Impressed with cheap ADATA S102 8GB USB3 flashdrive

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Pada

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After my 8GB Supertalent flashdrive packed up, Wootware managed to replace it for me with an ADATA S102 8GB USB3 flash drive.

I'm impressed with the performance of the drive, seeing that I get like 28-34MB/s read and 11MB/s write with USB2.0 when copying large files in Windows 7, using FAT32 (4kB blocks).

When using like 8MB blocks with HD Tune, you get very impressive results: http://www.imagehost.co.za/image-431A_4DAF1D20.jpg

At my office I was able to read at like 57MB/s from the drive, when using Ubuntu's disk utility to test the read speed.

RebelTech is selling the S102 drives for:
R118.50 - 8GB
R221.45 - 16GB
R472.82 - 32GB

11MB/s write speed isn't all that impressive, but given it's price, I'd definitely say that the drive is an excellent buy.
 
Thanks, my 8GB Kingston (slow!) packed up a week ago and I was wondering about a replacement.

EDIT: I can't find the Adata drive on wootware. Anybody know where in the Cape Town area this is available?
 
Last edited:
Well my 16GB S102 has just arrived and things are looking up. It writes at about 1GB/min (~17MB/s) (7minutes to copy a 7GB file) and the files can be played back from a simple media player. The build quality looks very good. The absence of an activity LED is a bit of a drawback but otherwise I am very happy with it.
 
Yotch: I take it that you're using NTFS?

I'm gonna try NTFS partitions tonight and check if that isn't a bit faster than FAT32, because your drive seems to be quite a bit faster than mine ;)
 
No, I haven't fiddled with my drive at all. Mine is a 16GB so it's going to be a bit faster than an 8GB, a 32GB will be even faster. I think I read that formatting it to NTFS slows it down.
 
Yotch said:
No, I haven't fiddled with my drive at all. Mine is a 16GB so it's going to be a bit faster than an 8GB, a 32GB will be even faster. I think I read that formatting it to NTFS slows it down.
Click to expand...

Why would the size of the drive influence the speed?
 
@Viva: Here are the specs from Adata's website (Read/Write). Clearly the 32GB is way out in the lead in terms of write speed. Maybe the plan is to get you to purchase a more expensive drive than the one you really want! It must be possible to use the same technology to increase the speed on the 8 and 16GB drives.
8GB 52 11
16GB 68 18
32GB 68 31
http://www.adata.com.tw/?action=product_specification&cid=1&piid=119
 
@Pada: Well my drive has just departed for its new home. Did you notice any speed improvements after formatting to NTFS? I did notice that xcopy was slightly faster than Windows Explorer even after checking the optimise for performance box in the policies tab. I didn't get a chance to test out FastCopy or Teracopy etc. It appears to be a very well constructed drive with the only negative being the lack of an activity light. The improvement in writing speed is very noticeable when moving large media files back and forth. I did notice some speed variations when testing on different machines although I was using it off a 2m USB extension in some cases which is not recommended.
 
kayvee said:
Just PM Ratwiz and he'll get back to ya.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I did.

Yotch said:
@Viva: Here are the specs from Adata's website (Read/Write). Clearly the 32GB is way out in the lead in terms of write speed. Maybe the plan is to get you to purchase a more expensive drive than the one you really want! It must be possible to use the same technology to increase the speed on the 8 and 16GB drives.
8GB 52 11
16GB 68 18
32GB 68 31
http://www.adata.com.tw/?action=product_specification&cid=1&piid=119
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks. I agree. I'm now trying to get hold of the 16GB, really looks like great value for money.
 
For those in the Cape Town area, the ADATA S102 16GB is now available from Wootware. Not sure if they plan on offering the 8GB & 32GB versions as well though.
 
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