Everyone knows the routine about shopping online. Usually, the first step you have to do is your research and that is when the problem starts. Nobody likes to research on their own time because it takes too long. Not everyone is like that but, in general, it is very time consuming to mix and match your options while checking out the prices. Well, that’s what this guide is for but for USB flash drives. With this guide, you can shave some time off your research by knowing what to look for when you start reading the description or specification sheets online.
The first thing to look out for is the transfer rate of the drive that you are interested in. With each transfer, there is a read and write speed that each USB can achieve depending on the chip set and the computer that is being used. Generally, some websites will not have that kind of information on their website but most do have it. As a rule of thumb, most flash drives average about 10MB/s read speed and a 3MB/s write speed for the lower end models (I will refer the first speed as read and the second one as write.) For the higher end models, it can vary from 16MB/s and 10MB/s to 32MB/s and 20MB/s. Keep in mind that these can change from each manufacturer so take some time to see what you want out of your flash drive.
Another thing to look out for is the type of chips that are inside the flash drive. Most companies won’t say what kind of chip set they use on their website but for your reference there are only two types that are used which is MLC and SLC. MLC stands for Multi Layer Cell where three bits of information is stored into one cell while SLC (Single Layer Cell) stores one bit of information in each cell. You may be thinking, “shouldn’t MLC be faster than SLC?” Well it’s really the exact opposite. Think of it as if there are three cars going to one destination: there will be traffic to see which one would go first but on a smaller scale. Compared to only one car going to one destination, there is very little traffic for that information to get through. If you’re looking for fast transfer speeds, make sure it has SLC inside it.
The last aspect you should look for is the design of the flash drive. There are all sorts of kinds from the extremely tiny ones to the ones that have your favorite Star Wars character on them. Some of them even have a retractable heads for a cap-less design or a swivel design that act’s like a pocket knife without the danger. Whichever one you choose may be too large to fit in the back of the computer. You may want to consider the size of the drive before you purchase, just in case it doesn’t work out.
That’s all the tips I can offer you at the moment.
