Emtec vs Lexar USB2 Flash sticks

Yesterday I purchased a set of three Emtec 16GB USB2 Flash sticks from BigW, here in Australia, for AU$20, just under AU$7 each:
https://www.bigw.com.au/product/emtec-c410-16gb-usb-2-0-flash-drive-3-pack/p/WCC100000000403419/


I installed the latest version of Quirky Linux to one of the sticks, and booted up on my desktop PC (i5 CPU, 16GB RAM, in other words a reasonably snappy performer).
Right off, I observed that Quirky was incredibly slow. Unbelievably slow, absolutely awful.

These days, I tend to buy USB3 sticks, as they run fast even when plugged into a USB2 socket. However, there are some shonky USB3 sticks at the bargain-basement level. But leave that one for now.

A little while ago, I bought a Lexar 8GB USB2 stick from BigW, for AU$9.50. Though, I notice the Australian distributor for Lexar is now only importing from 16GB and up.
https://www.bigw.com.au/product/lexar-8gb-usb-flash-drive/p/WCC100000000027369/


So, I decided to do some quantitative comparison, just a simple write test. Here is how:

Emtec

# sync

# echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dummyfile bs=1M count=1024 conv=fdatasync oflag=direct

1024+0 records in

1024+0 records out

1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 654.566 s, 1.6 MB/s

<

Lexar

# sync

# echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/sde2/dummyfile bs=1M count=1024 conv=fdatasync oflag=direct

1024+0 records in

1024+0 records out

1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 203.636 s, 5.3 MB/s

<

Horrifying, yes indeed! 1.6MB/s versus 5.3MB/s
I will use those Emtec sticks for archival purposes, as I keep old releases of Quirky and other distros. For actual usage, no!

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Comments

Just as an interesting comparison, this stick was a surprise.

I bought a 16GB USB3 stick a few months ago from Kmart, for only AU$7, sale price. I thought it must be cr*p, however, when I used it, I immediately observed that it was remarkably fast.

Furthermore, I found that it was just as fast in a USB2 socket, as the speeds are well below the limit of USB2.

I don't have the packaging anymore, and the stick has nothing at all written on it, but identifies itself as "InnostorInnostor".

Running the above test:

# sync

# echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/sde2/dummyfile bs=1M count=1024 conv=fdatasync oflag=direct

1024+0 records in

1024+0 records out

1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 49.0512 s, 21.9 MB/s

<

Note, the drive is black on one side, white on the other, with a blue lever to extend the usb plug.


http://www.innostor.com/index.php?pageName=Product_IS902

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=962175#962175

Sandisk Extreme
# sync
# echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/sdd1/dummyfile bs=1M count=1024 conv=fdatasync oflag=direct
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 9.26528 s, 116 MB/s

So, it is 72 times faster than my slowest flash stick!

http://bkhome.org/news/201609/sandisk-extreme-64gb-flash-stick.html

http://bkhome.org/news/201707/innostor-fast-and-cheap-usb3-flash-sticks.html
https://www.bigw.com.au/product/emtec-c410-16gb-usb-2-0-flash-drive-3-pack/p/WCC100000000403419/

I received an acknowledgement email that it was received and would be moderated. After that, nothing.

Well, I think that those Emtec sticks are their biggest seller.

Tags: linux