
Experimental Results
Here are the results of our tests. You can click on the column headers to change the sort order. The sorting is stable which means to sort by capacity first and rating second, click on rating and then click on capacity.
| Name | Capacity | Price | Editor's Rating | Burst Read (MB/s) |
Burst Write (MB/s) |
Avg Read (MB/s) |
Install (secs) |
Engine Launch (secs) |
LivePC Launch (secs) |
| Super Talent | 0.5GB | $10 | 11.6 | 4.4 | 10.6 | 52.39 | 7.86 | 39.81 | |
| Super Talent | 1GB | $18 | 12.1 | 4.2 | 17.1 | 169.01 | 5.00 | 65.78 | |
| Memorex Traveldrive | 1GB | $22 | 16.2 | 12.8 | 15.7 | 51.60 | 12.71 | 41.13 | |
| Verbatim Store'n'go U3 | 1GB | $36 | 12.9 | 4.3 | 13.2 | 42.10 | 9.99 | 37.12 | |
| Crucial Gizmo! overdrive | 2GB | $35 | 35.6 | 19.9 | 34.8 | 51.41 | 10.50 | 38.46 | |
| OCZ Rally 2 | 2GB | $45 | 19.3 | 11.1 | 15.3 | 43.13 | 10.69 | 41.19 | |
| Corsair Flash Voyager | 2GB | $45 | 19.1 | 10.4 | 18.0 | 185.42 | 11.84 | 47.85 | |
| Patriot XPORTER XT | 2GB | $45 | 30.9 | 24.9 | 28.8 | 48.28 | 10.56 | 36.58 | |
| Super Talent Fireball | 2GB | $49 | 30.9 | 24.3 | 29.2 | 45.69 | 10.32 | 37.43 | |
| Apacer Handy STENO HT203 | 2GB | $53 | 30.9 | 23.8 | 29.3 | 47.83 | 11.42 | 38.00 | |
| OCZ Secure Digital Dual | 2GB | $59 | 13.8 | 8.2 | 13.6 | 53.80 | 10.59 | 45.74 | |
| Memorex Traveldrive | 2GB | $59 | 12.5 | 3.6 | 12.7 | 49.31 | 10.83 | 37.85 | |
| SanDisk Cruzer mini | 2GB | $67 | 13.5 | 9.0 | 13.4 | 82.95 | 12.20 | 54.47 | |
| Kingston DataTraveler Elite (encrypted) | 2GB | $82 | 23.9 | 10.2 | 12.6 | 14.84 | 10.30 | 35.01 | |
| Gyration | 2GB | $150 | 13.8 | 8.0 | 13.4 | 238.27 | 8.22 | 70.21 | |
| Super Talent | 4GB | $62 | 21.0 | 4.1 | 21.0 | 380.67 | 20.10 | 94.82 | |
| pqi u339 | 4GB | $66 | 22.6 | 11.1 | 22.1 | 150.27 | 10.28 | 56.15 | |
| PNY Attaché | 4GB | $70 | 11.8 | 4.7 | 11.0 | 103.70 | 18.81 | 82.50 | |
| Patriot XPORTER XT | 4GB | $77 | 30.9 | 23.9 | 28.9 | 41.73 | 8.29 | 37.86 | |
| Corsair Flash Voyager | 4GB | $83 | 20.5 | 10.9 | 17.7 | 198.72 | 12.25 | 49.94 | |
| OCZ Rally 2 | 4GB | $85 | 21.2 | 11.3 | 21.8 | 153.20 | 10.61 | 55.09 | |
| Apacer Handy STENO HT203 | 4GB | $85 | 30.8 | 22.1 | 29.3 | 43.08 | 10.21 | 39.06 | |
| SanDisk Cruzer micro | 4GB | $95 | 18.5 | 8.3 | 18.1 | 82.95 | 11.57 | 43.10 | |
| Lexar JumpDrive Lightning | 4GB | $110 | 34.9 | 23.2 | 34.9 | 58.97 | 12.97 | 37.28 | |
| ATP Toughdrive | 4GB | $120 | 35.0 | 23.6 | 34.9 | 58.35 | 9.35 | 35.70 | |
| EagleTek | 4GB | 27.6 | 15.5 | 18.8 | 33.79 | 9.80 | |||
| Super Talent | 8GB | $138 | 34.9 | 15.8 | 17.8 | 81.43 | 9.86 | 40.50 | |
| AData | 8GB | $148 | 11.9 | 6.9 | 12.3 | 947.45 | 101.46 | 665.12 | |
| Corsair Flash Voyager | 8GB | $158 | 32.7 | 21.2 | 30.9 | 64.23 | 10.17 | 39.09 |
No, those install times are not a typo. Looks like some USB sticks benchmark fine but have some serious real-world performance issues!
