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OCZ 4GB Rally2 Turbo USB Flash Drive


Date
: 05/3/08 – 05:31:46 PM

Author
:

Category
: Storage

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: OCZ Technology
In the world of flash media, there are literally thousands of options to choose from. I myself have no less than 9 flash drives totaling 28GB of storage. In the past few years I have owned over a dozen different flash drives and the re-occurring theme has been that they were primarily made by OCZ.

You may wonder why I keep going back to OCZ, it's not because I'm reviewing them, I don't need a drawer full of drives, but because they keep getting faster and faster and I'm a sucker for speed!
The
OCZ Rally2 Turbo
is not like the OCZ ATV Turbo that I last reviewed. It doesn't boast a rubber enclosure that shields it from the nasty environment; instead it is a fast small, sleek, sexy drive. I have had every single drive from the Rally family and they have always shined against their opponents.

Page 2 : Package & Components

The
Rally2 Turbo
showed up much like all other OCZ products, instead a plastic clamshell package. I personally hate these packages, they are cumbersome to open and the plastic is a waste to the environment. OCZ should adopt a new policy and package each Rally2 Turbo inside a small recyclable cardboard box. It wouldn't be as flashy as the plastic clamshell, but it would be more than sufficient and would do the environment good.

The front side of the package gives you a clear look of the drive and some key features and specifications. Towards the back we get a marketing blurb on the unit, support contact, some awards the Rally Flash Drive series has won and the accessories included.
Once you cut the clamshell apart the Rally2 Turbo, lanyard and USB extension cable fall right out.

There have not been many changes between the OCZ Rally that I reviewed in 2005 to the ones I hold today. The edges are now rounded and the lanyard loop is integrated into the body and no longer protrudes out. Compared to the Rally2, not pictured, they look identical to my eyes.

The cap is a compression fitting and is reversible. I recall in the original Rally family, the cap would only go in one way. This universal design is greatly appreciated. The only addition I would add is making the cap be able of fitting onto the end of the drive if you don't use the lanyard.

The lanyard gets looped onto the body of the flash drive. You are more likely to spot the lanyard at a computer table than just the plugged in USB drive. Had the lanyard been attached to the cap and the cap in your pocket, you likely would have lost your brand new 4GB drive. Believe me, if you leave a 4GB drive alone in a public space for a second, it'll be gone. I did that once and when I came back to look for it an hour later, it was gone.

I encountered a small defect in the Rally2 Turbo when attaching the lanyard. The injection molding process did not remove a small piece of plastic where I was to thread the lanyard through. To remedy this problem, I took a small screwdriver and applied a little bit of force until it broke through. I wiggled the screwdriver around and plucked out a small piece of plastic no more than half a millimeter thick.

Here are two pictures comparing the Rally2 Turbo alongside a few other flash drives I rounded up. The yellow OCZ ATV Turbo 2 is at the top followed by the Rally2 Turbo, the original 2GB Rally2, a Sandisk 4GB Micro Cruzer and my taken apart Micro Cruzer showing just the USB head and memory IC.

Carefully comparing the lanyard between the Rally2 Turbo and the Rally2, I noticed that OCZ has made a small change to the cord on the Rally2 Turbo, it is a tad thicker than before. This gives the Rally2 Turbo a little extra support and if you read all those crazy stories with Wii's flying through TVs you can be assured that by swinging your Rally2 Turbo around it won't fly into your monitor. But if it does, we take no responsibility for any damages you may have done.

Page 3 : Specifications

When it comes to finding OCZ products on their website, it's never very hard. A couple of clicks will generally guarantee you a link to whatever you're looking for. Here is a link to the OCZ Rally2 Turbo page. Apart from a few pretty pictures, here is the listed description:

The specifications:

I really wish I got the 8GB unit!

Page 4 : Installation & Testing

There is not a whole lot to discuss about the installation process. If you have a USB 2.0 port, plug the OCZ Rally2 Turbo into it and you're done. The LED at the end of the drive will start to glow orange and flash while in use. There are no drivers necessary for either Windows or Ubuntu machines.

Here is a list of drives I will be putting the
Rally2 Turbo
against:

• 4GB OCZ ATV Turbo
  
  
• 2GB ATP Inc ToughDrive mini
• 512MB Kingmax/AMD Promotional drive
• 2GB Corsair Flash Voyager
• 2GB OCZ Rally2

The software we'll be working with include:

• Sisoftware Sandra XII File System and Removable Storage
  
  
• HD Tach
• NodeSoft Diskbench w/ 933,000 KB Image – Write Performance
• ATTO Disk Bench – 0.5 to 1024 kb transfer size up to 32MB

Each benchmark was executed three times with system resets in between. The average of the results is shown below:

Sisoftware Sandra XII – File System

Sisoftware Sandra XII – Removable Storage

HD Tach

ATTO Disk Bench – 0.5 to 1024 kb transfer size up to 32MB

The theoretical performance all show the ATV Turbo and Rally2 Turbo go toe-to-toe, exchanging leads and not really differing by more than a few percent in performance. As we focus into some of the more specific numbers, we're looking at hovering around 29MB/s for writing and 33MB/s. This is just shy of the specifications listed by OCZ, the claim 30MB/s write and 35MB/s read. This is a theoretical difference of 5 seconds when filling up the drive to the full 4GB or a difference of 7 seconds when copying the entire drive content to your desktop. It'll probably take you longer to find your USB drive than noticing the difference between writing speeds.

NodeSoft Diskbench w/ 933,000 KB Image – Write Performance

Looking at some real transfer speeds, we can see that the actual performance is actually less than the theoretical numbers put up above. For the 933MB image I averaged just under 26MB/s which was 3.5 MB/s faster than the ATV Turbo and ToughDrive mini, my previous fastest drives.

Page 5 : Conclusion

From the concept of the Rally Flash Drive family, OCZ has done everything right: a sleek slender body with fast performance. As the series matured and evolved to the Rally2 Turbo, the drive has had a few cosmetic changes and the performance has kicked into a higher gear. The curved edges with no protruding parts and overall small body makes it an easy fit into pockets while the 25-30MB/s performance guarantees you quick copy from hard drive to flash.

One could argue that the listed specifications are slightly ambitious compared to the real world performance and while the difference is noticeable, it's not enough to hamper my mood. Neither is the un-punched hole for the lanyard or the lack of a place for the cap. At the end of the day, if you need a fast, dependable and high capacity flash drive free from all the gimmick of password protection, automatic file updating or partitioning, you won't be disappointed by the Rally2 Turbo.

Advantages

• Sleek & Slender
  
  
• Fast performance
• Affordable
• Minor physical and part changes compared to Rally and Rally2 are appreciated

Disadvantages

• Unnecessary packaging…simplify and save the environment
  
  
• Where's my 8GB???

[i]Overclockers Online would like to thank OCZ for making this review possible.