2.0 or 3.0 USB Flash Stick ?

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Billb2

Billb2

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2005
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USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 refer to data transfer rates, not the size of the thumb drive. You can get any size drive in either 2.0 and 3.0 speeds.

Note that if your device (ie. motherboard, camera, whatever) does not support the faster USB 3.0 speed then buying a 3.0 drive is a waste of money as it will only perform at USB 2.0 speed.
 
razel

razel

Platinum Member
May 14, 2002
2,337
93
101
USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 will work on any USB port as long as it fits. If you are buying a new drive, you'll want USB 3.0. I think it's pretty much the default anyways unless you're buying one at a gas station. The 2's still available are going to be either old stock or contain the lowest of the low flash chips (NAND).
 
Elixer

Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
10,371
762
126
Yeah, as Billb2 says, USB 2 or 3 or 3.1 relate to the interface speed.
The bigger thing is, what NAND they use, and that is really hard to find out.
I tend to go with companies that have a good warranty, and not purchase the junk you see for $5 for 32GB or whatever.
 
I

Insert_Nickname

Diamond Member
May 6, 2012
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Elixer said:
The bigger thing is, what NAND they use, and that is really hard to find out.
Click to expand...

Yeah. You pretty much have to have the drive in hand to find out...

...but I'd think this is on purpose. Different batches might use slightly different NAND. Most likely what was cheapest that week... :(
 
sdifox

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
99,373
17,551
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Usb3.0 flashdrives are faster even when used with 2.0 ports. It's really your call on what is more important, speed or size.

Kicker is you only need the speed when you are copying lots of data :)
 
M

Mike64

Platinum Member
Apr 22, 2011
2,108
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sdifox said:
Usb3.0 flashdrives are faster even when used with 2.0 ports.
Click to expand...
On what basis is that even theoretically correct? And in any event, it's certainly not true in practice, according to many published benchmarks I've seen.

The only way to really know how fast any USB drive (or really, any other device involving data transfer) is find published benchmarks for the specific (or very similar) usage, in specific circumstances. And not just sequential versus random copying and the number/size of files involved, but the chipsets and drivers involved on the hardware side, too. At least for now, since while USB 3.0 is more or less the de facto norm on newer devices, it's not as "mature" and "uniform" a technology in practice as USB 2.0 has been for a very long time by now.

And of course any benchmark published by a manufacturer or seller should be taken with a large grain of salt and presumed to be biased in the absence of strong evidence to the contrary.
 
Last edited:
sdifox

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
99,373
17,551
126
Mike64 said:
On what basis is that even theoretically correct? And in any event, it's certainly not true in practice, according to many published benchmarks I've seen.

The only way to really know how fast any USB drive (or really, any other device involving data transfer) is find published benchmarks for the specific (or very similar) usage, in specific circumstances. And not just sequential versus random copying and the number/size of files involved, but the chipsets and drivers involved on the hardware side, too. At least for now, since while USB 3.0 is more or less the de facto norm on newer devices, it's not as "mature" and "uniform" a technology in practice as USB 2.0 has been for a very long time by now.

And of course any benchmark published by a manufacturer or seller should be taken with a large grain of salt and presumed to be biased in the absence of strong evidence to the contrary.
Click to expand...

https://www.anandtech.com/show/4523/usb-30-flash-drive-roundup/6

you know, the actual website :biggrin:
 
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13Gigatons

13Gigatons

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2005
7,461
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I bought a PNY 3.0 flash drive and hate it. It stutters and stops when writing files to it. The older 2.0 drive writes at 40MB/s steady. I switched to a sandisk 3.0 flash drive and it is more consistent at 80MB/s so be picky about what brand you get. Don't just rely on the 3.0 spec.

Also they are only worth buying when they are on sale.
 
bigboxes

bigboxes

Lifer
Apr 6, 2002
41,840
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13Gigatons said:
I bought a PNY 3.0 flash drive and hate it. It stutters and stops when writing files to it. The older 2.0 drive writes at 40MB/s steady. I switched to a sandisk 3.0 flash drive and it is more consistent at 80MB/s so be picky about what brand you get. Don't just rely on the 3.0 spec.

Also they are only worth buying when they are on sale.
Click to expand...

I had the opposite experience. I had paid a lot for my fancy 2.0 drives and they would always hang up. I thought the problem was with my computer. Got me a SanDisk low profile 3.0 drive and the performance is beautiful.
 
13Gigatons

13Gigatons

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2005
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bigboxes said:
I had the opposite experience. I had paid a lot for my fancy 2.0 drives and they would always hang up. I thought the problem was with my computer. Got me a SanDisk low profile 3.0 drive and the performance is beautiful.
Click to expand...

I meant the PNY was really bad at writing. The read speeds are good though. The SanDisk 3.0 models I have are all very good all around.
 
cbn

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
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