Testing:

I've often wondered exactly how long it takes a USB pen drive to transfer or receive a 100MB file. After testing a handful, the results were almost identical as long as the drive is a 2GB or greater capacity. A 100MB MP3 file required about 3.4 seconds to occupy the Hyper-X and 6 seconds to transfer it. This is where the three USB pen drives in the tests differed by about half a second at the most.

A-Data

Super Talent

Sisoft's SANDRA benchmark software has always been able to offer up accurate statistics when testing most any computer component, especially Removable Storage devices. Here we have the Kingston Hyper-X, Patriot XPorter, and AData Sport.

HyperX

Xporter

Sport

And for a little extra comparison, HD Tune is another useful benchmark utility that gives you the individual results of the device's overall transfer rate.

The Hyper-X Data Traveler actually exceeded its rated 30MB/s achieving a more nominal 33MB/s average topping out at 35MB/s at the most. It's write rates were very close to 30MB/s as well which is a really good thing. These transfer rates make all the difference when transporting 8GB of photos, music, or other data.

And the Ready Boost feature for Vista is helpful for the capable systems that can take advantage. Hopefully, the upcoming Vista service pack will do more for improving Ready Boost performance. Come on Microsoft! We got the tools, we just need the software.


Conclusion:

It seems pen drives make a decent performance jump every six months. One good indicator of things changing will some what center around how quickly solid state drives as the manufacturers improve and simplify the fabrication process. We don't expect to see any computer startling USB speeds until then.

USB Pen Drives haven't made any large evolutionary jumps as of late. But, it's nice to see 30MB/s quickly becoming a standard. We'd all love to see USB 2.0 actually achieve its theoretical 480MB/s transfer rates, but that's not likely to happen given the direction of today's computers. It unfortunately requires after market PCI solutions to get more from onboard USB and no one wants to shell out the money to get faster rates out of a Pen Drive.

A Great 33MB/s Option

If you've been to the nearest Fry's or Walmart, then you've probably seen the seemingly endless rows of smaller capacity USB pen drives with their lesser transfer rates. Unless you find one of the more up to date pen drives like the Hyper-X, you won't see the same transfer rates. Nor will you find them quite as handy especially if you're a more serious professional or user. Just be prepared to pay a professional $150 price.

The Hyper-X 8GB Data Traveler is one good option among the droves of lesser on the market. It's nice to see the Kingston Hyper-X 8GB Data Traveler with its larger capacity and its 33MB/s transfer rate. This is basically just as fast as many of the pricier USB 2.0 external drives. Granted its the not as large a storage capacity, but then no one really wants to haul around their external enclosures.

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