Info Pendrives have come on a bit!

[WelshBloke]

I remember when my desktop main drive was slower than this!

 

[Tech Junky]

You can do better

I also have a SanDisk Extreme Pro that does 400MB/s + on USB-A. It really depends on the use case though. 1GB/s on a "flash drive" isn't very likely though things are a changing lately as they move to different controllers more geared towards NVME speeds.

The screenshot above though is from testing TB4 which of course blows away USB3.2. I haven't tested 3.2 2x2 though at 20gbps but, a couple of the cables I have laying around do that rate and IIRC with TB4 showed those speeds.



Anything is possible if you put your mind to it though. Mixing and matching tech to get where you want to be is part of the fun. I can't wait for the next iteration of options coming soon. Being able to push 80gbps over a cable to a portable drive would get us to the point of Gen4 top end speeds. Seeing OEM's putting better controllers into pocket devices helps push things along too. The problem then becomes what you're connecting them to and how fast their storage is. My eye is on phones improving to UFS 4 and beyond as it stands right now copies are limited to paltry numbers when syncing or moving data off them or to them.



Just because they say they can do those speeds though doesn't mean in reality they do. I get faster transfers over WIFI from the phone than by connecting a cable to it. It's funny but disappointing at the same time.

 

[WelshBloke]

View attachment 72256

You can do better

TBF thats an SSD and mines a flash stick. That said storage is probably the bit of tech thats moving the quickest for the consumer.
I quite fancy an NVMe SSD in a portable form.

Not that I need one, but thats not the point!

EDIT: What I actually need is something like a 32GB stick with those read speeds to make a recovery drive. >256GB is great but I always have more of a need for a fast small drive.

 

[Tech Junky]

I guess I should note as well the use of the drives makes a difference in which ones you carry with you and which ones you use for something else. While I might carry the SD Extreme Pro because it's USBA for compatibility reasons. I use my cheap $9 San Disk the size of my pinky for imaging my systems even though it's slower @ 100MB/s. It's size and cost factor into the un/plugging stresses of constant use vs needing to move things at higher speeds. Considering the SDXP is only 256GB it's not much capacity for bulk copies but, it's enough to move things around at a decent speed. The imaging USB is only 32GB which is enough to hold several images on it for ventoy to boot from.

While I might use the NVME either USB or TB4 for more flexibility and speed.

TBF thats an SSD and mines a flash stick.

The screenshot above though is from testing TB4 which of course blows away USB3.2. I haven't tested 3.2 2x2 though at 20gbps but, a couple of the cables I have laying around do that rate and IIRC with TB4 showed those speeds.

I quite fancy an NVMe SSD in a portable form.

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That's what I'm using after testing different options before landing on the one with the most speed at the best price. I piked up a returned TB4 card on Amazon for the "server" for $60 and the server also has a USB2.2 2x2 header which is how I got the speeds from the ~2GB/s snapshot.

Ports / protocols are funny as TB4 is in the wild and 20gbps USB is just starting to show more releases it seems a bit late to the party and likely not to catch on at this point. I'm sure there's still a market for them though. As you can get a 20gbps enclosure for ~1/3 of a TB4.