This is a great USB 3.0 drive for the money. Coming in at $1/GB, this drive has a good value for the capacity, and it has good performance to boot. There is no question that external storage benefits the most from the new USB 3.0 standard. This lets flash storage really stretch its legs when it comes to sequential read/write performance. However, do not expect USB drives to perform in the same manner as hard drives. Flash drives, especially more value-oriented ones like this Adata drive, tend to have great read performance and pretty dismal write performance. This is primarily because the flash controller on the device itself is nowhere near as advanced or fast as the controllers present on Solid State Drives. I benchmarked this drive using the free Crystal Disk Mark utility, and here are the results:
Sequential Read: 90.449 MB/s
Sequential Write: 25.029 MB/s
Random Read 512 KB: 85.194 MB/s
Random Write 512 KB: 1.853 MB/s
Random Read 4KB QD1: 8.033 MB/s
Random Write 4KB QD1: 0.075 MB/s
Random Read 4KB QD32: 6.699 MB/s
Random Write 4KB QD32: 0.037 MB/s
As you can see, read throughput is excellent across the board, beating 5400 rpm drives handily and beating 7200 rpm drives in all read scores except sequential. But the write speed in all categories is pretty sad everywhere except sequential write. This is an inherent disadvantage of cheap flash storage, and is in no way unique to this drive. This is all to say that you shouldn't expect a USB drive to perform like an SSD just because they are both flash-based.
For those who are not as tech savvy, here's a breakdown: This is great for moving and accessing large files like videos, pictures, and .zip files. It is great for accessing (reading) all files. It is slow when transferring small files, like lots of documents, for example. The good news is, you typically transfer small amounts of these files, so you will likely not notice too slow of performance.
In conclusion, this is a drive that performs on par or better than comparably priced USB drives. It has a nice metal framed body with a cap that sticks on the back of the drive so you don't have to risk losing it when you plug it in. If you want a high-performance drive, you may want to try something like the SanDisk Extreme series. However, bear in mind that the same limitations apply, you will just see better performance there. However, when considering that performance USB drives cost about 50-60% more per GB, this is a great deal for a drive that still enjoys high throughput thanks to USB 3.0
P.S., USB 3.0 drives are great for running Live copies of Linux variations. I've run and installed about 3 distros from this drive. Just in case you needed some usage ideas!
| Read Speed | 100 Megabytes Per Second |
|---|---|
| Connectivity Technology | USB |
| Color | Blue |
| Flash Memory Type | USB |
| Item model number | AS102P-32G-RBL |
| Item Weight | 0 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 4 x 4.5 x 0.38 inches |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 4 x 4.5 x 0.38 inches |
| Number of Processors | 1 |
| Computer Memory Type | DDR3 SDRAM |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. |
| Manufacturer | ADATA |
| ASIN | B008FQV42Y |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | August 7, 2012 |
