I’ve always loved the performance of Corsair USB flash drives because they are known to be the fastest in the world. 3 years ago I bought a 4GB Corsair Flash Voyager GT which was the fastest back then and I am very impressed with the read and write speed until today. Well back then 4GB is a lot of space but today it is not even enough to backup a DVD which is 4.37GB. So I checked Corsair’s website and they now have GTR range which claims to be even faster than GT! I searched very hard in Malaysia and no one seems to be selling a 128GB Corsair GTR USB flash drive. Fortunately I’ve got a friend living the United States coming back to Malaysia for summer holidays and he’s willing to help me bring it over.
I went to Amazon.com and they are selling the Corsair 128GB Flash Voyager GTR at the price of $289.99. It’s a little expensive but I think it’s worth the price since I can store nearly 30 DVD discs contents into one small plug and play USB flash drive that I can carry around in my pocket without requiring external power. I’ve done a little benchmark to compare against my other USB flash drives and also an external Maxtor hard drive 7200RPM.
First of all, here is how the Corsair 128GB Flash Voyager GTR looks like. It comes with a durable and water-resistant rubber housing. The size is also much bigger compared to normal USB flash drives but it is still very small when compared to an USB external hard drive.
Now the most important thing is to see how fast can Corsair 128GB Flash Voyager GTR perform when compared to others. I’ve used Nirsoft’s USBDeview to test the read and write speed, and also DiskBench to test the drive’s speed in a real life situation with file copying, file creation, and file reading instead in a benchmarking environment. Higher number is better in the benchmark report below.
As you can see from the USB flash drive benchmark result above, the Corsair GTR read speed is even faster than the Maxtor 7200RPM external hard drive! As for the writing speed, it’s averagely around 27% slower than the external hard drive but it’s the fastest if you sort the list in Nirsoft USB Flash Drive Speed test according to write. The drives that are faster than Corsair GTR in the Nirsoft Drive Speed list such as TOSHIBA MK4018GAS, BUFFALO HD-CXU2, Seagate FreeAgent Go and SAMSUNG HD103UJ HDD are actually external hard drives. If you’re looking for the fastest USB flash drive, go for Corsair GTR and you will definitely love the read and write performance.
The old Corsair GT which I’ve used for 3 years still performs very well without problems. The frequently asked questions regarding Corsair’s flash drive wear leveling mentions that Corsair flash drives are built with memory components that can handle AT LEAST 10,000 write cycles. It will definitely last more than 10 years with their dynamic wear leveling technology.
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FLASH USB 2.0
You ought consider benchmarking multiple file access, like one would have with a cache or a big database tree. The flash should really beat the pants off the disk in such a scenario.
i need to copy and paste this to my website. is that cool? thanks.
i will like to purchase
flash drive USb 300 pieces of pendrive
Due get to me with the total cost and the shipping cost by either UPS or FedEx to london.payment will be made through my credit card.
Expecting your response
Regards
bolaji
thank u sir for these e-mails
Could you also include generic no-brand ones?
WD External HD
Write – 20.72 MB/s
Read – 32.18 MB/s
Kingston DT (8 gb)
Write – 9.11 MB/s
Read – 20.72 MB/s
Why didn’t you put patriot xt xporter in the list. i think it’s pretty fast too.
I have got my Corsair 32 GB replaced 3 times in the last 2 years.
Twice it gave performance problem like unable to perform faster at USB v2 speed. Last time it was unable to recognize it.
nice info:-)
Thanks Ray!
I was looking for something like this since long time.
I was not sure on what to buy and now my ideas are really clear.
A big Thank you and a hug from Italy
You’re the best Ray!
Andrea
HA! I bet no one heard of the world’s fastest computer boot! My home desktop boots within 10 secounds!
…and it’s Windows Vista, it’s a DELL, and it uses Pentium Dual Core.
No computer can be that… I think.
@raymond: thankx buddy for the important info.
can i get an exhaustive list of comparison of the current pen drives.
sir which antivirus is best………
An SSD would cost you around the same price and you could get a case for it to make it portable.
One thing that may be missing from your benchmark is that once you have used all the NAND then it starts to bog down in write performance. So to get a realistic benchmark, try filling up the drive then delete all data then run your benchmark again. You may see a dramatic decrease in write performance. A tool like AS Cleaner may help restore performance. Use the FF option.
However an SSD with a controlller (I recommend a Sandforce Controler – OCZ Agility 2) is much more sophisticated in keeping performance high and lifetime as it is ment to replace your hard drive for the long term.
The downside I suppose is that you could not confortably carry it in your pocket.
good info.. thank raymond!
not too late to say hepi birthday.. ^^
@Hok & DylanC: USB3 is definitely the way to go but still waiting for it to get more common then probably I’ll look for one that is the fastest :P
@tuxplorer: My 3 years old Corsair GT performance remains the same but I won’t deny that over time the performance will degrade depending on how you use and take care of it.
Yes , dear Raymond , I woul like to get your help by using this version of Nero start Smart essentials 9, for my PC. If possible please. I think this will of great use .
Many thanks for the comparison.
I agree with you. It isn’t cheap but you can carry it in your pocket.
There are many manufacturers (my favorite is LACIE) in the market who sold USB HDD’s type ‘slim’ and they don’t need external power supply and they are ‘small’ enough that you can carry it in your shirt pocket. Sure they aren’t so fast and sure they weigh more than a flash drive but it’s a mid alternative if you love portability and reasonable low price.
Best regards.
wow, never knew that the sandisk that i love was so slow :/
thanks raymond :D
But it’s performance being flash memory will degrade over time. Is there a USB flash drive yet with TRIM support?
Great info ray.. thanks :)
thank you.
Hi Raymond.
Why you not buy USB 3, E-SATA flashdisk? I will be a lot faster.
Hi raymond. With that price tag I would buy at least two 1.8 external hardrives of 250 gb each. They also don’nt need own power sources.
thanks for the writeup mate!
I will surely get one Corsair USB drive at this incoming PC FAIR..btw, thanks Ray for the info.. =)
usb3 is here. i’m using it and it’s 2x faster! That’s the way to go.
Thanks for writing this blog.
Thank you for the post Raymond. I have a few cheap 4 gig USB drives but they’re all sooooo slow. My Sandisk is too slow to even run portableapps, perhaps it’s time for me to upgrade too. Will be using your results as a guide. Thanks!