The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    USB Pen Drive, What Brand?

    Discussion in 'Accessories' started by NotVeryTechie, May 10, 2008.

  1. NotVeryTechie

    NotVeryTechie Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    33
    Messages:
    79
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Hi there

    I have been looking through Amazon at the various pen drives and I was wondering which brand is the best to get. I don't use the drives Too much and am very careful with them. I'm looking for 8 or 16 Gb that won't cost too much, but just don't know which of the brands are just rubbish and which are ok.
     
  2. HerrKaputt

    HerrKaputt Elite Notebook User

    Reputations:
    444
    Messages:
    2,510
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    From my experience, pretty much any brand will be good. Unless you use the drive a lot, the capacity (how many GBs) is the only important characteristic.

    Make sure you buy with a warranty of some sort (one year is more than enough).
     
  3. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

    Reputations:
    6,156
    Messages:
    11,214
    Likes Received:
    68
    Trophy Points:
    466
    Id have to say go with a well known brand. Generic USB sticks are known to fail

    I will recommend the Sandisk micro cruzer range or titanium range. Very tough and durable. It reached 27mb/s transfer rate on HDtune which is good. Its also easy on the pocked
     
  4. Batman_360

    Batman_360 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    184
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    The most affordable USB memory I can think of is Super Talent. It is well-known and in my experience (I have owned 6 of their USB sticks) none have been broken nor have they malfunctioned. I should mention, though, that I bought a 1GB for my friend for Christmas, and he pulled the cover right off his memory stick! However, his laptop has unusually clingy USB ports, and he also yanked extra hard (probably out of habit from having the aforementioned clingy USB ports :p). I have been using Super Talent sticks for 2 years, and at my local electronics outlet, the 8GB sticks are $30. 16GB sticks are $50.
     
  5. asianrage

    asianrage Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    32
    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I have a 4GB sandisk cruzer mini (nano tiny blah blah) for a long long time now and it's still working pretty good. It comes with a small file management system that runs very time you plug it in. Kind of annoying, but that's it. Do get a more well-established brand though, or at least buy from a more reputable retailer, since you might never know what could happen with cheap memory.

    Here' a website offering 8GB for only 32 bucks.
     
  6. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

    Reputations:
    6,156
    Messages:
    11,214
    Likes Received:
    68
    Trophy Points:
    466
    ^ You mean the U3 programs? You can get rid of them so it never comes up again. It also frees up more space in the drive
     
  7. NotVeryTechie

    NotVeryTechie Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    33
    Messages:
    79
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Thank you all. I forgot to say I am in the UK so $ prices don't really help!
     
  8. skywalker

    skywalker Business Notebook FTW!!

    Reputations:
    100
    Messages:
    2,126
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    For USB drive, I trust on Sandisk which is not too small nor too big and it comes with fast read write performance. Beware with Sony USB, not all, but they tend to be fake.
     
  9. asianrage

    asianrage Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    32
    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Yeah, I realize that. I usually forget to do that :p If only I could find the drive now.
     
  10. jetstar

    jetstar Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    1,095
    Messages:
    7,034
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    SanDisk, Kingston, Memorex and Transcend are all reputable brands.