Buy a high end usb stick or a cheap nvme drive with a usb adapter ?

[cucker tarlson]

I'd like a 120-240gb stick capable of fast transfers,at least a stable +100mb/s.
what is a better option ?
an expensive usb stick or a cheap nvme drive crammed into this

ICY BOX M.2 NVMe USB 3.1 Gen 2 Typ-C (do 10 Gbps) - Obudowy do dysków - Sklep komputerowy - x-kom.pl

ICY BOX M.2 NVMe USB 3.1 Gen 2 Typ-C (do 10 Gbps) w x-kom.pl > Odbiór za 0 zł w dowolnym salonie, błyskawiczna wysyłka. Zapewniamy inteligentny wybór.

www.x-kom.pl

the second option is upgradable,seems really good.

 

[flmatter]

Sandisk Extreme or Ultra Corsair Voyager GTX , google search 100+mbs usb flash drive and a lot come up.

 

[cucker tarlson]

google search 100+mbs usb flash drive and a lot come up.

thanks

it's not a problem to find one on google,I'm wondering what is better.

 

[thesmokingman]

This is what I do with the random tiny nvme's I get in laptops I come across. An nvme drive case, el cheapo kind are 40-50 bucks ish sans nvme ofc. And those can write and copy at stupid fast speeds making usb sticks foolish. Clearly different classes of devices. Dont forget usb flash drive write speeds are freaking painful. Which is better, shrugs as the nvme will/might have issues like gen4 support is not so great atm. However which is faster should be damn obvious 5gbps to 10gbps depending on nvme drive case.

 

[Shou Miko]

If the size of the nvme encloser isn't an issue go with out it over all it's faster and cheaper then a USB Stick at the same storage size.

Personally the nvme encloser ain't for me, I want something really small and portable so I buy the price for USB sticks but on the other hand I don't need a lot I even have a 64GB Corsair USB 3.0 I rarely use.

 

[cucker tarlson]

If the size of the nvme encloser isn't an issue go with out it over all it's faster and cheaper then a USB Stick at the same storage size.

Personally the nvme encloser ain't for me, I want something really small and portable so I buy the price for USB sticks but on the other hand I don't need a lot I even have a 64GB Corsair USB 3.0 I rarely use.

Well its bigger and needs a cable,but still within the realms of portable.
Id be fine with 2.5 too but this is better

Reason we rarely use USB sticks is you cant do jack with a 32/64gb driver that's slower than a hdd

Imagine you had a 512-1tb driver that runs at least at Sata SSD speed.quite a difference.

 

[kapone32]

If you have a USB C port on your MB an NVME drive would be much faster than a USB 3.0 drive. I tested an enclosure I have and I was getting 1.2 GB/s vs 120Mb/s on my 256GB USB 3.0 high speed drive.

SanDisk 256GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive - SDCZ430-256G-G46 : Amazon.ca: Electronics

SanDisk 256GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive - SDCZ430-256G-G46 : Amazon.ca: Electronics

www.amazon.ca

 

[londiste]

ICY BOX M.2 NVMe USB 3.1 Gen 2 Typ-C (do 10 Gbps) - Obudowy do dysków - Sklep komputerowy - x-kom.pl

ICY BOX M.2 NVMe USB 3.1 Gen 2 Typ-C (do 10 Gbps) w x-kom.pl > Odbiór za 0 zł w dowolnym salonie, błyskawiczna wysyłka. Zapewniamy inteligentny wybór.

www.x-kom.pl

The key part here is M key. This rules out PCIe x4 NVMe drives and while in theory there can be M keyed PCIe x2 NVMe drives generally M key means only M.2 SATA drives.

 

[cucker tarlson]

The key part here is M key. This rules out PCIe x4 NVMe drives and while in theory there can be M keyed PCIe x2 NVMe drives generally M key means only M.2 SATA drives.

Im fine with that
Still plenty fast,less heat.
It comes with type A and C cables so good connectivity with all types of devices

 

[silentbogo]

Got me a Transcend enclosure for around $20 on sale (it's ~$25-30 normally), threw in my spare WD Green and called it a day. Stable 450-500MB/s R/W, and no issues with stability.
Also had a chinese no-name M.2 SATA enclosure, which only cost me $3 or so, but it was so unstable that I had to trow it in a trash.
Been looking at NVME enclosures as well, but I couldn't justify capping even the cheapest QLC SSD with sub-10Gbps throughput (unless you have a drive just laying around with no use).

USB flash drives may look cheaper per-GB, but the performance is not there (even the fastest thumbsticks from Samsung top out at 300MB/s), and in general they are built with lower-quality bin of NAND (reliability concerns).

 

[cucker tarlson]

Got me a Transcend enclosure for around $20 on sale (it's ~$25-30 normally), threw in my spare WD Green and called it a day. Stable 450-500MB/s R/W, and no issues with stability.
Also had a chinese no-name M.2 SATA enclosure, which only cost me $3 or so, but it was so unstable that I had to trow it in a trash.
Been looking at NVME enclosures as well, but I couldn't justify capping even the cheapest QLC SSD with sub-10Gbps throughput (unless you have a drive just laying around with no use).

USB flash drives may look cheaper per-GB, but the performance is not there (even the fastest thumbsticks from Samsung top out at 300MB/s), and in general they are built with lower-quality bin of NAND (reliability concerns).

Yeah you need 3.2 for nvme to make sense.

I wonder if there are msata enclosures,that would be ridiculously small

 

[londiste]

I wonder if there are msata enclosures,that would be ridiculously small

mSATA as standard is on its way out. Better search for M.2 2242 enclosures, these are even smaller than mSATA and drives should be available for a long while

 

[EarthDog]

Why not a cheap M.2 SATA drive... they are 500+/500+ in a USB 3.0 enclosure?

 

[silentbogo]

Yeah you need 3.2 for nvme to make sense.

You need gen 2x2 or Thunderbolt 2/3. First is not even out yet (only announced at the end of last year), and the other one is still too expensive.

I wonder if there are msata enclosures,that would be ridiculously small

There are some, but it's not as compact as you think. mSATA drives are wider and standard mini-PCIe connectors are thick. Most enclosures are about as big and fat as 1.8" HDD.
M.2 SATA is much more compact. Mine only has one downfall - detachable cable. But there are some enclosures with Type-A male connector, and these are not much bigger.
That chinese enclosure I threw away had a Type-A and was slightly smaller than Computestick. Ergonomics was better, but only if it worked right...

 

[cucker tarlson]

I like ms09,slick as hell

 

[silentbogo]

I like ms09,slick as hell

Yep, looks good. I like the foldable USB-A. Too bad Silverstone has very little presence in Ukraine. Always liked their cases, enclosures and accessories.

 

[Waldorf]

Usually the drive performance will drop below interface speed once you start writing a few gigs anyway,
so i would just get a sata3 to usb enclosure/external ssd.
yes, usb sticks do have decent read, but write speed (outside format with ultra large block size) will usually stay way below read.

 

[Voltaj .45 ACP]

i have fast 256gb usb 300mb with usb 3.1 gen2 c type but you can't use everywhere so the m2 case.you can't find solid 20gbps case.for 10gbps case m2 is waste.sata3 ext. disk or good usb with 100mb is seems better choice.

 

[bonehead123]

My nephew bought a no-name m.2 enclosure last year that looks practically the same as that Silverstone above, with 2 exceptions:

It has a USB C connector (which is fine since his rig has C ports) and it was only $20 or so. He uses it with a spare WD Black SN750 drive, and swears it does around 500-600mb/s for file transfers, so I would call that a pretty good deal if true. I have not had a chance to verify this on my own machines, but will the next time he comes for a visit.

 

[Draken Korin]

Sandisk Extreme or Ultra Corsair Voyager GTX , google search 100+mbs usb flash drive and a lot come up.

That is not what he is asking if you actually use a flash drive to do any real work with large and multiple files that need to be copied regularly you would know from experience that practically none of those drives work anywhere close to their advertised speeds often they actually only work at 1/10th the advertised speed under sustained writing conditions, there is a big different between up to 150 mbps (for 5 seconds as the cache fills up, and 10 mbps for 25 min thereafter, even good brands like samsung or sandisk are like this unless you buy their very best models. Wake up and stop believing everything is as advertised.

 

[EarthDog]

That is not what he is asking if you actually use a flash drive to do any real work with large and multiple files that need to be copied regularly you would know from experience that practically none of those drives work anywhere close to their advertised speeds often they actually only work at 1/10th the advertised speed under sustained writing conditions, there is a big different between up to 150 mbps (for 5 seconds as the cache fills up, and 10 mbps for 25 min thereafter, even good brands like samsung or sandisk are like this unless you buy their very best models. Wake up and stop believing everything is as advertised.

Depends on the file size you are transferring... Here is a 128GB sandisk extreme transferring 32GB worth of data in ~2 mins at over 300 MB/s...(the person you quoted stated this drive, FTR.... it works well).

 

[Ramo1203]

I have that exact ICY BOX enclosure with a 970 EVO 500GB and it works great. I didn't really do it for the speed, I did it to use an unused NVME drive. The enclosure + SSD has my vote because you can upgrade if you need more space, or want to replace the SSD.