PenDriveUSA 32mb Pen Drive

Reviews: Storage

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
PenDriveUSA
May. 23, 2003

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One of the best things about this product, and all other usb drives, is the compact size and portability. The Pen Drive, like many other usb drives, has an optional neckstrap. The Pen Drive also features a pocket clip on the cap to let you clip it to your pocket like a pen. It is nice to have the two options for carrying the compact device, as carrying it in your bare hands could lead to dropping it or misplacing it.

Yet another great feature with the Pen Drive is that there is an optional (included in my case) base. The base allows for easy plug-in access for the Pen Drive. Rather than having to reach around the back of your computer, or even have to plug it into the front of your case, all you need to do is place it on the base on your desktop. You will notice that when you have the Pen Drive plugged in and you are transferring files, the red activity LED will flash. Note that you do not need the base by any means, it is merely a USB extension cable with a base for convenience.

Depending on how much you want to spend, the Pen Drives can be bought with up to 2.0 GB capacity! That is over 2 Full CD-R's worth of data with no burning required, just plug in and transfer. If you want to get the most use out of your usb drive, capacity and speed are very important, and the Pen Drives have both.

The Pen Drive also utilizes USB 2.0 technology, allowing for transfer rates up to 40 times faster than with USB 1.1. Unfortunately, on my test system I do not have USB 2.0 capabilities, only 1.1. My partner, however, does have USB 2.0 capabilities courtesy of DFI with their KT400A LANPARTY motherboard which we will have a review up of shortly. This device still works fine with USB 1.1, just not 40 times faster. The limitation is due to my motherboard (Biostar M7VIG), and if you want to get maximum speed out of this device, you will want to have a motherboard with USB 2.0 capabilities. USB 2.0 motherboards are backwards compatible if you have other USB 1.1 devices, but they allow a greater maximum speed, a definite plus.

There is also a built-in security feature with this device. Using a hard-to-reach switch on the side of the Pen Drive, you can enable/disable write-protection on the usb drive so that your files can not be overwritten. This is a good feature, but if you want better security you will need to get the SECURE version of the pen drive, and I am reviewing the regular pen drive.

Setup

Setup doesn't entail much with usb drives. If you have ever plugged in any USB device, you should be able to figure out how to setup this USB drive. After all, the USB plug is the only thing it can connect to, so you can't really mess up (knock on wood). As mentioned before, there is also sortware included with the USB Drive, if you do not have windows XP you will probably have to install the drivers from the CD to be able to use it.

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Page 1: First Looks
Page 2: Features & Setup
Page 3: Testing & Conclusion

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11 User Comments

1 - Posted by ELiTE KiLLaH on May 23, 2003 - 2:59 pm

lol felt like letting ppl know u have enermax psu by bolding
haha :wink:

maybe have current prices for the reviewed products?

2 - Posted by Kurtis on May 23, 2003 - 3:05 pm

I dont have it bolded, it is a link to enermax's site because they sponsored us with it. I promise all sponsors that i will link to them when we use their items in other articles / reviews. I would have put pen drive price, but prices change and I dont want to have to update it later heh

3 - Posted by Brian on May 23, 2003 - 3:15 pm

Prices also vary alot from store to store. This is one reason we don't list prices. If the price is a big factor no matter where the product is from, we will mention it in the review.

4 - Posted by ELiTE KiLLaH on May 23, 2003 - 11:02 pm

lol iknow i was just pullin yer leg on the enermax one (notice the ;) heh)

you could write like at the time for the price or whtever, but meh its all good
whtaever floats ur boat

5 - Posted by Kurtis on May 23, 2003 - 11:07 pm

my boat is afloat sir :P

6 - Posted by Kardon on May 23, 2003 - 11:52 pm

I love the pen drives, 'cept they're usually kinda slow.... they're getting faster now.. but overall, I like em... easier then transfering to a CD-R, or RW... then wasting the rest of the CD

7 - Posted by Kurtis on May 24, 2003 - 12:09 am

yea i would like to geta 2gb pen drive, and take it to lan parties lol. wheeeeee

8 - Posted by ELiTE KiLLaH on May 24, 2003 - 12:39 am

or create multisession cd ;)

but yah, pen drives were a damn good idea

9 - Posted by Kurtis on May 24, 2003 - 12:43 am

um can u fit 2 gb on a cdrw? dont think so :-p

that would take several trips. thats no fun

10 - Posted by ELiTE KiLLaH on May 24, 2003 - 2:31 am

with multi colored/layered or wahtever it was technology yes
too bad it never really took off lol

11 - Posted by Kurtis on May 24, 2003 - 2:37 am

lol multi colored?

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