Corsair is a name that should need no introduction for regular readers of this site and other enthusiast hangouts. Long known for making high-speed, quality ram, they have supplied VL with gigabytes of ram modules which have mostly gained positive results from within our labs.
This year, we've seen Corsair push it's way into other sectors outside of desktop memory. While USB flash drives are really nothing new, Corsair's Flash Voyager does carry the reputation of being near invincible when it comes to actually breaking the thing. In an earlier review, we doused it in a sink of water, ran it through a wash and dry cycle and all the data stored remained intact. We didn't do anything like drive a hammer into it, but it that's how abusive a user may be with their hardware, then perhaps they do not deserve it.
Today we'll be looking at the 4GB version of the Flash Voyager. This ties the largest capacity of "standard" thumb drives we've seen thus far, and doubles on the capacity of their previous 2GB flagship model.
Corsair Flash Voyager
Corsair packages the Flash Voyager in a clear plastic shell as they do with most of their memory products. We will mention that it's pretty well sealed and if you're not too careful, it'll take a finger off while opening it. Along with the Flash Voyager, there is a lanyard, a short USB 2.0 extension cable and a mini driver CD for Windows 98 driver installation. Post Windows 98 and most Linux distros are supported out of the box.
Despite the higher capacity, the dimensions are the same as previous Flash Voyagers, measuring about 3" x 0.75" x 0.5". The flash drive is covered by a black and blue rubber shell, and while it is quite solid, there is a bit of give in the rubber material to soften any bumps the drive may go through during its lifetime. The company's URL, logo and the drive's brand name are all embossed on the drive itself, giving it a bit of a non-slip grip.
I wasn't much of a fan of the look of the Flash Voyager when it first came out, but have gotten used to it over time. One thing I'm still not used to is the drive is one heck of a dust magnet. The pictures above are about 2 minutes after removing the drive, and already the dust on the desk is finding itself a new home. For most flash drives, we'd recommend using masking tape to clean it (sticky side picks up dust great), but given our past history with the drive, I'd feel comfortable using running water (with the drive's USB cap on).
Both the cap and lanyard loop are made of the same rubber as the drive itself. As with the cap, the loop is fairly flexible but after some tugging and pulling with the lanyard in place, the loop never tore. Between the product logo and the lanyard loop is a small blue LED which lights up during operation.
Something to note, since we're hearing more of it these days, is that the 4GB version of the Flash Voyager does indeed use Dual Channel ram. In fact, all of the Flash Voyagers, with the exception of the 128MB version, uses Dual Channel. Corsair never really screamed this feature out, but since other companies seem to be making a point of this, our Corsair rep gave me this reminder before we began the review. We will look into this a little more during testing.
Test Setup
ASUS P5WD2 Premium: Intel 3.73GHz Extreme Edition, 2 x 512MB Corsair TWIN2X PC5400, ATI Radeon X850XT, 73GB WD Raptor, Windows XP SP1.
Comparison hardware will be a couple 128MB and 512MB Corsair Flash Voyagers, a Kingston 512MB Data Traveler and a Seagate Pocket Drive.
Testing will be broken down into several parts:
1) Read/Write a 438MB zip file. We will copy a large zip file containing various patches, and drivers from the removable media to the Raptor (read test). We will then reverse the process and copy to the media from the Raptor (write test).
2) Write small files. Same procedure as above (focussed on writes only), except there will be a lone 25MB file (ATI Cat 5.10 driver package).
3) Read/Write a 715MB AVI using the same hardware as #1, except comparing the Flash Voyager to the Seagate Pocket Drive.
All times shown in the charts will be in minutes and seconds, and lower times are better.
Write - 438MB zip file
Read - 438MB zip file
Both the 512MB and 4GB versions of the Flash Voyager are neck and neck in both the read and write testing. We didn't quite meet Corsair's speed specifications, but that probably cannot be done unless we match their lab environment. Still, the 4GB Flash Voyager does illustrate it's Dual Channel strength over the 128MB Flash Voyager and Kingston drive.
Write - 25MB File
Similar results as we've seen with the larger files, and very little difference between all the drives here.
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