USB hardware benchmarks (& testing...)

Discuss hardware related to portable usage, including the kind of storage devices people use, and how they use them.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6705
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

USB hardware benchmarks (& testing...)

#1 Post by Midas »

IMHO, in a forum dedicated to portable freeware, people should be able to find as well some kind of guidance, however summary, to the hardware it can be run on; for this effect, I propose the community register their benchmarking results here at this thread, in adequate manner for easy consultation.

Some kind of methodology is advisable for this case, so here:
  1. The purpose here is to have some 'quick and dirty' benchmarking results that can help the general public in deciding which hardware has better prospects for carrying and running portable programs;
  2. Following suit with common practices adhered to elsewhere, I propose a minimum benchmarking toolkit made of:
    • CrystalDisk Mark, currently at v3.0.1c, non-stealth [ Writes settings to: %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\CrystalDiskMark30.ini ]
      http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1616 wrote:CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software that measures performance for sequential reads/writes and random 4KB/512KB reads/writes for any storage device. It does not require the target device to be formatted.
    • HD Tune v2.55, last freeware version, non-stealth: [ Writes settings to: Windows registry ] But note what user CD said: [ I was worried that this program writes to the registry (HKLM\HDTune), but you can avoid this by NEVER changing the default options/configurations. You can look at the options, just DO NOT click OK. There are very few options anyways and the default options are fine. ]
      http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=182 wrote:HD Tune is a hard disk utility that has the following functions: information (partition information, firmware version, serial number etc.), benchmark (transfer rate, access time, burst rate etc.), health (S.M.A.R.T parameters, temperature etc.) and whole disk surface scan.
  3. Run Crystal Disk Mark, select 3 for "Number Test Runs", 1000MB for "Test Size", and your drive letter for "Test Drive"; avoid using your PC while test runs and when it finishes, select the Crystal Disk Mark dialog, press ALT+PrtSc, launch MS Paint, paste, and save image in PNG format; now run HD Tune, choose your drive from the top drop-down control and press the 'Start' button; when all the black fields under it are filled, the test will be finished and you can press the top left 'Blue Floppy' button so save a PNG screenshot and upload to one of the services listed in one the pages below (http://www.min.us/ seems to be the hot newcomer), taking care to note the given URLs somewhere;
    http://www.techsupportalert.com/content ... nd-Sharing
    http://techozens.com/892/free-image-hos ... gistration
  4. Reply here, copy and paste the name of the automatically created HD Tune screenshot into the post 'Subject' field (minus extension), add the drive's nominal capacity to that, paste the URLs of your uploaded screenshots enclosed in [img] tags into the 'Message body', optionally write any remarks you wish below the screenshots (it would be rather enlightening if you took the time to search usbspeed.nirsoft.net for an equivalent entry and posted the respective link), and submit.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6705
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: USB hardware benchmarks (& testing...)

#2 Post by Midas »

Whew! Sorry for the longish post, but I couldn't be sure it would be absolutely clear any other way. :oops:

I'll follow up soon with an exemplifying post.

Feel free to comment and advise -- if this is considered out of bounds for TPFC forums, I will take it down ASAP.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6705
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

HDTune_Benchmark_SanDisk_Cruzer_Contour 8GB

#3 Post by Midas »

Image

Image

Image

http://usbspeed.nirsoft.net/?vname=SanD ... &pid=21510
http://usbflashspeed.com/search/?size=8Gb&model=contour

I'm partial to the Sandisk Cruzer Contour series (I have 3 of different denominations) since, from my experience, they have been consistently the best price / quality / durability relation (plus, with some U3 tweaking, an windows XP ISO file can be set on it as a virtual CD-ROM drive). On the down side, they can be viewed as bulky nowadays. This is my main drive.
Last edited by Midas on Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: USB hardware benchmarks (& testing...)

#4 Post by webfork »

Midas wrote:IMHO, in a forum dedicated to portable freeware, people should be able to find as well some kind of guidance, however summary, to the hardware it can be run on
Its a good idea, but we might have gotten beaten to the punch on this. Baas talked about this in the other thread:

http://usbspeed.nirsoft.net/

Has a pretty cool listing of drives and their speeds.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6705
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: USB hardware benchmarks (& testing...)

#5 Post by Midas »

webfork wrote: Its a good idea, but we might have gotten beaten to the punch on this. Baas talked about this in the other thread:

http://usbspeed.nirsoft.net/

Has a pretty cool listing of drives and their speeds.
I took heed of that contribution by Baas, it's where I got the usbspeed link idea. :)

Still, I think this would supplement Nir Soft's database with a more personalized, visual and granular approach -- I saw no easy way to link exclusively to 8GB Cruzers, for instance, and with the proposed methodology one doesn't have to rely on a single tool result. I'm open to feedback though, so this is all tentative.

User avatar
I am Baas
Posts: 4150
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 4:51 am

Re: USB hardware benchmarks (& testing...)

#6 Post by I am Baas »

@Midas

http://usbflashspeed.com/

The benchmarking/testing application requires the .net framework to run.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6705
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: USB hardware benchmarks (& testing...)

#7 Post by Midas »

I am Baas wrote:@Midas

http://usbflashspeed.com/

The benchmarking/testing application requires the .net framework to run.
Excellent resource, Baas.

Since there seem to be all those benchmarks databases already on the Net, I'm tempted to substitute what I posted at the top of the topic, which now looks like a rather convoluted testing process, by an adequate image of the product alongside the relevant links to those databases, and maybe an optional step to run the USBFlashSpeed tool or the one from Datamarck... :?

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6705
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

ADATA_S102_8GB_USB3

#8 Post by Midas »

Image

Image

Image

Image

USBFlashSpeed.com results @ http://usbflashspeed.com/device/21056

NirSoft USBSpeed: http://usbspeed.nirsoft.net/?vid=4703&pid=12586

(Tests above run under Windows XP x64 SP2)

Not yet fully tested replacement for the beloved Cruzer Contours... dirt cheap, at about € 2 for GigaByte.

Post Reply