All Flash Drives Are Not Created Equal

Flash drives are handy devices that many of us use on a daily basis, but how often do we think about how they work?

Introduction

A poorly performing flash drive can make daily tasks frustrating to say the least. Slow transfer times are one symptom of using a poor quality flash drive. There are many factors that determine the performance of a flash drive, including transfer rates. Before I discovered high performance flash drives, I simply resigned myself to the fact that if I needed to copy large files between computers, I was going to have to take a lunch break and wait for the transfer to complete. Fortunately, that is no longer the case! High performance flash drives are readily available if you know what to look for and have decreased in price significantly in the last few years. Let’s discuss what makes some flash drives better than others.

Let’s Get Technical

Flash drives contain two main components, the memory chips and the controller. The memory chips are what actually store the ones and zeros that make up your data. The controller communicates with your computer and reads and writes data to the memory chips in the flash drive. In order to build a high performance flash drive, all of the components involved need to be high performance. Many manufacturers of cheap flash drives use decent enough controllers, but cut costs by using cheap low performance memory chips. Choosing a reputable high performance brand, like Patriot Memory for example, can dramatically improve the speed of file transfers. It is also important to make sure your flash drive (and computer) is compatible with USB 3.0 or newer. USB 2.0 drives are limited to the low throughput of USB 2.0 no matter how high quality the internal parts are.

Conclusion

If you’re transferring large amounts of data between your computer and flash drives, make sure to use high performance drives. Once you switch to a high performance drive, you’ll never want to use a cheap drive again! We highly recommend Patriot Memory products. They are very reliable and high quality. Some recommended models are listed below. Please get leave a comment below or contact us if you have any questions.

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