Performance

Our testing of this drive consists of two parts. The first part is the speed and performance of the drive, which is quite obvious. However, because of SanDisk's claims that the Cruzer Titanium is "virtually indestructible' and can withstand up to 2,000 pounds of pressure, I decided that I should run it over with my car... for testing purposes... yes...

SiSoftware Sandra 2005

Sandra is designed to test the theoretical performance of a computer's components. The results may not be representative of real-world performance.

SiSoftware Sandra 2005

Drive Index

SanDisk Titanium

Corsair Flash Voyager

Crucial Gizmo!

16

19

6

0

MB/s (higher is better)

30

 

 

Sandra 2005 Details
SanDisk Titanium Buffered Read: 16 MB/s Sequential Read: 16 MB/s Random Read: 16 MB/s Buffered Write: 3.6 MB/s Sequential Write: 13 MB/s Random Write: 10 MB/s Average Access Time: 1 ms	Corsair Flash Voyager Buffered Read: 19 MB/s Sequential Read: 19 MB/s Random Read: 19 MB/s Buffered Write: 14 MB/s Sequential Write: 5 MB/s Random Write: 15 MB/s Average Access Time: 20 ms	Crucial Gizmo! Buffered Read: 6 MB/s Sequential Read: 6 MB/s Random Read: 6 MB/s Buffered Write: 1.2 MB/s Sequential Write: 6 MB/s Random Write: 3.8 MB/s Average Access Time: 2 ms

While not an exact indication of the drive's real-world performance, the Cruzer Titanium looks like it will do very well.

Simpli Software HDTach 3

HDTach 3 has been completely rewritten for Windows 2000 and XP and will test the sequential read, random access and interface burst speeds of almost any attached storage device. While HDTach's results should be fairly close to real-world usage, it is still a benchmarking program and may not exactly represent actual performance.

Simpli Software HDTach 3

Random Access Speed

SanDisk Titanium

Corsair Flash Voyager

Crucial Gizmo!

0.8

19.9

0.6

0

milliseconds (lower is better)

30

 

 

Simpli Software HDTach 3

CPU Utilization

Corsair Flash Voyager

SanDisk Titanium

Crucial Gizmo!

23

11

4

0

% (lower is better)

100

 

 

HDTach shows results very similar to Sandra. The Voyager is the leader, but the Cruzer Titanium is following right behind and performing almost three times faster than the Gizmo.

NoDeSoft DiskBench 2.4.2.2

DiskBench basically copies a file from point A to point B and records how long it took. For our tests, we had the program copy a 345 MB file from the hard drive to the USB drives and spit out the transfer speeds. Due to the nature of this program, these results should do an extremely good job of representing the actual performance of the drives.

The DiskBench shows performance extremely close to that which we would see in the 'real world.' This test simply copied a file and timed it and once again, the Titanium is doing a great job, but still can't surpass the Voyager.

Physical Testing

SanDisk claims that the Cruzer Titanium can survive up to 2,000 pounds of pressure. Here is a quote from their website:

"Cruzer Titanium is virtually indestructible, capable of surviving a force of up-to 2,000 pounds, simulating abnormal usage conditions. This specification is based on a SanDisk test environment, validated by an independent laboratory. No other claims as to its ability to withstand other destructive forces or abnormal environmental conditions, including but not limited to, extreme temperatures, corrosive ambients, X -Rays or other radiation, etc, are made by this claim."

As you are probably already aware of, we don't have a test facility for applying pressure to hardware, but that won't stop us from having our fun! In order to test the durability of the thumb drive (to an extent), I fired up my Vintage 1995 Chevy Lumina. Now this is what I call the apex of automobiles! Now, rolling over the drive with a rubber tire alone didn't seem like it would do the trick. In order to sandwich the drive between two hard surfaces, I placed a wood board on the ground and a 2x4 on top of the drive. Then I shifted into reverse, revved up the engine and listened to the thundering growl of the V6! Meet your impending doom Cruzer Titanium! Bahahaha!


Anyway, I rolled on top of the Titanium and checked to see if it was withstanding the weight of the car. Everything seemed to be intact so I rolled back off and inspected the drive for any damage. Visually, the drive seemed to be in good condition. Didn't look smashed and there was no circuitry popping out. Everything seemed well until I pushed the slider to extend the USB connector. Unfortunately, the casing compressed ever so slightly as to give the slider a little resistance. The slider was back to its original state, being a pain in the butt to move. When plugging the drive into a computer, everything worked, the LED lit up and the drive was still in good working order.