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Kingston 512MB DataTraveler


Date
: 07/1/05 – 06:33:47 AM

Author
:

Category
: Storage

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: Kingston

Price
: 26.50 USD AR (ZipZoomFly)

Many users are familiar with USB thumbdrives, those compact little devices hold a ton of data and you never know when you could use one. While manufactures offer thumb drives with a variety of features like encryption, email, fingerprint ID, waterproof and MP3 playback, we'll be looking at a very standard thumbdrive that only stores data.

So you're probably wondering why in the world would you would want a plain old USB drive. The answer is simple: cost. Additional features don't come cheap and many people don't actually need them, or won't use them even if they're there. Our Kingston DataTraveler does exactly what the name says, it moves data from point A to point B.

So let's see what we have in store today.

Page 2 : Package

As many of you readers who frequent our forums may know, I went to the AMD 2005 Tech Tour. During my visit, I learned a few neat things and met some nice people. After the event, I talked to a nice guy from Barrie and he was kind enough to sponsor me with three 512MB Kingston DataTravelers from his store Titan PCs. Just to let you know where I'm going, each review only really needs one product…so what are we doing with the extra two? Giving them away of course! :) Stay tuned for details after the review.

Anyways, the three drives arrived to me from Barrie via Purolator with no damage. The packaging of the Kingston DataTraveler is quite simple.

The back of the packaging shows the cardboard sheet listing some of the specifications and lists the compatibility.

This product is even supported by Linux machines running the 2.4 (or above) kernel.

Grabbing my trusty knife, I sliced the package open. The package is sealed by Kingston to ensure no tampering can be done without opening the package. Inside the package are three things: a manual, a keychain loop and the USB key.

My first impression was that this was one fat thumbdrive. The sides protrude much further than the USB head.

While many users who toss these thing into their bags may not care about the size, imagine if you had this in your pocket along with your house keys, car keys, cellphone and MP3 player; that's quite a bit. Thus the smaller the thumbdrive is, the less space and less weight you'll be carrying with you.

The side backend of the drive gives you the capacity and a serial number.

A single LED on the other side indicates any activity with the drive.

Before we test out the drive, we'll give you the full specs.

Page 3 : Specifications

The following was copied from Kingston:

As you can see, if the 512MB is too big or too small, you can move up and down the series until you find the capacity just right to fit your needs.

It's unfortunate to see that the storage conditions are
only
-20°C. If you live north of the border, this may not be enough for you!

Page 4 : Installation & Performance

Using a USB thumbdrive has the same level of difficulty as using a floppy disk. Simply take hold of the unit and plug it into any free slot. The unit only goes in one way so there's absolutely no need to force it in.

The Kingston thumbdrive is thin enough to stack one on top of another but it's too wide to use the adjacent ports.

To test the performance of our drive, we'll run it through a variety of software and conduct a few real-world uses. Our software list contains Sisoft Sandra 2005, HD Tune, HDTach. For our real world use, we'll time the transfer of large files, small files and a combination of both.

Here's our test system:

Sisoft Sandra Removable Storage – Combined Index

The combined index score represents the overall performance based on the average of the Combined Index figures over 4 different file size transfers.

Sisoft Sandra Removable Storage – Endurance Factor

The endurance factor represents wear and life expectance, it is the average performance (sequential write) value divided by the lowest performance (high-stress same block re-write) value. Although I've had the VisonTek and Corsair drive for much longer, I used the VisonTek Xtreme 2 Go Drive extensively, while I've only used the Corsair Flash Voyager a few times.

Sisoft Sandra – File System

Nothing spectacular here, the Corsair Flash Voyager is kicking the butt out of the Kingston DataTraveler and Go Drive. Nothing out of the ordinary considering Corsair has always been regarded as one of the top high performance memory manufacturers.

HD Tune

HD Tune gives us an indication of the performance, a nice low CPU usage from the Kingston unit. The transfer rates are within specifications and an amazingly low Access Time of 1.1 ms.

HD Tach

HD Tach lets us compare 2 drives, a shame it won't do more. When comparing against the Flash Voyager, the DataTraveler is essential a scaled down version, roughly 50% that of the Flash Voyager.

When we compare the DataTraveler against the VisionTek Xtreme 2 Go Drive (labeled as USB Flash Disk 2.0) we see that the DataTraveler performs better than the VisonTek product, with the exception of the end where the DataTraveler reduces to a slower performance level but the Go Drive remains at a constant value.

To cap of our testing, we'll be timing a series of three writes and recording the time with a stopwatch. We'll then compute the average write speed. Our first test will be moving 1,424KB files from the primary drive to the USB disk drive until it is full. The second test will be moving a single 424,719KB file and the last will be a combination of large and small files: a single 290,252KB file and a number of 1,424KB files until the drive is full! Here are the results!

The Kingston DataTraveler is comparable to the VisionTek Xtreme 2 Go Drive. It outperforms it on the transfer that have the smaller files. Not bad for a very budget oriented device.

Page 5 : Conclusion

This wraps up our third USB thumbdrive review and each model has had their own unique features. With the Kingston DataTraveler, it is a very simple and basic device that does exactly what it is suppose to do. Those looking for a long term investment will particularly like the high endurance factor the DataTraveler has to offer.

For those who need additional features, Kingston now offers several models: DataTraveler II, DataTraveler II Plus and DataTraveler Elite. Each product has a unique feature to suite your taste.

Advantages

High endurance factor
Low Cost

Disadvantages

Blocks adjacent USB Ports
Not the fastest model on the market

I'd most certainly like to thank the good folks at Titan PCs for sponsoring us with this product.

If you recall from one of the earlier pages, I said I got three of these units. That means I still have two I haven't touched.

Head over to our contest page to see what's happening!