Do you have a need of a "fast" USB stick?

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rayonline

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#233582 22-Apr-2018 19:41

Curious post. I tested the speeds of the typical USB sticks I have and they are not fast. They cost a lot more and much quicker but I find I don't use them very much. When I do it's just some JPEGs, or document or a spreadsheet, or else I am using WiFi or or a network cable.

Do you guys actually have a need of a fast USB stick?

Cheers.

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#2000780 22-Apr-2018 19:49

Really depends what the use is. For regular copying of fast files it makes a huge difference.

clicknz

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#2000781 22-Apr-2018 19:51

Yes...! I'm often searching tech stores for USB sticks labeled 'USB 3'... but (as has been documented on this site) speeds seem to vary hugely.

I'd like consistently fast sticks to supply finished work (photos/videos) to clients. It'd save time for me and the receiver.

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Mike

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rayonline

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#2000783 22-Apr-2018 20:02

Photos and videos certainly. I got a USB 3.0 card reader for my photography hobby, before my system was USB 2.0. Clearly USB 3.0 is a lot quicker but for a USB stick I don't find many uses for myself and "everyday personal use". We get the RAW files into the computer so a fast card reader is nice, but when we submit images it's just low resolution JPEG for the seminar room. Then it's just the odd file here and there to share with friends and family.

Yes ... not all are fast. They are not cheap though.

https://www.sandisk.com/home/usb-flash/extremepro-usb

hio77

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#2000787 22-Apr-2018 20:13

not so much usb, but cards wow.

my 3d camera begs for so fast when recording raw + 4K..

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lNomNoml

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#2000795 22-Apr-2018 20:58

clicknz:

Yes...! I'm often searching tech stores for USB sticks labeled 'USB 3'... but (as has been documented on this site) speeds seem to vary hugely.

I'd like consistently fast sticks to supply finished work (photos/videos) to clients. It'd save time for me and the receiver.

Buying a USB 3.0 flash drive does NOT mean it will be fast.

Most flash drives go at around 5MB/sec write.

I have a Adata one that writes at 5MB/sec and reads at 70MB/sec I bought this to boot Windows ISO's and install on to PCs.

rayonline

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#2000796 22-Apr-2018 21:01

lNomNoml:

clicknz:

Yes...! I'm often searching tech stores for USB sticks labeled 'USB 3'... but (as has been documented on this site) speeds seem to vary hugely.

I'd like consistently fast sticks to supply finished work (photos/videos) to clients. It'd save time for me and the receiver.

Buying a USB 3.0 flash drive does NOT mean it will be fast.

Most flash drives go at around 5MB/sec write.

I have a Adata one that writes at 5MB/sec and reads at 70MB/sec I bought this to boot Windows ISO's and install on to PCs.

That's not even top of USB 2.0 speed.

My cheap sticks are 20MB read and 5MB write per sec.

Just got into this because new computers don't have DVD drives by default.

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Tinkerisk

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#2000817 22-Apr-2018 21:46

If you like to have a real fast USB "stick", try this:

Enclosure

64GB M.2

and you are fine ... If you like, use it as a OS boot drive for a server ... it's way faster (I noticed ~10x in practice) and longer lasting than any USB3.0-Stick.

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tehgerbil

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#2000842 23-Apr-2018 07:31

Yes. When you've already pissed around trying to get a movie on and Plex is crashing/failing then being able to copy a 4+GB movie on to a flash drive in a minute is of significant benefit.

KiwiSurfer

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#2000850 23-Apr-2018 08:03

Be aware too of their reliability. At work we bought 50 sticks only to find 2 were DOA and progressively over the last few months they have come back to me with data corruption. I noticed this fairly early on and started including a checksum script on all the USB sticks I issued to our staff (we use it to play MP4 videos for educational testing purposes). I've received quite a few more with failed checksums (which tested fine at the time I issued them).

Supplier accepted the first two for warranty replacements but eventually declined the rest.

Did some research and found this is not unexpected for consumer grade USB sticks. YMMV.

Personally when transferring files I tend to use Panasonic/Sandisk premium SD cards. Luckily most of the machines I use (iMacs and MacBook Pro/Airs) have SD slots. Reliable and very fast.

timmmay

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#2000854 23-Apr-2018 08:12

My cheap USB 3 sticks are fairly slow, which is fine given I rarely use them. I had a Sandisk one at work recently that was very fast, almost SSD speed to read from.

rayonline

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#2000893 23-Apr-2018 09:05

KiwiSurfer:

Personally when transferring files I tend to use Panasonic/Sandisk premium SD cards. Luckily most of the machines I use (iMacs and MacBook Pro/Airs) have SD slots. Reliable and very fast.

It took me a while to notice this. On my 2011 laptop I am fortunate to have a builtin card reader that supports UHS-1 speed of up to 100MB/sec. It probably won't support UHS-2 however. Not that I have any of those cards or a camera that supports it. With my desktop, my Dell screen has a builtin card reader. This was exchanged for me under warranty 7yrs ago, a 7yr old screen probably doesn't support even UHS-1 so that is maybe the reason I am only getting 20MB/sec out of a USB 2.0 reader.

Tinkerisk:

If you like to have a real fast USB "stick", try this:

Enclosure

64GB M.2

and you are fine ... If you like, use it as a OS boot drive for a server ... it's way faster (I noticed ~10x in practice) and longer lasting than any USB3.0-Stick.

That works out to be about $1/GB which is about what the Sandisk USB 3.1 Extreme sticks go for ...

Question though - with a M.2 device can they go faster if it wasn't for the SATA3 interface? In otherwords, if one has a M.2 SATA3 device and sticks it into a USB 3.1 port, can they get faster rates ie up to 10Gbps instead of the SATA3 600MB/sec?

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#2000919 23-Apr-2018 10:02

The cheap sticks I use are painfully slow, but most of the time not much of a problem. I just go have a cup of coffee.

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richms

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#2000974 23-Apr-2018 11:46

I recently went thru and culled my SD and USB stick collection. Had accumulated so many hopeless small drives along the way that were slower than internet speeds. Seldom use them around the house now with dropbox and google drive on all the computers and also the NAS being available. Only really use for windows installation and having small 2-8 gig sticks that take forever to read around the place is just a recipie for wasted time.

Richard rich.ms

Tinkerisk

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#2001187 23-Apr-2018 15:41

rayonline:

Question though - with a M.2 device can they go faster if it wasn't for the SATA3 interface? In otherwords, if one has a M.2 SATA3 device and sticks it into a USB 3.1 port, can they get faster rates ie up to 10Gbps instead of the SATA3 600MB/sec?

Technically yes, it should work with the M.2 NVMe PCIe SSDs (not the B+M-key SATA! M-key only) and the USB3.1 bandwith. Unfortunately there is not a single manufacturer in the moment.

rayonline

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#2001188 23-Apr-2018 15:47

Tinkerisk:

rayonline:

Question though - with a M.2 device can they go faster if it wasn't for the SATA3 interface? In otherwords, if one has a M.2 SATA3 device and sticks it into a USB 3.1 port, can they get faster rates ie up to 10Gbps instead of the SATA3 600MB/sec?

Technically yes, it should work with the M.2 NVMe PCIe SSDs (not the B+M-key SATA! M-key only) and the USB3.1 bandwith. Unfortunately there is not a single manufacturer in the moment.

Those B+M key M.2's they're SATA3 600MB/sec. If we take that and put inside a USB stick enclosure would it run under USB3.1? Are the B+M M.2's only work up to 600MB/sec?

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