Fast USB 2.0 Drive

[IInuyasha74]

Hello,

I am looking for a faster USB 2.0 flash drive with known high performance. I know USB 2.0 is capped at about 60MBps, and after the overhead from transfer protocols it only typically has a max speed of 45MBps. However that is what I am looking for, a flash drive that manages to get a consistent 40-45MBps and is USB 2.0. Preferably 32GB or 64GB, but if they are good priced 16GB are fine also.

Thanks for helping me with this.

 

[volcanoscout]

Have you considered using a USB 3.0 drive? Seems to me that if you want to max out your USB 2.0 port, you're more likely to do it with a 3.0 drive than a 2.0. The Patriot Supersonics are fast and reasonably priced, even compared to comparably sized USB 2.0 drives:

http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Supersonic-Series-Flash-PEF64GSRUSB/dp/B008R6OPQE

 

[IInuyasha74]

Thought about it, but I went looking through several on Newegg and read the reviews. USB 3.0 drives since they use different drivers and protocols for transferring data if its in a USB 2.0 or 3.0 slot actually end up giving less than 20 MBps transfer speeds in a USB 2.0 slot. I think the companies kinda cut corners on the USB 2.0 compatibility since they don't think it matters. It is worth considering though. Thanks for the suggestion, I will look up and see if I can't find any tests done with this flash drive. Hopefully someone has tested it in USB 2.0 slots and got good performance.

 

[morgilroka]

I would highly recommend using USB 3.0.

 

[IInuyasha74]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-content-search/results/ref=cm_srch_q_rtr/?query=2.0&search-alias=community-reviews&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&idx.asin=B008R6OPQE

Amazon had lots of reviews so I checked them. It does better than most USB 3.0 drives in a USB 2.0 slot, but not quite fast enough for what I am looking. It tops out at about 30MBps. I have a 16GB which gets 27MBps read speeds, so I am hoping to get to at least 35MBps if I can to have a nice boost.

 

[IInuyasha74]

I would highly recommend using USB 3.0.

I wouldn't mind it being USB 3.0 as long as its USB 2.0 read speed is at least 35MBps, preferably 40MBps. I'm planning to use this in my Wii U so it doesn't have any USB 3.0 ports. I did some testing last week with a laptop HDD 5400RPM exteran hard drive, a 32GB flash drive, and two 16GB flash drives and the Wii U itself and found I was able to shave off 3 to 4 seconds of load times by using the 16GB flash drive I am currently using. Since it topped out at about 27MBps, which I checked with CrystalDiskMark, I am wanting to get as high as possible to cut as much load time off as I can. It already makes a big difference so I figure 30% more bandwidth will do even better.

 

[morgilroka]

Apparently this is the fastest drive available. (on the USB 2.0 platform)
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406147,00.asp
~30MBps read/write. This is likely the fastest it's going to get with USB 2.0

 

[Fireman Dave]

Transcend JetFlash 600 64 GB
http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-JetFlash-Flash-Drive-TS64GJF600/dp/B004CQ5GM0/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1408416192&sr=1-1&keywords=Transcend+JetFlash+600+64+GB

 

[volcanoscout]

My extensive and comprehensive in-depth research (conducted in the last two hours) leads me to believe that there is no such animal. I couldn't even find a USB 3.0 drive that could claim those speeds on a USB 2.0 port. The USB 3.0s get closer to it than the 2.0s do, though. The fastest consistent performer I could find is the Patriot Xporter XT Rage:

http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Xporter-Rage-Flash-PEF32GRUSB/dp/B003WUX6RO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1408418136&sr=1-1&keywords=patriot+xporter+xt+rage


It's rated at 27MB/s read and 25MB/s write, but has been tested at 30.7/25.13. Anything else that can beat it marginally in read, does significantly worse with write speeds.

I'll be very interested to find out if there is a drive that can hit 40-45 MB/s, but I can't find it.

 

[IInuyasha74]

My extensive and comprehensive in-depth research (conducted in the last two hours) leads me to believe that there is no such animal. I couldn't even find a USB 3.0 drive that could claim those speeds on a USB 2.0 port. The USB 3.0s get closer to it than the 2.0s do, though. The fastest consistent performer I could find is the Patriot Xporter XT Rage:

http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Xporter-Rage-Flash-PEF32GRUSB/dp/B003WUX6RO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1408418136&sr=1-1&keywords=patriot+xporter+xt+rage


It's rated at 27MB/s read and 25MB/s write, but has been tested at 30.7/25.13. Anything else that can beat it marginally in read, does significantly worse with write speeds.

I'll be very interested to find out if there is a drive that can hit 40-45 MB/s, but I can't find it.

Wow I really appreciate your time and effort on this. I might be wrong and no USB flash drive exists that can actually get the full 45MBps out of a USB 2.0 slot. I've had a few external hard drives that are capable of it, but I guess USB 2.0 based flash drives can't handle it.

Anyways I appreciate everyone's effort and suggestions on this. I have spend the last little while looking very closely at all of the flash drives, specs, reviews, and prices. It seems of the four flash drives suggested they all come very close with the exception of the Sandisk Extreme which a lot of users said it gave USB 2.0 performance in the mid 20s.

Of the remaining three, counting the two Patriot RAGE flash drives and the Transcend flash drive, the Transcend appears to be the fastest USB 2.0 flash drive with the most consistent performance and fastest performance. However, its sold out a lot of places and seems they have probably stopped producing them probably in favor for a USB 3.0 model. The same was true about the USB 2.0 RAGE drive. Both have their prices gouged a bit also, which I was surprised about because I would of expected the USB 2.0 drives to be cheaper.

Anyways seeing all this and not able to find them cheaper, (volcanoscout may kill me) I looked closer at user reviews of the Rage Supersonic USB 3.0 flash drive. Its not as consistent as the Transcend flash drive as some people put its performance only about 29MBps, but I find more reviews that reported it getting closer to 38MBps. Not only that, but its nearly half the price and has 3.0 performance if I ever want to use it for something else. So it looks like it was probably the best drive all along, and I plan to go buy one in just a few minutes.

I greatly appreciate everyone's help. Special thanks to volcanoscout for taking so much time to help me with this, and I'm sorry for not having looked closer the first time cause if I had I would of saved you about two hours.

 

[volcanoscout]

No sweat - I wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun and interesting. I've learned more about USB flash drive technology in the last couple hours than I have in the last couple years. Now I'm going through and inventorying and retasking all my flash drives with an educated (or at least semi-educated) eye.

Cheers!

 

[IInuyasha74]

Yea I know what you mean, it can be a lot of fun figuring these things out. Doing inventorying of mine is kinda what lead me here as my fastest drives are my Adata 16GB units which aren't bad but nothing I got would hit that top level of breaking 30MBps. Now with this it will probably cut another second or two off load times in my Wii U games, 5 seconds at every load point really starts to add up

Have fun going through your collection.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Well I got the Patriot Supersonic 64GB today and have been testing it for the last hour or so. I am pretty happy with the results.

Wii U:
Zelda: 28.338 (100%)
Child: 32.546 (100%)
Pikmin: 22.778 (100%)

16GB:
Zelda: 26.189 (92.4%)
Child: 30.874 (94.9%)
Pikmin: 22.410 (98.4%)

Sequential Read: 26.14
Sequential Write: 20.01
Random Read 512KB: 26.19
Random Write 512KB: 1.358
Random Read 4KB: 5.956
Random Write 4KB: 0.010
Random Read 4KB (QD=32): 6.005
Random Write 4KB (QD=32): 0.011



64GB:
Zelda: 24.177 (85.3%)
Child: 28.832 (88.6%)
Pikmin: 20.201 (88.7%)


Sequential Read: 34.98 (133.8%)
Sequential Write: 29.71 (148.5%)
Random Read 512KB: 33.97 (129.7%)
Random Write 512KB: 1.591 (117.2%)
Random Read 4KB: 5.241 (88%)
Random Write 4KB: 0.072 (720%)
Random Read 4KB (QD=32): 5.241 (87.3%)
Random Write 4KB (QD=32): 0.081 (736.4%)


As you can tell from this, I did CrystalDiskMark on the 16GB flash drive I was using, and the new Patriot 64GB flash drive which was much faster in all areas except random read times. Fortunately loading in games is sequential usually
I tested with Zelda Windwaker HD, Child of Light, and Pikmin 3 on my Wii U Deluxe. Its important to note that the video output was set to 1080p HDMI. I did my testing previously using an older CRT TV which was stuck at 640x480p, so switching to 1080p caused load times to increase by an extra second or two. I started timing right after clicking on the game and hearing the audible ding, and stopped when it said "Press Start" on screen, so a large portion of the time is the slow basic intros that can be skipped.

The total load time dropped by nearly 4.161 seconds on the best timing, and only 2 second on the worst. While this isn't as important for loading the game the first time, I'm sure loading between areas in game has also decreased considerably, though that is harder to time and check. Which results in much more enjoyable game play without waiting for things to load when you switch from one area to another.
I am also happy that it seems load time has reached its absolute fastest possible. Wii U lacks USB 3.0, and the disk drive reads at only 22.8MB/s. The difference in flash drives was around 30% faster for the new drive, but load times only decreased by an additional 6% or 7% showing that the files are now loaded as fast as possible and limited by either the USB 2.0 port itself or the internal hardware.

Just thought I should share my results