What are the most reliable and fastest USB sticks? The best flash drives: an overview of models and firms, characteristics, prices.

Almost everyone uses flash memory to one degree or another, even those who are not aware of it. Fast and convenient flash drives at one time ousted optical disks from the market and every year they are only gaining their popularity, moving to SSD disks. But not everyone can consciously choose a card for themselves, so today we will figure out how to choose a flash drive with high speed and reliable memory.

What you need to know to choose a fast and reliable flash drive.

To figure out which flash drive is better, you first need to dispel some myths and misunderstandings regarding solid state drives. The most common question that concerns all data storage devices, including SSDs and hard drives, is that people think they were "not given" memory. For example, a 32 GB flash drive actually turns out to be 29.9. Accordingly, the higher the denominations, the greater the difference. The point here is that we are really not being told the memory, but for quite understandable reasons.

Manufacturers indicate the volume of the drive in decimal kilo-megabytes and gigabytes, and not in binary, as the operating system sees it, and as we are used to it. For a normal person and a computer, one kilobyte is 1024 bytes, however, in decimal the prefix "kilo" is just a thousand. That is, there are thousand bytes in one decimal kilobyte. It would seem a trifle, but the difference in the end accumulates noticeable.

Plus, the drive has a small section for replacing out-of-order memory sectors. The disk, as it detects bad sectors, replaces them with spare ones, after the reserve is exhausted, bad sectors begin to accumulate on the hard disks, and bad data begins to appear. In a similar situation, the entire SSD becomes inaccessible, and all data can be considered lost. USB sticks die in the same way as SSDs. One day the card will simply not be readable, and, most likely, its recovery will be impossible, although there are exceptions with a malfunction of the flash drive controller, but this is not the article.

However, to eliminate confusion, it must also be said that speeds and data volumes are measured in bytes per second (B / s) and bits per second (b / s). Bit - the value of the minimum amount of data, conventional unit. A byte is 8 bits, respectively, the data transfer rate is the amount of information per unit of time, for example, 1 MB / s.

ATTENTION. Usually, when using bits, the letter "b" is written in lower case, and when using bytes, it is capitalized. MB / s - megabyte per second, Mb / s - megabit per second. Sometimes this rule is not followed, especially with machine translation on the Internet or in instructions for a technique. With this input, measurements are both in megabytes and in megabytes.

In general, everything is clear here, you can get to the point.

What are the flash drives?

There are three types of SD and microSD memory cards: SD, SDHC, SDXC. These names do not indicate hardware differences. SD and SDHC can be the same internally in terms of hardware elements. However, these consoles were invented for a reason, they characterize software compatibility with equipment. If the card is marked with a supported standard for equipment, a camera, for example, then after inserting it into the device, you will not face difficulties when the device cannot address the entire amount of memory, and therefore cannot read the USB flash drive. Or, for example, it will not be able to format the card into the file system available to the device.

In other words, the prefixes HC and XC denote only software compatibility and have nothing to do with speed, but they have something to do with volume. For you, the best USB stick can be of any type, it all depends on your needs. SDHC sticks range from 4GB to 32GB, and XC sticks range from 64GB to 2TB. Memory cards for two terabytes do not yet exist, but if XC support is declared on your equipment, then it is already compatible with not yet released models of memory cards with a volume of up to two terabytes.

You should have grasped that the letters of the name marking, in general, do not in any way reflect the speed of flash drives. There are markings that display data on the performance of the cards - this is the class of the drive. The lowest grade is 2, followed by 4,6,8 and 10. These numbers represent the write speed in MB / s. For the second class - 2 MB / s, for the tenth - ten or more. The class of a memory card actually indicates the speed of sequential write and sequential read, but, as a rule, the read speed of cards is higher, so, in fact, the class speaks exactly to the write speed.

Over time, the reading speed became higher than the reception limit of the transmitting part of the memory cards themselves, that is, the data exchange port itself would not allow to increase the reading speed, and then the UHS standard was developed, in particular UHS-1, which is now actively used, and UHS-2 , which is just waiting in the wings, and is not very relevant at the moment. This standard only says that the transmit-receive part has a higher bandwidth, namely up to 104 MB / s. This does not mean that the memory itself is working at the same pace. In fact, a UHS-1 card may not even have a 10th class, that is, not load even 10% of the transmission channel width allowed for a flash drive when recording. At the same time, the equipment itself may not support UHS, in which case the memory card will work like a regular SD card, without UHS.

It is now common that a UHS-2 card works like a UHS-1 card, since there are practically no UHS-2 devices available. Again, this is one of the markings that does not indicate the actual speed of the card. This time she talks about the port used, for example, how the blue USB port is USB 3.0, in the same way, through it you can connect the oldest printer of the USB standard version 1.1 and wonder how long it takes for pages with pictures to print, although the printer is connected via fast port. A marking that does nothing but knowledge of compatibility.

With the advent of UHS, new performance classes for memory cards have appeared. They are already designated inside a horseshoe like the Latin letter "U", there may be numbers 1 or 3. The unit is exactly the same class 10, that is, the sequential read and write speed must be at least 10 MB / s or 80 MB / s ... Accordingly, it is not difficult to guess: the number 3 means that the speed must be at least 30 MB / s or 240 MB / s. Sometimes the manufacturers themselves indicate the speed of the flash drive on the packages. If only one number is specified, then it is one hundred percent indicated read speed, not write speed, simply because the read speed is usually several times higher than the write speed. Only the most expensive flash drives indicate the write and read speed. Usually these are flash drives for which the U3 class is already too small, and faster markings simply do not exist. To promote their product, manufacturers simply indicate the write speed, this is already for knowledgeable people. Now you, too, by the way, are knowledgeable.

How to understand which flash drive is needed?

The best flash drives are the ones that are right for you, so you need to learn how to choose them. Now the most common cards with UHS-1 class U1, that is, at the same time also class 10. Their read and write speed must be higher than 10 MB / s, the cheapest representatives have a write speed of exactly 10 MB / s and a read speed of about 30 40 MB / s. Expensive flash drives of this class usually have a write speed of about 25 MB / s, and a read speed of about 80-90 MB / s. In other words, despite the abundance of markings, the outwardly identical cards have more than two-fold differences. And here there is already an important aspect: how much speed is needed for a particular job?

• Let's start with the very minimum of needs, with old soap dishes. Any card is enough for them. They generally lack fast burst shooting, RAW recording, and high bitrate video recording.
• Simple new point-and-shoot cameras, DVRs, old cameras that shoot in Full HD and smartphones in which you are not going to put applications on the map. There will be enough flash drives from the 6th grade and above. With a lower class, the camera will limit the recording time of a continuous video, it will be dull when shooting continuously. Phones will be less responsive in some circumstances, such as when creating a preview of a photo gallery and when opening data.
• Modern soap dishes, mirrorless cameras, lower and middle class DSLRs, cameras that shoot Full HD or 2K, as well as smartphones. For this, the most common format of flash drives is just suitable, namely UHS-1 of the first speed class. Such a flash drive will be enough for almost any task, but not every flash drive with the same marking will cope with any task.

We have already mentioned that the performance variation within the U1 is very high. The peak speed for storing data in the first class, if you take at least 10 MB / s or 80 MB / s, but it is for sequential writing, when writing in separate pieces, the speed drops. Since the fragmentation of media is the norm, recording, for example, by a camera, cannot always be considered sequential. Even an honest first-class flash drive, but minimal in speed, in reality, with almost sequential recording, can produce 50-60 Mb / s. The problem here is that 4K video recording bitrate is usually 45-100 Mb / s. A flash drive can still cope with 45 Mb / s, but not in cameras where compression is less effective. At the same time, a flash drive of the same class with a real write speed of 20 MB / s will already cope with recording streaming 4K video. With this risk in mind, 4K camera manufacturers set minimum requirements for UHS Speed ​​Class 3, as not every Class 1 flash drive will work. At the same time, in fact, some of the U1 cards still fit. Here real numbers are already important, not marking. Again, the internet is full of reviews and tests, you can use them for yourself.

Testing drives

We did not make a rating of flash drives in terms of reliability, once it is not necessary at once, especially, as a rule, the brand name speaks for itself, buyers always have more confidence in the recognizable name. The best manufacturers of flash drives are all in sight: Transcend, SanDisk, etc. For our own test, we decided to take something unusual and bought the cheapest Chinese Mixza Tohaoll Micro SD card of the most common class, that is, UHS-1 U1. We wondered if she would give at least honest data for her class. It cost just over 600 rubles. Let's compare it with a flash drive of the same class from Transcend. Below is a screenshot of the tests performed.

To record a video stream, you need sequential recording speed, no fancy. That is what is in the third line of the test. Here you can see that the Transend has a well-deserved U1 standard. Slightly less than 10 MB / s, but here everything is also muddy with decimal bytes, so the pure minimum of the 10th class is exactly what Transcend came out with in this test. At the same time, the read speed is about 90 MB / s, a good indicator, this is important for smartphones, by the way. The flash drive is borderline between whether it will handle 4K recording, or the video will be time-limited after a buffer overflow, then it will be a little blunt and again allow you to shoot video. With some smartphones and cameras it will be enough, with some it will not, for all other tasks this flash drive will be enough.

As for the Chinese flash drive, it also demonstrates good read speed, but the write speed exceeds the requirements for the U1 standard twice. In other words, this is a good flash drive, it will be suitable for any task, including cameras with continuous shooting in RAW and 4K. Additionally, we checked it for a real speed with full filling, at the same time we checked if the Chinese had deceived us with the volume. The write speed turned out to be about 19 MB / s, and the read speed was above 60 MB / s. The indicators are slightly more modest than in synthetic tests, but still twice the requirements of the standard indicated on the packaging, although if you look at the packaging, the speed is indicated there as 80 MB / s, in practice it turned out to be lower. As we said earlier, if one speed is indicated, then this is the reading speed, it is not so critical in any tasks, except for reading in smartphones.

Smartphone carrier

The fact is that both writing and reading are important in a smartphone, since top solutions are able to make videos in 4K, and the download speed in games depends on the reading speed, for example, if the game cache is on a flash drive. If the programs or games themselves are on a USB flash drive, then the speed of random reading of small files is also very important. In our flash drives it is not very high, 4.9 and 4.3. If you have enough phone memory, then it is better to store the programs themselves in it, where the speed is much higher. It is also important for the phone to use cards exclusively of UHS standard, since a good 10th class non-UHS card will lose in reading speed to UHS flash drives, simply because it will be limited by the old slow port on the memory card itself. If there is only music, photos or films on the flash drive, then the difference will not be noticeable. As for UHS-2 flash drives, there is no point in buying them in 2017.

Conclusion

Understanding which flash drive is better is one of the tests that you will have to go through on your own. Good performance indicators on a Chinese flash drive do not yet say anything about its reliability. We do not insist on buying cheap unknown brands at all. Branded flash drives usually have a 3-5 year warranty, and sometimes even a lifetime. Right there, if the Chinese miracle works, it's already not bad, but the device itself, of course, is cheaper. If working with a map is part of your professional activity, then the risks are unjustified.

We hope that now, casting a glance at the packaging, you yourself will be able to understand what awaits you inside, and what the card is capable of.

To answer the question, which flash drives are more reliable and better, it is worth deciding which indicators affect the durability and functionality of the USB-Flash media.

The number of rewriting cycles. This is the main indicator of the expiration date of the flash drive. As a rule, this number ranges from 10 to 100 thousand times. Those. each time you add or remove information from a flash drive, the action is counted as 1 rewriting time, as you can see, 10 thousand is not so much, especially for those who use the device several times a day every day. In addition, not all flash drives fulfill the stated number of rewrites, there are fakes, cheap low-quality media, or manufacturing defects.

Cell type determines the resources of the flash drive by rewriting. The * SLC marking indicates 100 thousand rewriting cycles, and * MLC only about 10 thousand, and the last type of flash drives are mostly prevalent in our stores.

Manufacturer... Well-known brands such as Verbatim, A-data, Transcend, Apacer or Kingston use proven technology and quality components, which directly affects the number of rewrites, i.e. the durability of the flash drive. You can surrender to the tide of the market and just buy one of the tried and tested models like the Transcend JetFlash 790, Sandisk Cruzer Fit, the rugged Transcend JetFlash 500, Kingston DataTraveler G4 or Kingston DataTraveler SE9.

Plastic, rubber or iron- in fact, it only concerns your personal preferences, under normal conditions plastic will recommend itself perfectly - a light and simple material, however, it can overheat and even melt due to poor heat transfer, in addition, some manufacturers make very thin cases that crack easily ...

The presence of a connector for a lanyard or ring to use your USB flash drive as a keychain. A very convenient function, it helps the flash drive not to get lost. In addition, it is worth taking a closer look at the way to protect the connector. Fashionable and small flash drives with a retractable USB connector are still not as safe as the usual models with a lid. In an unprotected connector, dirt or metal elements can cram, which will damage the flash memory port mechanically.

Flash drive volume- according to data for 2016, it is worth paying attention to drives from 32 GB. Flash drives are still sold in the size of 2-4 GB, but the volume does not greatly affect the price, but a gadget that fits only 1 medium-quality movie is, you see, irrelevant.

The physical size of the flash drive. Common sense and scope should be used here. For example, a flash drive that is too bulky or with non-standard bells and whistles in design may not fit the media system in the car. Flashes in tiny cases are also popular, which are lost once or twice, and if the device's connector is slightly recessed, then you simply won't be able to use it - insert it to the required depth. And pulling out the micro-flash drive will not be an easy task.

Gift USB sticks- USB drives with a decorative body made of various materials can be in the form of bracelets, figurines, equipment, in principle, anything: from gold-plated car key rings to cameras. Such devices do not particularly differ from ordinary flash drives in terms of performance, but for a gift - just right, of course, they require a more careful attitude, otherwise the case will quickly become unusable.

Flash drive speed defines the USB standard: USB 2.0 or 3.0. USB 3.0 - reads 2-3 times faster, and writes 1.5 times faster than its predecessor, since 2014 all computers are equipped with USB 3.0. In addition, the speed depends on the microcircuits used in the device and on the receiving side - the health and relevance of the hardware.

Connector format... There are USB and microUSB flash drives. The latter are a USB flash drive for mobile devices. Their connector is just the size of the connector through which you connect your smartphone or tablet to a computer or charger. Often these flash drives are equipped with a regular-sized USB output. Example below - Transcend JetDrive Go 300 Lightning / USB 3.1 128GB

Basic rules for safe work with a USB drive, which extend the life of a USB flash drive:

• Avoid mechanical damage, exposure to water, drops, which can lead to broken contacts or damage to the memory chip. If you are not sure of your accuracy, purchase flash drives in a reinforced case.
• Correctly remove the USB flash drive - do not pull out the USB flash drive without performing the "safe USB removal" function, do not turn off the PC before removing the USB flash drive. As a result of improper extraction, the file system may be damaged and the PC will require formatting the USB device, contacting a service center will solve the problem.
• Do not overheat plastic flash drives and do not insert the device into an overheated PC.
• If viruses are found, save the data on another medium, and format the flash drive - this will help to avoid malfunctions and "invisibility" of the flash drive.
• Experts recommend changing the flash memory every 2-3 years - this is the lifespan of a flash drive that is used intensively, otherwise valuable data may not be available at some point.

Some interesting facts about USB sticks:

The most capacious flash drive
Kingston 1TB USB Flash Drive - Announced at CES 2013 as DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0, operates in USB 3.0 mode and is also backward compatible with USB 2.0. Reads at 240 MB / s, writes at 160 MB / s. In 2013, there was only a 512GB flash drive from Kingston on sale, priced at around $ 1,075. In 2016, you can find 1TB already starting at $ 640.

The most durable flash drive
According to public statements, this is exactly the LaCie XtremKey USB 3.0. In 2016, such a 32 GB flash drive will cost only $ 51.

Fastest flash drive
Intel's Thunderbolt Flash Drive - prototype was unveiled at Computex 2013. This 128GB flash drive is capable of transferring data at 10Gbps, twice the capacity of USB 3.0. According to Russian scientists in the summer of 2016, they have already broken this record by creating an innovative flash drive made of multigraphene, which will be faster and more reliable than all the existing ones.

The thinnest flash drive
USB Flash Ultra Slim is about the thickness and size of a credit card, and, as you can see, is styled to look like it. It is sold in a few online stores, costs about $ 40 and is famous for its fragility. But it's cool)

The smallest flash drive

The Eagle Tec Flash Drive can be mistaken for a USB port plug. Capacities from 8 to 32 GB and price from $ 20, the only negative is that it is very easy to lose. Dimensions: 1.9 x 1.5 x 0.6mm.

Most expensive flash drive
Magic Mushroom USB - only 32 GB, a kind of mushroom made of gold inlaid with precious stones, at a price of only 16 thousand USD. USA.

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Every person who interacts with a computer in one way or another knows what a flash drive is. And the younger generation no longer knows how to live without her. After all, most people no longer remember about laser drives, and only vague legends go about floppy disks. Those who have gone through all the stages of the development of portable media can compare and admit that it is much more convenient to work with flash drives. Flash memory is not as simple as it looks. When deciding how to choose the right USB flash drive for a computer, in the last place you need to pay attention to its appearance, and more to its technical parameters.

What is a USB flash drive?

The flash drive is intended for storing and transferring information; it is connected to USB ports. A flash drive does not require batteries for its operation, it is enough to connect it to any free USB-port of the computer and you can start working right there.

Memory

Just a few years ago, 256MB flash drives were new and expensive. Nowadays, drives of this size are no longer produced as morally obsolete, but for the same money, flash drives with a volume of 16 or even 32 GB are sold.

The choice of a flash drive should primarily depend on the predicted amount of information recorded on it. Of course, the more memory a device has, the more expensive it is. Therefore, it is hardly worth wasting money buying a capacious flash drive, most of the memory of which will never be in demand. Below are examples of what different memory sizes might be suitable for:

• A 2 GB flash drive is enough for storing text files or a small amount of graphics.
• A 16 GB flash drive is usually enough to work with music tracks, photos and some films. It is also enough to install Windows.
• Media with volumes of 16-64 GB is required for storing and transferring movies, distributions of games and especially large documents.

USB standard

A couple of years ago, the most popular were USB 2.0 flash drives. They serve now, but they are gradually receding into the past. They were replaced by the new USB 3.0 standard. Its main advantage is a higher speed of reception and transmission, which is 2-3 times or more higher than the speed of the previous generation flash drives. True, they have become even more expensive.

If a flash drive is required for a TV or radio, then there is not much difference between the old and new standards. But if a flash drive is needed to work on a computer, then it is better to stop at buying the third version, albeit with certain reservations. In order for a USB 3.0 flash drive to be able to demonstrate all its capabilities, a computer port must also be of the same standard. Otherwise, it will impose its own restrictions on the performance of the flash drive and make it indistinguishable from the carriers of the previous standard.

To understand which USB ports are installed in computers, you do not need to dig into the documentation, you just need to look at the port color:

• USB 2.0 port - white;
• USB 3.0 port - blue.

Read / write speed

When deciding how to choose a USB flash drive for a computer, this indicator becomes the most important if films are recorded on it and watched from it. You can simply connect it to a media player and watch a movie through it. If the bit rate is not high enough, the movie recorded in high definition will slow down. The speed indicator is no less important when transferring massive files. Speed ​​is just as important when writing data. Many are annoyed by the low write speed. This parameter can fluctuate between 1-175 Mb / s. Of course, the higher it is, the faster the recording takes place.

Reliability of information storage

When compared, even with a hard drive, a flash drive is more reliable, because there are no mechanical moving elements in it. Even if you drop it on the floor, you can not be afraid for the safety of the data on it. But flash memory has its own limitation - the number of write and erase cycles that it can withstand. On average, a flash drive can withstand up to 100 thousand such cycles. If you write to it several times every day, then the device will work for 10-15 years, that is, in fact, it is eternal for the owner.

Special mention should be made of flash drives in waterproof rubber cases. They are convenient in that they can be thrown into puddles, almost stirring tea with them, however, over time, the body of the flash drive loses its tightness. Those who like to dive with such devices should take into account the depth allowed for them.

Video on how to choose a USB flash drive for a computer

Manufacturers

You can buy a USB flash drive at any computer or online store. For consumers, flash drives of the following manufacturers are considered to be of high quality:

• Sony;
• Kingston;
• Transcend;
• Mirex;
• Apacer;
• A-data;
• Kingmax and others.

Frame

The strength of the drive case should be especially noted when choosing. Energetic people should purchase a drive in a rubber or metal case, which is better protected from moisture and shock. For neat people who are careful about any object, a plastic case is enough.

Design

Nowadays, flash drives began to be made of various sizes and shapes: from ordinary elongated ones to miniature and glamorous ones - especially for girls. They are given the appearance of key rings, jewelry, imitate the appearance of a sharpener, a bullet, a gold bar, toys, etc. Each customer from the presented assortment can choose the design they like best without much difficulty.

Design features

The flash drive connector is its most vulnerable spot. To protect it, many manufacturers make it retractable, but the more traditional solution is to provide it with a cap.

A flash drive is always a compact device that is incomparable either with floppy disks or laser disks, so it makes no sense to talk about finding a particularly small copy that would fit in a clutch, any one will do. In addition, it is worth noting that too small models are the most fragile, so the choice of such leads to a loss of reliability or functionality. It is unlikely that beauty is so important here.

By what parameters do you choose a USB flash drive? Tell us about it in

I am still interested in the question of whether there have already appeared flash drives that are not inferior in speed to external hard drives. I had the opportunity to take two high-speed Sandisk flash drives with a return and test them.

For the Extreme Go flash drive, the manufacturer claims a write speed of up to 150 MB / s and a read speed of up to 200 MB / s. The packaging of the Extreme Pro flash drive lists write speeds up to 380 MB / s and read speeds up to 420 MB / s.

Both flash drives have rather large cases. Their length without a USB connector is 7 centimeters.

For both flash drives, the connectors slide into the case.

I tested the flash drives on two computers - one with an ASUS B85M-G motherboard and a Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition processor running on Windows 7 and a computer with a Core i3-4005U processor running on Windows 10.

Both computers are equipped with USB 3.0 interfaces, but the tests showed different results.

According to the results of testing the Extreme Pro flash drive using CrystalDiskMark 3.0.4 x64, the maximum write speed was 315-340 MB / s, and the maximum read speed was 323-354 MB / s.
On the left here and below are the results on my computer, on the right - on the Acer Revo One.

The results of the usbflashspeed.com test for the same flash drive: write - 297-325 MB / s, read - 301-345 MB / s.

For unknown reasons, the write speed on different computers of the Extreme Go flash drive differed threefold: 42 MB / s on my computer and 126 MB / s on the Acer Revo One. The difference in read speed is not so significant - 152 MB / s and 185 MB / s.

A similar difference with the usbflashspeed.com test: writing - 39/143 MB / s, reading - 143/179 MB / s.

For comparison, I took another regular USB 3.0 flash drive - SanDisk Ultra Fit 64GB (I'm this type of flash drive). Write - 27/39 MB / s, read - 123/152 MB / s.

To test the flash drives not only with the help of test programs, but also in "real life", I measured the time of writing to and reading from one large file (MP4 video 2.1 GB) and a folder with photos (1895 files, 3.7 GB).

In addition to three flash drives, the same operations were performed on an external hard drive Seagate Backup Plus Portable 2 TB USB 3.0.

The manufacturer compares the speed of the Extreme Pro flash drive with an SSD, so I measured the speed of the same operations on the disk.

Files to the tested flash drive or disk were copied from the SSD drive (when the SSD drive itself was tested, files were copied from the fastest Extreme Pro flash drive). Files from the tested flash drive or disk were copied to nul, that is, the read speed was measured in its pure form. Test results on my computer:

As you can see from the results, the Extreme Pro flash drive outperformed the external hard drive in speed and was only slightly slower than the SSD. The Extreme Go flash drive outperforms the external hard drive only in read speed.

The situation with the write speed of the Extreme Go flash drive was repeated on different computers. On my computer, the write speed of one large file is almost three times lower. Test results on Acer Revo One (the same SSD was moved from my computer to the Revo case):

So the moment has come. Flash drives that work faster than external hard drives have appeared on the market. But these flash drives are quite expensive - the tested Sandisk Extreme Pro USB 3.1 costs from 9,230 rubles, the same for 128 GB - from 5,340 rubles.

Sandisk Extreme Go USB 3.1 flash drives are significantly cheaper - the tested 64-gigabyte one costs from 2,590 rubles, the 128 GB model - from 4,270 rubles, but in terms of write speed they are slower than an external hard drive and for some reason the write speed on different computers is very different.

2017, Alexey Nadyozhin

The main topic of my blog is technology in human life. I write reviews, share experiences, talk about all sorts of interesting things. And I also make reports from interesting places and talk about interesting events.
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My second project is lamptest.ru. I test LED bulbs and help me figure out which ones are good and which are not so good.

Hello dear readers!
From this article, we will learn what usb drives are, how to choose them, and give the TOP 10 popular manufacturers.

Do you remember the times when the shelves of a PC owner were full of floppy disks, CDs? Today, Flash drives are used to store information and convenience.

Flash memory is a very convenient tool with large memory capacity and high data transfer rate. Today there is a huge assortment of drives. That is why when buying such a gadget, you need to understand the device with what characteristics you need.
We know perfectly well what a usb drive looks like, but what is a flash drive? A flash drive is a removable storage medium with a specific type of file system that has no moving elements in its structure.

Criteria for choosing a usb drive

Which device is better (why)? When choosing a flash drive, you should pay attention to its type, data transfer speed and, of course, the amount of memory.

Types of storage devices

There are only three types of usb drives: 2.0, 3.0 and 3.1. But the types of flash drives are divided according to their appearance:

- With removable cap. The most popular plate protection option.

The caps are made from different materials to prevent debris and moisture from entering.

- Swivel. Such a drive consists of a bracket and a device body, and they rotate sideways in relation to each other. In this case, the plate is protected from scratches, but is susceptible to debris and moisture.

- Sliders. In such a device, the connector is hidden inside the case. Protection from mechanical damage is good, but not from moisture and debris.

Devices with a combined protection system are considered the best. For example, a metal case with a rubberized base. These are the most reliable flash drives, but, of course, they are more expensive.

It should also be borne in mind that the fewer moving parts a flash drive has, the longer it will last, because after a month or two of using it, nothing will break.

Baud rate

One of the main criteria when choosing a device is data transfer speed. This criterion includes the speed of writing to the flash device and the speed of reading the flash drive. The speed of interaction between the drive and the computer depends on them. The USB drive can be rewritten many times, so the maximum baud rate will be appropriate.

This parameter is expressed in megabits per second (Mb / s) and is always indicated on the package. High-speed drives are more expensive.

Memory

How to choose a usb flash drive from memory.

The volume of the device is the most important characteristic that is important for a person who buys a USB flash drive. This characteristic is expressed in gigabytes. Today usb drives are designed for 32/64/128 / higher GB, and if there is a need, you can also purchase 2/4/8 Gb. That is, today the maximum amount of flash-storage is 2048 GB.

Do not forget that a USB flash drive is a compact device for storing information.

By the amount of memory, the following types of drives can be distinguished:

- cheap, but with a small volume - 2-8 GB;

- affordable price and optimal volume - 16-64 GB;

- high cost, but large volume - 128 GB or more.

USB storage performance

Also, one important criterion when choosing a device is its performance, which depends on the following factors:

Microcircuits used in flash memory. The most common trade-off is between high-speed and expensive ICs that have single-layer cells, and cheap flash ICs that have few layers with conventional-speed multi-level (MLC) / tri-level (TLC) cells.

Flash memory device controller. The flash memory controller is a special microcircuit that controls the interface and controls all actions with the drive. If the controller allows for fast data transfer, it saves time.

The host device to which the device connects. A constrained host device will not provide high drive performance. For example, if your computer supports 2.0 speed, your usb 3.0 flash drive will not run at the speed you want.

Rating of usb drive manufacturers

You already know that today a huge number of companies are engaged in the production of usb drives. Everyone who wants to purchase such a device asks the question - which flash drive is best suited for a computer. Yes, it is for a computer, because there are special drives (SD) for cameras and phones. Of course, they are also connected to the computer, but only through special adapters (card readers).

Well, let's see the TOP 10 companies whose flash drives are preferred by users:

1. Transcend. This is a well-known company that started its work back in 1988. The flash drives of this company are known for their individual style and active service life.

2. Silicon Power. Devices of this form are sold in more than 90 countries around the world.

3. Kingston. This firm is a longtime USB stick manufacturer. It was created back in 1987 and today is not inferior to other manufacturers.

4. Team Group. Regarding this company, it is worth noting that its range is growing every year.

5. SanDisk. Another fairly old company on the market. Devices with a simple design and a reasonable price.

6. Apacer. The company manufactures flash drives, which are famous for the quality of data storage.

7. Pretec. And the drives of this company are used for military and industrial purposes. This is probably the very indicator of quality and reliability that many users are looking for.

8. Adata is a company with the motto: “Trust and reliability”. And I would like to note that since its foundation in 2011, the company has been justifying it.

9. PQI. And this company started its work with the production of usb drives.

10. Corsair. This company produces exclusive goods, such as a flash drive with a natural rubber casing, whose companies are long-playing flash drives.

Most Reliable Flash Drives

Of course, buying devices for storing information, especially large volumes, is better from official stores, because today a huge number of fakes are produced in China. Let's take a look at the five most reliable usb drives:

1. ... A device with a simple design. This model is suitable for users who need high performance at a low price.

This device is distinguished by the structure of cells, due to which the data processing is at a high level.

This model is simple and practical and has a sliding plastic body.

A flash drive that is great for work or study, because it is small and handy.

This model has a convenient mounting system.

Do not forget that there are marriages in production, which is why the rating changes.

So, when you finally decided to buy yourself a usb drive, first decide what it is intended for, in order to decide on the device that suits you. If you need a flash drive in order to copy working files, then a device with 8 GB of memory will do.
When buying, consult with a consultant, because, as a rule, people only look at the amount of memory. You can buy a device with a storage capacity of 128 GB, but the speed will be low and the movie will take a very long time to copy.

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