Actual High Speed USB flash drive

-1

I'm looking to upgrade my EEE 1000H by possibly replacing the HDD with simple (internal) usb connected storage. The problem I'm having now is that I can't seem to find any actual high speed usb sticks. They all proclaim high speeds, but usually turn out to be ~30 mb/s - much lower than the 60 mb/s (480 mbit/s / 8 ) I understand USB 2.0 is at - no ?

Can anyone enlighten me as to why no USB sticks seem to go past that low bar or alternatively point me in the direction of some actual high speed usb sticks ?

Any help is greatly appreciated :)

Cheers!

CSkau

Posted 2010-01-22T19:13:27.863

Reputation: 361

Answers

Can't actually point you to any high-speed USB stick, what I can tell you is that the 60 MB/s limit is a theoretical one and it stands for both in and out traffic that passes through the device, so you can't actually find any device that handles that kind of speed.

Lino Silva

Posted 2010-01-22T19:13:27.863

Reputation: 131

Thank you. Yes, I'm aware it's a theoretical limit, but surely the actual limit can't but a mere half of that as it would seem by the selection of flash drives I can find.

I would be more than happy with anything around 40~45 MB/s and up if they exists at a reasonable price. – CSkau – 2010-01-22T19:25:43.950

If you plan to replace the HDD, then you presumably have a free internal SATA connector. For high performance (although at a relatively high cost), then replace the HDD with an SSD.

sblair

Posted 2010-01-22T19:13:27.863

Reputation: 12 231

I've considered this option, but am still put off by the relatively high cost of SSDs. I'm looking to USB sticks for something in between SSD and HDD at a low price. – CSkau – 2010-01-22T20:02:18.887

As Lino pointed out, USB 2.0 may be spec'd at 480Mbps (~60MB/s), but the practical throughput is limited to around ~35MB/sec.

USB 3.0 Flash drives are here, but your EEE 1000H doesn't support USB 3.0, so that doesn't help you.

Anyway, the real answer to your problem is not to use USB Sticks. They'll wear out super quickly. They don't have any fancy wear-leveling controllers built into them. So your drive will just burn-out on you one day.

Instead, you need a real SSD.

Apparently the Samsung SATA II SSD is a good choice for your Asus EEE 1000H: http://blog.laptopmag.com/eee-pc-1000h-faster-with-ssd-upgrade

Pretzel

Posted 2010-01-22T19:13:27.863

Reputation: 216

USB 3.0 technology is just around the corner and should be faster. eSATA may also be of interest to you. Unfortunately, both require that your PC already have the necessary hardware to support these technologies.

Mark

Posted 2010-01-22T19:13:27.863

Reputation: 3 009

Yep and hardware is what I don't have. It needs to run on standard USB 2.0 on the EEE. Thanks for the suggestion though :) – CSkau – 2010-01-22T20:08:28.500

There's entirely too much information floating around usb.org, and I'm having a hard time finding the very useful explanatory article I found on the subject at one point, but basically, the icons across the top of the page represent the possible logos on the packaging of a USB device.

Basically, if your device (and the motherboard or card you're plugging it into, of course) both have the logo with the red "hi-speed" banner at the top, you should be getting USB 2.0 speeds. If it's just the USB logo - no. (and if there's no logo, they're probably making one or more of the mistakes mentioned in the developer FAQ)

Kara Marfia

Posted 2010-01-22T19:13:27.863

Reputation: 2 000

See the Google search "fastest usb flash drives 2009" and check out this thread on Metafilter to start you on your way. It may require some homework.

Nathaniel

Posted 2010-01-22T19:13:27.863

Reputation: 3 966