USB Flash Drive Roundup - 10/2005
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 4, 2005 11:28 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
OCZ Rally
OCZ's first attempt at a USB flash drive comes in the form of their Rally drive. The drive itself is one of the most slender drives in the roundup, and unlike most of its competitors, the Rally's case is made out of aluminum and not plastic. Because the drive is smaller than most, its weight isn't really all that different from conventional plastic drives.
The black metal look is sleek, but disrupted by the very prominent Rally logo on one side of the drive. We would've preferred something a little more discreet, but overall, the drive is quite stylish.
OCZ's big splash about the Rally was that it was a dual channel flash drive, but as you've undoubtedly seen by now, a few of the USB flash drives that we've been talking about are dual channel as well.
Note that we included two OCZ Rally drives in this roundup: the already shipping 2GB drive and the soon-to-be shipping 512MB. We should also mention that the 512MB drive that we reviewed here is different than what has been reviewed elsewhere. OCZ's original 512MB design had some performance issues, especially with write speeds, but after informing them of the problems that we had encountered during our testing, OCZ quickly made sure that no 512MB sticks were released to the market and changed the design of the drive in order to resolve the problems that we had encountered.
We would like to commend OCZ on truly listening to our feedback on how to improve their products for the end user, and their impressive handling of the situation so that no one would end up with a poorer performing product.
OCZ's first attempt at a USB flash drive comes in the form of their Rally drive. The drive itself is one of the most slender drives in the roundup, and unlike most of its competitors, the Rally's case is made out of aluminum and not plastic. Because the drive is smaller than most, its weight isn't really all that different from conventional plastic drives.
The black metal look is sleek, but disrupted by the very prominent Rally logo on one side of the drive. We would've preferred something a little more discreet, but overall, the drive is quite stylish.
OCZ's big splash about the Rally was that it was a dual channel flash drive, but as you've undoubtedly seen by now, a few of the USB flash drives that we've been talking about are dual channel as well.
Note that we included two OCZ Rally drives in this roundup: the already shipping 2GB drive and the soon-to-be shipping 512MB. We should also mention that the 512MB drive that we reviewed here is different than what has been reviewed elsewhere. OCZ's original 512MB design had some performance issues, especially with write speeds, but after informing them of the problems that we had encountered during our testing, OCZ quickly made sure that no 512MB sticks were released to the market and changed the design of the drive in order to resolve the problems that we had encountered.
We would like to commend OCZ on truly listening to our feedback on how to improve their products for the end user, and their impressive handling of the situation so that no one would end up with a poorer performing product.
OCZ Rally | |
Sizes Available | 512MB - 2GB |
Lanyard Included | No |
USB Extension Cable Included | NO |
Data Encryption | No |
Password Protection | No |
Secure + Public Partitions Simultaneously Accessible | N/A |
Flash Controller | USBest UT161-T6 |
Flash Memory | Spectek |
Warranty | Lifetime Limited |
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sxr7171 - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
Time to get a Lexar JumpDrive lightning. This may not be important to a lot of people, but a USB drive IMHO needs to have a loop for a keyring. It is the most convenient way to carry the thing and always have it with you no matter what. I guess this applies more to people living in the city and not needing a car and the big bulky car keys/remote that come with that.TheInvincibleMustard - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
Speaking of, is there some reason the Lexar isn't on the RTPE? I mean, it did just win an Editor's Choice and all, so you'd hope it would be one of the drives listed in the newly-announced Flash Storage section ... :(-TIM
Pete84 - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
Bummer, OCZ's dual channel USB stick didn't get in.jkostans - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
Someone didn't read the article......SpaceRanger - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
Are USB drives able to be made Bootable?? I know that systems can recognize USB Floppy Drives, and boot from those, but I was wondering if you could take a USB Flash Drive and make it a bootable device.Phantronius - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
depending on the flash drive and the motherboard BIOS, yes you can do it.Phantronius - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
1st!!!I love my OEM made from some pretty lady in china USB 2.0 stick, its saved my ass so many times for my work, especially in data reterival and spyware removal.
Souka - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
I've had the Memina Rocket for a couple months now....before they even announced it (thanks to NewEgg)....write spead defintly kinda bite with small files especially, but usually I put drivers and stuff there once, then read mutliple times....so its a good match for me.PQI's I got over a year ago, and completely made everyone jealous.... for once, mem were bragging theirs is smaller than someone else's. :D
I still use a SanDisk Titanium.....only a 512mb module, but still works well.
Souka - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link
oopsss...typomeant to say...
PQI's I got over a year ago for my office, and completely made everyone jealous.... for once, men were bragging theirs was smaller!! :D