Imation Atom USB Flash Drive

 The test system used in this review was a Dell OptiPlex 755. The computer came equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz CPU, 2GB of DDR2 800MHz memory, a Western Digital WD800JD 80GB SATA hard drive and an ATI Radeon HD 2400XT 256MB video card. For the operating system, I installed a fresh copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3.

To test the performance of the Imation Atom, I ran a series of benchmarks using HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0 and SiSoftware Sandra Professional Business XII.SP2c.  To get a feel for the "real world" performance, I also copied and pasted 500MB of random files and directories in Windows Explorer. For comparison, I've also included test results from Memorex's Mini TravelDrive.

HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0:

Using HD Tach, we can benchmark a drive's read, write and burst speeds as well as its seek times and CPU usage.  Looking at the screenshot above, you can see that while the Atom was a little slower when writing, its read and burst speeds were faster than the TravelDrive's.

SiSoft Sandra File System Benchmark:

While I am not a big fan of SiSoftware Sandra's optical drive benchmarks, it is a great tool if you want to test a system's performance quickly and easily. One of Sandra's more useful tests is the File System benchmark. This benchmark gives each drive an overall score, or "Drive Index," based on the results of its read and write tests.

The results here were similar to what we saw with HD Tach. While faster when reading, the Atom lagged well behind the TravelDrive when doing buffered and random writes.

SiSoftware Sandra Removable Storage/Flash Devices Benchmark:

Designed with removable storage and flash devices in mind, this benchmark tests a drive's read, write and delete performance using six different file sizes (512 Bytes, 32kB, 256kB, 2MB, 64MB and 256MB).  The results are then given in both operations per minute and the corresponding net transfer rate in kB/second. This benchmark also computes an "Endurance Factor," representing the wear and life expectancy of flash devices.

While there were a few cases where the Atom had a slight advantage, it lagged behind the TravelDrive when writing 64MB, 2MB and 32kB files. Interestingly enough, both drives reached the same speed when writing 256MB files.

As I mentioned above, Sandra also expresses performance in operations per minute. To keep things simple, I've limited the results to the combined index and the total number of read/write/delete operations for each file size.

The Atom yielded some mixed results in this test. While Imaton's new flash drive completed more operations with 512M, 256kB and 2MB files, its combined index wasn't as high as the TravelDrive's.

The Endurance Factor represents the wear and life expectancy of a flash device. According to SiSoft, this number is computed by "dividing the average performance (normal condition, i.e. sequential write) to the lowest performance (high-stress condition, i.e. same block re-write)."

"Real World" Benchmark:

To test the "real world" performance of Imation's new flash drive, I copied and pasted 500 MB worth of randomly generated files and directories. All of the files are between 10 bytes and 32MB in size and no more than four directories deep.

The Atom yielded some surprising results in this test. While the synthetic benchmarks indicated that it was the slower of the two drives when writing, it came out on top, beating the TravelDrive by 17 seconds. The Atom wasn't as fast as the drive from Memorex when reading. However, the performance difference was very small.

Conclusion:

Over the last year or so, Imation has turned out a variety of USB flash drives with new features and ever increasing capacities. With the Atom, the company has introduced its smallest drive to date. By utilizing a system in package (SIP) module, Imation has given users the ability to store up to 8GB of data on a drive that isn't much larger than a paperclip. The Atom's small size didn't have much of an impact on performance either. While not as fast as some other flash drives when writing, it reached some respectable speeds in our read tests.

My only real concern with the Atom is its exposed USB connector. To make the drive as small as possible, Imation decided not to use a sliding or swivel mechanism or include a cap. As a result, the connector could become dirty or damaged over time. Then again, if something does happen, the Atom is covered by a 5 year warranty.

The Atom is available now in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities. Suggested retail prices range from $17.99 to $99.99 depending on the size. However, the drive can be picked up for considerably less through some of the vendors on Pricegrabber.