Computers & Electronics

Especially fast read speed USB thumb drives?

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  • Jul 10th, 2021 7:55 am
[OP]
Deal Addict
Dec 24, 2008
4071 posts
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Belle River

Especially fast read speed USB thumb drives?

Mainly for faster OS installs which I do often, so size can be 16GB, though I imagine a fast drive in that size may not be common these days, so something larger that wastes space is probably what I'll end up with.

I remembered these from RFD deals awhile back.
32GB 200MB/s read is $13, or 128GB 400MB/s $35
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07BPKKYHY?th=1

Anyone have a better suggestion?

I recently tried an old SSD + USB adapter which worked, though I'm not sure it would always work with every device and OS, a real thumb drive seems to be the most compatible. Another idea I thought of was small NVME + USB adapter but same issue, also expensive. Another point in favour of fast thumb drives, the lower price lets me get a few and leave the most commonly used OS installations on them all the time.
4 replies
Sr. Member
Dec 6, 2020
937 posts
1043 upvotes
If you are flexible on form factor, a Samsung external SSD is a good choice here. Much faster than any thumb drive.
[OP]
Deal Addict
Dec 24, 2008
4071 posts
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Belle River
middleofnowhere wrote: If you are flexible on form factor, a Samsung external SSD is a good choice here. Much faster than any thumb drive.
For the price and other reasons I mentioned I don't think I'd wanna go with those, but yes I have read they are very fast.
Sr. Member
Dec 6, 2020
937 posts
1043 upvotes
I haven't been able to find any credible benchmarks for USB thumb drives so I don't know what to recommend as an alternative to an external SSD.

I think you will probably get the best performance from a high-end MicroSDXC card (such as a SanDisk Extreme Pro, which is capable of 200MB/s sustained sequential reads, and 15MB/s 4K random reads) in a small USB3.1 reader. This setup can be used as a traditional thumb drive but will be much faster than almost any thumb drive on the market.
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Jun 16, 2009
6640 posts
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GTA
hystavito wrote: I recently tried an old SSD + USB adapter which worked, though I'm not sure it would always work with every device and OS, a real thumb drive seems to be the most compatible.
If you have the SSD and USB adapter already, then I'd suggest use that and format it to FAT32. USB storage compatibility is not device dependent, so a thumb drive won't work better just because it's a thumb drive. If your adapter isn't a proper enclosure, just get a really cheap HDD enclosure off Amazon and you're set.
c'mon get happy!

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