|
Statistics
Visitors: 631578
Advertisement
Notebook Computers
For the best deals on laptop computers visit www.Geeks.com.
|
|
Corsair Voyager GT 4GB USB Flash Drive |
|
|
|
|
Written by Mikhail Ivanenkov
|
|
Tuesday, 19 June 2007 |
|
Product sample purchased at Dell.
USB flash drives have finally taken over. They are, without a doubt, the single most efficient way of temporarily storing and transferring data. Floppy disks are gone, CD-Rs aren't very pocket friendly and there's absolutely no competition. In the past we've reviewed several high performers. Today we'll be taking a look at Corsair's Flash Voyager GT, heralded as the "fastest USB drive in the world".
The drive came in the above blister pack. On the front of the package you'll find listed features, notably the 10 year warranty, optional data security via the included TrueCrypt utility, and serious resistance to water, shock, and dropping. The model I purchased was 4GB, but 2, 8, 16, and 32 (!!) GT flavors are also available. On the back it gives specs for how much each drive can hold. Based on average file size, the 4GB model can store up to 1240 images, 1hr 40min of MPEG-2 5Mbps video, 19hr of MPEG-4 384 Kbps video, or 1000 128Kbps MP3s. That's enough to archive a sizable chunk of the average person's collection.
Aside from the drive you also get a lanyard and a 2ft USB extension cord for those who aren't fortunate enough to have front USB ports and don't want to crawl behind their machine every time. Neither of these is necessary, but extras never hurt. As for the drive itself, it contains a utility called TrueCrypt which the user can install. Without getting into details (the included manual tells you everything and more), it's basically a feature that once installed will encrypt and decrypt data on the fly as you're moving it around on the drive. You then have to provide a password to be able to access it. While unnecessary for everyday use, it does provide security for sensitive data should you lose the drive.
The drive itself is the sturdiest thing I've ever seen. It's encased in thick rubber with beveled writing. The clear plastic bubble near the hook on the front of the drive protects a blue LED that flashes whenever there's activity. The rubber casing is thick enough to allow for maximum shock absorption and heavy weight resistance (yes, I managed to step on mine already). The bright red colors insure that you won't lose it and give the Voyager an expedition look.
Unlike some hard USB drive covers which wear off and over time become loose, the Voyager uses a completely flexible rubber top with grooves on the inside. This makes for a tight fit that never loses its grip. It's also helpful for nonsense like this:
After all, they did say it was water resistant. With this being the first review since the site re-launch, I'm unfortunately limited in my testing methods. This is in fact the only USB drive currently in my possession, so I can't compare speeds to other competitors. What I can do though is give you a general idea of real world file transfers and how fast this drive really is. To do this, I ran 4 tests. I used an older backup of my site which included 6142 files in 323 folders, totaling 564Mb. This is similar to what most people would store on a USB drive (typically lots of smaller files). I also used the same folder, but zipped up so the drive would treat it as a single file. This one was 463Mb. Additionally, I wanted to see how long it would take the drive to zip up all the files once they were already present, as well as copy the zip file to another location on the same drive. The results are as follows:
- Multiple small file write (6142 files in 323 folders, total size 564Mb): 6:27 - 1.46Mb/s
- Single large file write (1 .zip file, total size 463Mb): :28 - 16.56Mb/s
- Single large file copy (1 .zip file, total size 463Mb): :40 - 11.58Mb/s
- Zip compression speed (file compression, total size 564Mb > 463Mb): 4:43 - 1.64Mb/s
Based on these numbers I'm impressed. I also ran the same tests on my hard drive (a 200Gb Seagate 7200.7) and although it took the Voyager roughly twice as long to compress and write the multiple files, it copied the single file at about the same speed. In other words, when dealing with larger single files, Corsair's GT is about as fast as 7200RPM HDD. Not too shabby. Copying lots of smaller files still takes longer though.
Pros
- Looks nice
- Rugged design (can withstand abuse quite well)
- Extremely fast
- 10 year warranty
- Included encryption software
Cons
There's not much you can say about a USB drive - they all serve the same purpose and are functionally identical. However, not all are created equal. Corsair got it right with the Voyager GT. It's fast, durable, has unheard of storage capacity, and is relatively inexpensive. Now if I could only get my hands on a Survivor. Feel free to comment here.
|
|
Last Updated ( Monday, 09 July 2007 )
|
|
|
