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Introduction:::...
The
declining prices and increasing capacities of nonvolatile
memory has revolutionized the PC storage arena. From MP3
players and digital cameras to motherboard BIOS chips and
Flash drives, it has never been easier to cram so much data
into such small spaces and carry it with you wherever you
go.
We've
been singing the praises of the Flash drive for quite a
few years here at 3DV, but back when a 16MB unit could easily
cast £100+, it wasn't quite so easy to sell the idea
of everyone rushing out to buy one as a no-brainer. Things
today however are very different and there's really no excuse
to not own one of these invaluable little devices.
As
capacities climbed, so a problem began to emerge, and that
was the length of time it could take to pipe large amounts
of data down a USB1.1 connection. Then, just in the nick
of time, along came USB2.0 to save the day.
Low
prices, high transfer rates and large capacities, all that's
left is a robust build quality and a name you can trust.
Roll on our next review candidate!
Today
I'm reviewing a Flash drive from a company whose reputation
in the memory market, and more importantly in the demanding
and unforgiving enthusiast memory market, is quite simply
second to none...Corsair.
When
Corsair announced their expansion into the Flash memory
market on the 8th of December, my first though was to wonder
what took them so long. As a major player in the SDRAM market
for some time now they must surely have considered expanding
their portfolio in the past, and they're clearly not afraid
of dabbling in challenging areas like water cooling, successfully
marketing their innovative and very popular HydroCool kit.
Perhaps the market just wasn't right for a move into Flash.
With
their announcement came news of two new product families,
a range of 40X rated Secure Digital (SD) cards in four capacities
up to 1 Gigabyte and a quartet of USB2.0 Flash drive in
128MB, 256MB, 512MB and 1GB capacities.
Corsair
have christened their Flash drives "Voyager",
and I have a 512MB version here to review today. First,
the obligatory specs:
FEATURES
- Plug
& Play functionality in Windows® XP, 2000, ME,
Linux 2.4 and later, Mac OS 9, X and later
- Drivers
on CD for Windows® 98
- Lanyard,
USB cable and driver CD included
- Supports
sustained read spead of 19MB/sec
- Supports
sustained write speed of 13MB/sec
- Ten
year warranty
The
ten year warranty may seem a little mean for a solid state
device, particularly when their SDRAM carries a lifetime
warranty, but what people don't always realise is that Flash
memory can actually wear out. Well, not wear out in the
traditional sense, but the insulating oxide layer around
the charge storage mechanism begins to break down as the
number of erase processes increases.
Before
you run out and buy a Flash drive, step one is to decide
what capacity you need. Here's a quick guide courtesy of
Corsair:
Let's
take a look at the Corsair Voyager and see if it offers
anything more than the myriad of Flash drives already on
the market:
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