Kingston DataTraveler 150 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 DataTravler 150, 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 Imation's Atom and 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.

The DataTraveler 150 performed surprisingly well here. Looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it had average read and write speeds of  33.1 MB/s and 14.6 MB/s, respectively, as well as a burst speed of 35 MB/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 DT150 performed very well when reading and doing sequential writes. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as fast as 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 DT150 lagged behind the other drives, it had a clear advantage when writing larger files, especially those 64MB and 256MB in size.

The DT150 yielded some mixed results in this test. While it completed an impressive number of operations with 2MB, 64MB and 256MB files, its lackluster performance with 512B and 32kB files had a negative effect on its combined index score.

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 Kingston'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.

For some reason I expected the DT150 to pull through and take the top spot in this test. As you can see, that wasn't the case. While the fastest of the three drives when reading, it was three seconds slower than the Imation Atom when writing.

Conclusion:

With the DataTraveler 150, Kingston has joined the ranks of companies offering high-capacity USB flash drives. While not the smallest or most feature packed drive out there, the DT150 delivers what most consumers are looking for: lots of storage at a reasonable price. Kingston's new drive also performed fairly well for the most part. The DT150 reached some impressive speeds when reading and writing large files, but lagged behind some other drives when working with smaller files. Nevertheless, most consumers probably won't notice this during everyday use.

The DataTraverler 150 is available now in 32GB and 64GB capacities. Suggested retail prices range from $116 to $177 depending on the size. However, the DT150 can be picked up for considerably less through some of the vendors on Pricegrabber.

Highs:

• Large capacity lets you store lots of stuff
• Impressive speeds when reading and writing large files
• Compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X and Linux
• Five year warranty
• Reasonably priced

Lows:

• No data encryption software
• Not as fast when reading and writing small files
• Does not support Windows ReadyBoost