The website Hardware.info has tested 42 USB3.0 sticks with capacities of 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. The sticks were tested on a system with a Haswell Core i3 and an Intel Z97 mainboard running Windows 8.1. The latter is important as Windows 8.1 uses the USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) protocol by default. The UASP protocol uses SCSI commands over USB resulting in faster data transfers. Windows 7 by default doesn't come with UASP drivers although some mainboard manufacturers have released UASP drivers for their hardware.
The USB sticks were tested for real world performance by testing how long it takes to read and write 1000 files of 5MB and how long it takes to read and write a 10GB file. To avoid the source drive to be a bottleneck, the files were copied from a OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD. The tests were performed with Crystal DiskMark 3.03.
The tests make clear that cheaper sticks are usually also slower. In this test the cheaper sticks are sold for around 40-45 cents per GB, while more expensive sticks are about $1 per GB.
When reading the 10GB file, the Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 128GB was clearly the winner with 345.7 MB/s. Second was the Sharkoon Flexi-Drive Ultimate 64GB that achieved 262.4MB/s and third the Patriot SuperSonic Magnum 64GB that read the 10GB file with 252.8MB/s. The slowest drives were the Kingston DataTraveler G4 64GB and Kingston DataTraveler 101 32GB which achieved 38.1MB/s, almost 10 times slower than the winning drive.
When writing the 10GB file, the Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB won with a write speed of 180.3MB/s, second was the Sandisk Cruzer Extreme 64GB with 159.4MB/s and third is the Patriot SuperSonic Magnum 64GB with 144.6MB/s.
Reading and writing 1000x 5MB files showed similar results. When reading files The Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 128 was the fasted, followed by the Sharkoon Flex-Drive Ultimate 64GB and the Patriot Supersonic Magnum 64GB with speeds of 259.1MB/s, 216.8MB/s and 197.7MB/s respectively. The PNY Wave Attache 64GB was the slowest with 12.7MB/s, almost 20 times slower than the winning drive.
When writing the 1000 files of 5MB the Sandisk Cruzer Extreme 64GB was the fastest at 141.8MB/s, the Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB is second at 127.5MB/s and the third place is for the Sharkoon Flexi-Drive Ultimate 64GB at 95.6MB/s. Again the Kingston DataTraveler G4 64GB was amongst the slowest drives.
When it comes to speed the Flexi-Drive Ultimate 64GB from the German/Taiwanese company Sharkoon is on top, together with the Sandisk Cruzer Extreme 64GB which both achieved a score of 100 points. The Patriot Supersonic Magnum 64GB scores 96 points. The Kingston DataTraveler Hyper X 3.0 64GB, Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB and Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 128GB complete the top six with 93, 92 and 91 respectively.
When also price is taken in account, the Sandisk Cruzer Extreme 32GB and 64GB and the Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB are the best buys and win the Hardware Info Gold Award. The Kingston HyperX Fury 32 and 64GB sticks win a Bronze award for their great value for money.
