|
OCZ Rally 2 USB Thumb Drive
Introduction
OCZ’s reputation for fast memory is, of course, what they’ve built their name around. Though the flash drive doesn’t have the classic OCZ cheese-grater heatspreaders, it is completely clad in what looks to me to be lightly powder coated aluminum. Which makes it one of the toughest, if simple, flash drives I’ve ever used. The charcoal body has its decorations but nothing that stand out over the blazing orange activity light. That doesn’t mean that I think the design is flawless. The cap comes off completely, so it’s completely reasonable to lose it, and the stiff carapace isn’t moored to the actual hardware on the inside and it’s possible to flex the USB port. But you can buy caps from their website, that’s, generous, of them. The Rally 2 is protected by a lifetime warranty, which means that by the time you end up destroying it, well, it’ll probably be out of date, and you won’t send it in, but maybe you’ll have the brand recognition to buy a Rally 6 (or whatever).  I tested the drive by copying files to and from it, timing things with a stopwatch. I tested the read and write speeds four different ways, first with a CD-sized single file, an ISO, to check large file sizes. For medium file sizes, I transferred a folder full of 10MB raw images, for small files, I used a folder of about 1.5MB .jpg images, and for tiny files, I used a folder full of Windows system files averaging 20K each.
680 MB (680 MB Files)
(Show All Graphs)
27.55
27.2
27.2
20
0
MB/s (higher is better)
31.6825
10.79
10.3
9.06
4.59
0
MB/s (higher is better)
31.6825
500 MB (10 MB Files)
(Show All Graphs)
26.31
26.3
21.73
18.51
0
MB/s (higher is better)
30.2565
7.69
7.24
5.43
4.23
0
MB/s (higher is better)
30.2565
250 MB (1.5 MB Files)
(Show All Graphs)
27.7
19.23
17.85
15.63
0
MB/s (higher is better)
31.855
5
2.97
1.98
1.92
0
MB/s (higher is better)
31.855
250 MB (20 KB Files)
(Show All Graphs)
9.25
8.62
8.33
8.3
0
MB/s (higher is better)
10.6375
2.97
1.85
0.66
0.33
0
MB/s (higher is better)
10.6375
I was just impressed by the read performance. Most of the time transfer speeds were above 25MB/s, except with the tiny files of varied size, and the Rally 2 still managed about 10MB/s. When writing files, this flash drive puts up a good show, matching other high-end flash drives with large files, but it really cleans up with the small and tiny files. I know that 3MB/s doesn’t seem like a great transfer speed but to give you an idea, that’s ten times faster than another similarly-priced, premium flash drive. Well-constructed and bright, I’m most impressed with the Rally 2’s performance. This is a great high-capacity flash drive that handles files of all sorts. I wouldn’t toss it in with the dirty laundry, though.  This drive is fast in all applications, it’s tough, it’s small, and it’s not flashy or gimmicky. It doesn’t have the best cap out there and I wouldn’t use it as a key chain, but I will use it every day. For everything. Pros  Performance champ SimpleCons  Cap’s loose 
Related Reviews Thumb Drives July 14, 2009
Thumb Drives July 12, 2009
Thumb Drives April 23, 2009
Thumb Drives January 28, 2005
Add Comment
3 User Comments 1 - Posted by
fondulac
on June 23, 2009 - 3:00 pm 2009-06-23T19:57:37Z The cap is one of the nicest features. For wimpy girls with weak fingers, it's off and on very easily. Tough guys with thick fingers can add a little square of duct tape between the cap shell and separate liner so that they'll need to focus and concentrate to get the cap off. OCZ beats the competition. 2 - Posted by
phoenix00
on June 23, 2009 - 6:48 pm I have 2GB and 4GB versions of this same drive and I echo your sentiments exactly -- great performance, durable construction, lifetime warranty, and easily misplaced cap! It's also become my everything/everywhere/everyday drive. I would like to add the just-right size. Small enough to slip into any pocket, bag, knapsack, or purse, yet large enough to not disappear into the ether. One minor nitpicks about the review though: a stopwatch isn't the most scientific method of measuring throughput (due to caching, multitasking, human response, etc). You should check out HDTune and/or Flash Memory Toolkit for more consistent benchmarking. Otherwise great review! Enjoyable read. 3 - Posted by
Max Slowik
on June 24, 2009 - 10:10 pm Thanks for the tip with Flash Memory Toolkit, I'll look into it. I actually got much less consistent results with HDTune as well as a few other utilities before just going with a stopwatch. The tests are done multiple times, with an average of the lot and aberrant results pitched. I gotta say, you have no idea how mind-numbing testing transfer speeds is with a stopwatch until you do it for a few hours. Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
Recent Articles Editorials August 27, 2009
Editorials August 18, 2009
Editorials March 3, 2009
Editorials February 12, 2009
Recent News Inside Bay Area Jan. 29, 2010 - 12:08 am
Ars Technica Jan. 28, 2010 - 11:58 pm
Develop Online Jan. 27, 2010 - 11:48 pm
Rock Paper Shotgun Jan. 27, 2010 - 11:31 pm
Tom's Hardware Jan. 27, 2010 - 11:23 pm
Rock Paper Shotgun Jan. 26, 2010 - 11:56 pm
MSNBC Jan. 25, 2010 - 10:54 pm
cnet Jan. 25, 2010 - 10:27 pm
CNN Jan. 18, 2010 - 11:47 pm
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
