Software & Features

No software is bundled with the drive but you can visit their website to download it.  Personally, I never care for any software features on a flash drive.  Not only are most horribly designed, but some can be more of a nuisance than practical by any means.  Regardless, let's have a quick look at what you can do with this little guy.

For those who read the recent review of the InnoDisk 8GB, the software is exactly the same so I will only briefly comment on it.

Software consists of three tabs.  The first is "Partition" but you'll be forced to jump to the "Security" tab and enable this feature before you can even define the security partition.  Oddly, this was not the case with the InnoDisk drive and I could set the partition before setting a password.  Not only is this a bit annoying, but novice users would be puzzled, wondering why it is disabled by default and may not know what to do.  Again, this proves my point that most software bundled with these drives are plain garbage.

The "Configuration" tab is as basic as it gets.  There's some features that will likely be disabled for many, as they are only applicable to Win98.  You can perform a quick or full format and choose between FAT16 (why?) or FAT32.  However, note that these are really not your only options.  Sadly, many think it is when it comes to flash drives and when they encounter a number of issues when transferring files, they are quick to put down a product.  I won't go into it here, but this is another article that is planned here at ExtremeMHz. 

Performance

To be quite honest, I did not have high expectations in terms of performance.  However, this drive certainly proved me wrong and managed to impress me highly. If fact, this is where I would like to take a moment to comment (once again) on consumer reviews.  This is yet another product which proves that you should take most consumer reviews with a grain of salt.  Some have stated the drive is absolutely horrendous in terms of overall performance.  I will tell you that this is not true at all and the results I will show you will prove this.  For those still skeptical in any way after reading this review, I will gladly provide you with all scans/screenshots to further prove the performance results...if need be.  I will only do this because it seriously bothers me till no end when simply the right product goes into the wrong hands!

Performance Results - SANDRA 2008

I always like to start off with Sandra's Removable Storage Benchmark. While the most common a majority will turn to for comparison, I find many still don't have a clear understanding on the results it provides. With that said, let's briefly cover both of the recorded results you want to focus on the most with this synthetic benchmarking tool. 

Starting with the "Combined Index", these results are based on standard file operations typical with these storage devices. This consists of writing to the drive, reading from it and then finally deleting it from the flash drive itself. The results, based on a set number of file sizes, will give you the Combined Index, all of which are based on operations per minute. 

The other main "score" SANDRA will provide you with is the drive's "Endurance Factor". While skeptical to many, including myself, these tests basically represent the wear and life expectancy of a flash drive.  How?  Well, the results are based by dividing the drive's average performance over the lowest performance.  I will not get anymore technical, but when you research this heavily, the whole logic behind it does actually make sense and like all products, they are prone to malfunction.  While many rely on flash media as a means of achieving the highest reliability, the truth is that even these products are prone to "wear and tear" and while extremely rare, they are still capable of complete malfunction after excessive use.

Moving on, the results provided were compared to those of the other drives mentioned throughout this article.  Note though that all drives were formatted to FAT32 and therefore, all results are based on this common format option for such a product.

The one thing you'll quickly notice from these results is the Endurance Factor of the PQI i810.  Folks, after coming across this unusually high number, I not only ran the test in different systems, but ran them with different operating systems and even with different versions of SANDRA.  The results were almost identical in comparison.  I don't tend to rely much on synthetic benchmarks, but it was apparent here that this flash drive was in a level of its own.  I'm not entirely sure why, but this was the highest score I have achieved with all drives tested here and all of the drives I've used throughout the years.  What was impressive though was its final Combined Index Score.  You can clearly see it is not only a major step above their previous model, but fairly in the same level of those drives that are not only in the same class in terms of size, but those which are considered the fastest on the market today.  A score of 2293 with SANDRA for a drive this small was completely unexpected.

Performance Results - HD Tune

The next set of tests I like to perform are with HD Tune. For those unfamiliar with this small yet practical utility, it is a tool primarily designed to measure hard disk performance. However, you can use it with removable storage devices as well to get a better indication as to how the drive performs. What's nice about this tool is that it is similar to Nero's CD-DVD Speed in the sense that it will provide you with a clear look at how the disk "behaves" during the entire testing process.  However, based on a number of tests with a variety of flash drives, I found the results to be misleading in terms of "actual" performance results.  Regardless, this utility is good to capture transfer rates from beginning to end and see if it is able to perform according to specification.

The results here were quite unexpected and considering its overall size, this drive performed extremely well.  If you look at the results above, you'll see that it was able to stay in the same level of even what is considered one of the fastest flash drives on the market today.

Actual Performance Results

Synthetic benchmarks are one thing and despite how impressive this tiny drive managed to perform, it is actual performance that will confirm all results above.  With that said, there is one particular tool I consistently use for storage device reviews that will provide you with the most accurate results possible.  These tests are always done with the excellent DiskBench Utility. Once again, for those who are unfamiliar with this application, DiskBench is a utility designed to measure real life transfer rates. Unlike synthetic benchmark utilities, this application will allow you to create an image file of a user specified size and allow you to transfer to and from the device you are testing in order to capture real-time read/write transfer rates and times.  Other than running these tests on your own without the aid of any tools, it is simply the most accurate utility to capture reliable read/write times of any storage product.

The results were not only unexpected, but highly impressive.  Once again, I wanted to confirm the results and did run them in two separate systems.  The results were almost identical regardless of the drastic change in hardware and operating system of choice.  Note though that the results listed above were the best of the two and were run on a Vista Ultimate system consisting of a speedy RAID 0 array.  The performance of not only your drives but your motherboard's USB features are key here and may differ greatly in comparison.

There are two things to focus on when looking at the numbers above.  First, the InnoDisk drive results were almost identical to those conducted in the initial review of the drive, proving consistency and accuracy using this tool.  Second, when compared to the high performing and much larger Voyager GT from Corsair, it doesn't fall far behind in comparison.

Folks, this tiny drive performs beyond what is expected from it.  After hours of extensive testing with all these drives, I can assure you that when tested on the right system, you will be impressed with its performance. 

Next: Conclusions