Performance

We used the following devices for our comparison:

• A-Data Football Disk 512 MB
• A-Data MyFlash PD7 1 GB
• A-Data PD17 Flash Drive 1 GB
• A-Data PD18 Flash Drive 2 GB
• A-Data Pirates Flash Drive 2 GB
• A-Data RB19 Flash Drive 1 GB
• ATP Petito 2 GB
• ATP ToughDrive 2 GB
• Corsair Flash Voyager 512 MB
• Generic Stick USB 1.1 256 MB
• OCZ Mini Kart 1 GB
• OCZ Rally 1 GB
• OCZ Roadster 1 GB
• PQI Intelligent Drive i810 1 GB
• PQI Travelling Disk i221 1 GB
• Sandisk Cruzer Micro 2 GB
• Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 512 MB
• Super DH Series 200x 1 GB
• Super Talent RBST 1 GB
• Thermaltake MUSE external HDD enclosure
• Verbatim Store'n'Go Pro 2 GB

We see excellent performance numbers here. The Petito is not only pretty (if you are a girl), but it's also very fast.


When it comes to access times, the ReadyBoost certified drive can also score. It offers the lowest access time of all drives we tested so far. Access time is especially important when the drive is used with Windows Vista ReadyBoost.


Like with all drives, performance gets better, the bigger the data chunks are. Also common to all USB sticks is that writes are slower than reads. Optimum file size is 64KB or bigger for maximum performance. In daily use you will almost never see files smaller than 64KB.