DH Review: Corsair Flash Voyager GT 8GB

***Zardon*** · May 11, 2007, 05:34 AM

Read The Review Here
____________________________

The demand for ultra-mobile storage and the quick development of flash memory during the past few years has led to the high popularity that USB flash drives enjoy today. Flash drives are rarely supplied from companies who manufacture mechanical drives; they are usually built by RAM manufacturers since they are basically flash memory without any moving parts. Perhaps the most reputable RAM manufacturer, Corsair, is no exception as they are one of the first RAM manufacturers which offered USB flash drives and one of the few which designs their drives to be extremely tolerant to abuse. Today we will take a look at their latest, largest and fastest USB 2.0 flash drive, the 8GB Voyager GT.

Erroneus · May 11, 2007, 10:31 AM

I would loooooooooooove to se this one tested against A-data's PD7 8 GB drive, which should be one of the fastest drives on the market, also lexar lightning would be interesting to see a comparison of, but I'm pretty sure it would beat both of them anyway.

mkk · May 11, 2007, 01:19 PM

A nice stick, if a bit fat so a very short USB cable could have been included in the package for ease of use. Impressive practical test results. If possible I'd like to see some HD Tach seek time scores for ease of comparison.

Has any manufacturer been talking about eSATA flash drives yet?

**Grace** · May 11, 2007, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkk

A nice stick, if a bit fat so a very short USB cable could have been included in the package for ease of use. Impressive practical test results. If possible I'd like to see some HD Tach seek time scores for ease of comparison.

There is an USB cable included in the package. First page, 3rd picture.

Seek times are not applicable for flash drives. They are always below 1ms.

mkk · May 11, 2007, 04:09 PM

Yeah but how much below?

Perhaps it can't be measured reliably below 1ms, though I have one here that according to HD Tach consistently rates as 1.0 and another as 0.7.

Missed the cable, should've read the article better.

brutusmaximus · May 11, 2007, 06:28 PM

I was wondering about this drive for a while and if it was worth the premium.

Those data transfer times are insane and would have been unheard of a year or so ago, guess its time to go shopping online and order a couple !

Thanks grace, nice review.

jimmylao · May 24, 2007, 04:06 PM

These new GT flash drives are worth it. I got my sister one for her birthday in mid-april. She loves the transfer rates and has no complaints. When she saw the 10-year warranty she said one word "Wow."

mkk · Jul 10, 2007, 09:19 PM

Just got me the Voyager GT's 4GB "younger brother", and it's doing well. Not as fast as the 8GB variant in your test as I'm getting about 22MB/s write and 24MB/s read on that ATTO benchmark, compared to 24.5 and 32. It's probably normal and having to do with different memory chip configurations but on the other hand I have a feeling that my systems USB might not be an ideal performer(update: tested with new motherboard and this 4GB stick definitely is not quite as fast as the 8GB model). Anyway my 4GB figures might be interesting for someone that hesitates between the two.

HD Tach figures the random access time to be 0.6ms which is impressive. That and the write performance really stands out from common USB drives.

I got this mostly for utilitarian uses like installing Vista from a stick to temporary Linux installations, but it seems to also make Vistas Readyboost feature meaningful even on a system with 2GB RAM. At least so that it'll be running as such when not needed for something else.

May 11, 2007, 05:34 AM	#1
*Zardon* enchanted Join Date: May 2002 Location: Driverheaven Posts: 32,269 Rep Power: 3150	DH Review: Corsair Flash Voyager GT 8GB Read The Review Here ____________________________ The demand for ultra-mobile storage and the quick development of flash memory during the past few years has led to the high popularity that USB flash drives enjoy today. Flash drives are rarely supplied from companies who manufacture mechanical drives; they are usually built by RAM manufacturers since they are basically flash memory without any moving parts. Perhaps the most reputable RAM manufacturer, Corsair, is no exception as they are one of the first RAM manufacturers which offered USB flash drives and one of the few which designs their drives to be extremely tolerant to abuse. Today we will take a look at their latest, largest and fastest USB 2.0 flash drive, the 8GB Voyager GT.

May 11, 2007, 10:31 AM	#2
Erroneus Loving my Windows 7 Ent. Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 12,921 Rep Power: 77 System Specs	I would loooooooooooove to se this one tested against A-data's PD7 8 GB drive, which should be one of the fastest drives on the market, also lexar lightning would be interesting to see a comparison of, but I'm pretty sure it would beat both of them anyway. __________________

May 11, 2007, 01:19 PM	#3
mkk cheap philanthropist Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 3,698 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	A nice stick, if a bit fat so a very short USB cable could have been included in the package for ease of use. Impressive practical test results. If possible I'd like to see some HD Tach seek time scores for ease of comparison. Has any manufacturer been talking about eSATA flash drives yet? __________________ Playing Dragon Age, might forget everything else. Last edited by mkk; May 11, 2007 at 01:46 PM.

May 11, 2007, 04:09 PM	#5
mkk cheap philanthropist Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 3,698 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	Yeah but how much below? Perhaps it can't be measured reliably below 1ms, though I have one here that according to HD Tach consistently rates as 1.0 and another as 0.7. Missed the cable, should've read the article better. __________________ Playing Dragon Age, might forget everything else.

May 11, 2007, 06:28 PM	#6
brutusmaximus DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 525 Rep Power: 60	I was wondering about this drive for a while and if it was worth the premium. Those data transfer times are insane and would have been unheard of a year or so ago, guess its time to go shopping online and order a couple ! Thanks grace, nice review. __________________

May 24, 2007, 04:06 PM	#7
jimmylao DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 117 Rep Power: 0	These new GT flash drives are worth it. I got my sister one for her birthday in mid-april. She loves the transfer rates and has no complaints. When she saw the 10-year warranty she said one word "Wow."

Jul 10, 2007, 09:19 PM	#8
mkk cheap philanthropist Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 3,698 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	Just got me the Voyager GT's 4GB "younger brother", and it's doing well. Not as fast as the 8GB variant in your test as I'm getting about 22MB/s write and 24MB/s read on that ATTO benchmark, compared to 24.5 and 32. It's probably normal and having to do with different memory chip configurations but on the other hand I have a feeling that my systems USB might not be an ideal performer(update: tested with new motherboard and this 4GB stick definitely is not quite as fast as the 8GB model). Anyway my 4GB figures might be interesting for someone that hesitates between the two. HD Tach figures the random access time to be 0.6ms which is impressive. That and the write performance really stands out from common USB drives. I got this mostly for utilitarian uses like installing Vista from a stick to temporary Linux installations, but it seems to also make Vistas Readyboost feature meaningful even on a system with 2GB RAM. At least so that it'll be running as such when not needed for something else. __________________ Playing Dragon Age, might forget everything else. Last edited by mkk; Oct 23, 2007 at 07:43 PM.