Bits On our desk - 10

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2007/10/19/on_our_desk_-_10/1

We take a look at the various bits and pieces which have been gathering on our desks these last few weeks. High-end mouse mats and some indestructible USB sticks - will they measure up or fall by the wayside? Find out within!

 

Gotta love how they are fancying up these memory sticks now that people know they are only really worth a tenner at most on ebay.

 

you call that work?? man I sometimes don't understand why I work where I do....

 

I can't remember where (although I have a sneaking suspicion that it was Hexus) that tested one of those Corsair Survivors by getting an APC to run over it...

Even so, it's a strong little bugger.

 

Great to see this feature returning!

 

The Voyager GT is faster than flying hot poo.

 

I just got my own Survivor in the mail today!

(all though mine is only 4GB and not the GT version. (but at a third of the price...))

It looks really nice. Works well as a keyring as well. (I just hated that plastic Kingston datatraveller that made my key collection make more noise than Santa's reindeer!)

 

It's slower than crap, the 4GB version. I loathe mine.

 

i have one of the corsair voyager GTs a 4gb one and its fallen apart the actual memory stick has come out of the rubber cover

 

The day word documents get so big that i can't wait for them to transfer i might consider a GT.

 

The problem's Portable Firefox. Whereas a viable option to browse from a Lexar Lighting, it just doesn't happen on the Survivor 4GB. It's a good fit for someone trying to protect a word file from a horde of angry Fords tho. And it might just end up being the only key I've never killed.

 

Yeah. We all know how nasty those fords can get!

I haven't tried running any apps from it yet. I don't feel the need for it yet. I have computers (where i have admin rights) placed on all the places I'll need a computer. It's easier to transport files than a whole computer

I just thought of something... The memory stick part of the survivor should be pretty easy to dismantle (with some brute force). After that it's just a matter of finding a cheap, but fast memory stick, make a new inner casing and glue it in place on the inside.

 

Remember it depends what port you plug it into and what chipset you're using and USB is inherantly limited to about 33MB/s - so if something claims to be above that, it's effectively useless.

USB should be able to do 60MB/s (being 480MBit) but I've never ever seen it. Even Firewire "400" performance is above it.

 

Well that's something wrong with the transfer protocol rather than something specific to the devices or physical interface, to my understanding. IIRC, it's something to do with data integrity testing.

Anyways, I wonder what on earth Joe was thinking when he wrote that they should put a drainage hole in the caps. If you put a hole in there, it's about 74,542 times easier for water to get stuck there in the first place.

 

The fun part is I actually have the 8GB flash voyager GT on my keychain. Well recommended for those who genuinely hate to sit around waiting for files to move from place to place. The ability to take an entire DVD on the go is handy.

 

I have an OCZ Rally II 1gb, and a SanDisk Cruzer Micro 2gb. I love the OCZ, it's very small, and made of metal, and it was $12, but a few months later I needed more memory, and saw the SanDisk for $16 and bought it too. It's made of plastic, and I doubt that the mechanism hiding the USB connector will last very long. The OCZ still looks brand new, and the text on the Cruzer is already fading off.

 

I was in a similar position to docodine - I had a 1GB OCZ Rally, great little pendrive, very flash... Then I washed it. Although it lived, I realised that it might be time for something a) bigger and b) water resistant.

Went for a 4GB Voyager GT and loved every minute of it. Great piece of kit for uni clusters too - got a stash of portable apps on there, along with several video files for watching while I'm there!

 

I rate the mouse pad... and if I was an SAS Trooper hacking a rogue Middle Eastern state's missile launch computer's, I'd get the MOD to buy me a Survivor... but I'd never pay for it myself... the other two are just mutton dressed up as lamb.

It strikes of desperation:

'****... Flash memory prices are dopping through the floor'
'Well, we'll add some bling and give it a cool, plus GT suffix, and we can keep charging you £50+'

No you can't. I've got a Kingston drive that cost me less than £20 and it survives normal knocks that you can expect to give it. I dont generally put it through each wash cycle, but I have ran over it in the car. What is more, I'm not ashamed to let my work colleagues see it.

 

I'll take anyone of those off your hands

 

In the "tried to crush" part of the USB tests, did you back a car over it?