Having just done a review of the EMTEC USB3 128GB flash drive, I was inspired to go on and check the performance of a range of Sandisk flash drives I own. The disk benchmarking software I use for the comparisons is CrystalDiskMark. For reference, I’ve used Officeworks pricing. I suspect better pricing is available if you’re prepared to go looking.
Sandisk Cruzer Facet – 8GB (USB2)
Compact and robust so they are easy to store away, these flash drives are inexpensive at around AUS$5 (62¢/GB) and are sometimes on sale in a five pack. Being small though, they are not a great general purpose drive as they’re easy to misplace. As they’re not particularly fast, they’re best for applications where they are infrequently accessed or where speed is not that critical. I use these for Windows recovery drives and as boot drives for my NAS devices. My brother uses them for listening to music in his car.
Sandisk Ultra USB 3.0 – 64GB
This is my go to drive for everyday use. It’s a great all rounder with a good balance of read and write speeds, and is relatively inexpensive at around AUS$40 (62¢/GB).
Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 – 64GB
When I’m doing some serious work, this is my preferred drive. It’s performance specs are impressive and it’s probably the best flash drive on the market today. However, it is expensive at around AUS$111 ($1.73/GB).
I note that this drive is no longer listed on the Sandisk site. It seems to me that the Sandisk Extreme Go USB3.1 flash drive is replacing it.
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