New USB Flash Drive

[Kenshiin]

I'm looking to get either a 16gb or 32gb depending on price/quality but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to manufacturers and speeds. I looked on Amazon but I couldn't really tell the difference. Can I get some recommendations for a couple quality flash drives at a good price? I'm looking to spend probably around $40 for a 16gb or $70 for a 32gb. Something that's on Amazon that's Prime eligible would be wonderful. Thanks

[Kohan]

Not only is Corsair quality, but this comes with a ten year warranty (be sure to register it):

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Flash-...4274869&sr=1-2

Beyond that, there's always Kingston, who offers similar quality and a five year warranty:

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-DataT...4275068&sr=1-2

Enjoy.

[Caiyuo]

Just out of curiosity is there a reason you're specifically looking at flash/thumb drives and in those quantities?

[Bloodfire]

Just out of curiosity is there a reason you're specifically looking at flash/thumb drives and in those quantities?

Midget porn on the go

No but seriously, isn't there USB 3.0 out now? there has to be flash drives that support that.

EDIT: Found 3.0 USB , http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...+drive&x=0&y=0

Nothing from corsair and I don't know those manufactures, so I can't give an honest opinion.

[Kenshiin]

I have movies and anime that I'd like to be able to move around with me or loan out to friends and family and I'm tired of making cds for it. I'm looking at something more than 8gb so I can put more than 1 bluray movie on it. I want to be able to plug it into a TV/PS3/laptop and watch shows off it.

Thanks for the heads up about USB 3.0, now I have to decide if I want to wait a little longer for a quality manufacturer to make one. Do my devices have to support 3.0 to make use of it?

[Sigi]

No, USB 3.0 is spec'd to be backwards-compatible with previous versions of USB. This was an intentional design that started with USB 2.0 being backwards-compatible with USB 1.1

[Bloodfire]

I'd need to know what Motherboard you have to know if you can support USB 3.0

I think 3.0 is pretty new atm, so only your newer motherboards will have it.

If you are planning on putting video on a stick go big with your GB, especially if you plan on putting Bluray on the damn thing, holy christ. bluray movies range from like 7 to 11 GB each.

if you have deep pockets you can buy this stickly beast:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820139147

or may I recommend an external HDD like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148565

That HDD is 500 GB and small enough to fit in your pocket... back pocket

[Weeks]

Unless you're talking about uncompressed 1080p video (In which case, you're going to need an even bigger drive), a good USB 2.0 drive would seem to have enough bandwidth for you.

[Kohan]

I have movies and anime that I'd like to be able to move around with me or loan out to friends and family and I'm tired of making cds for it. I'm looking at something more than 8gb so I can put more than 1 bluray movie on it. I want to be able to plug it into a TV/PS3/laptop and watch shows off it.

These aren't going to support USB 3.0 (game systems especially), and your relatives'/friends' computers likely won't either. Beyond that, the major flash drive manufacturers don't have a large amount of devices for it yet, either.

Also, as someone else has mentioned, USB 2.0 is more than sufficient for watching movies. I do it all the time.

There's no real need for you to adopt the very young 3.0 technology.

EDIT: To be a little more specific, 3.0's advantages will be lost in the majority of your applications. Even many newer motherboards still don't support 3.0, just to give you an idea. By the time 3.0 is widespread, you'll likely be able to comfortably purchase a brand new flash drive anyway. However, if you're loaning this out to people, you may want to get an external HDD instead -- you don't have to get a huge one (so you needn't exceed your current flash drive spending budget), but it'll be tougher for people to lose an HDD compared to a little thumb stick. If you trust the people you're loaning it to, it may be a non-issue anyway.

[Shadowrunner]

I think if you're patient you might be able to pull of some nice prices... can't promise amazon though...

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch...20-%20External

Free shipping? 16 GB - $20 after rebate, 30 otherwise. Still beats the 40 requested.

EDIT: Lied, here's amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Xporte...lickdeals&ses=
68 before rebate, 48 after. Not bad.

Please note: this is a price comparison. I'd look at reviews from multiple sites to gague your luck with the brands.

EDIT2: Hey, supposedly there's a code you can enter to save another 10 on the 32GB. You know what, i'll just link slickdeals, it'll be of help: http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/37834

[Caiyuo]

I have movies and anime that I'd like to be able to move around with me or loan out to friends and family and I'm tired of making cds for it. I'm looking at something more than 8gb so I can put more than 1 bluray movie on it. I want to be able to plug it into a TV/PS3/laptop and watch shows off it.

Thanks for the heads up about USB 3.0, now I have to decide if I want to wait a little longer for a quality manufacturer to make one. Do my devices have to support 3.0 to make use of it?

My thinking is that you'd just as easily be able to grab a small USB hard drive for $50 or so with much more capacity and have a situation almost as simple. Something like a 250GB Seagate Free Agent Go would run you just about that and since it runs off of USB power you only have the single cable and no power cords to worry about.

[Kohan]

Also, many of the devices on NewEgg can also be found on Amazon, which will enable evading taxes and using Amazon Prime shipping. Behold, a USB drive within your budget (the 320GB one, in case you have to manually select it):

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAg...4444379&sr=8-1

[Shojin]

Buy a 2.5" drive and pop it in an enclosure, more space for less money. Pro tip: 2.5" hard drives can be powered through USB so don't need an AC adapter.

Check this out:
500gb 2.5" - $55: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita.../dp/B001JSSDGU
2.5" Enclosure - $13: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182138

500gb cheaper than what you'd be paying above for only 320gb.

[Kohan]

Buy a 2.5" drive and pop it in an enclosure, more space for less money. Pro tip: 2.5" hard drives can be powered through USB so don't need an AC adapter. [...]

500gb cheaper than what you'd be paying above for only 320gb.

If you don't mind getting your hands dirty (though this is really quite simple), I condone this option.

[Kerberoz]

Is there honestly any difference in thumbdrives? excluding the obvious chinese knockoff crap that's going to fall apart in a week, I'd say just get the cheapest/gb. Or better yet, get a portable HDD/SSD.

[Knyghtmayre]

A 2.5" HDD in a neat enclosure is the correct answer. It'll cost you at most double what a flash drive of 1/15th the storage would cost you. The only difference being portability versus ultra portability - in that you won't be able to fit your external HDD in your pocket. Unless you have very large pockets.

And really, any speeds will be fine for playing movies off of. The only downside is the transfer rate since it's USB2. USB3 transfer rates are much faster than USB2, which will save you a load of time when you're loading up 500GB of movies. Alternatively you could just transfer the files overnight, in which case, who cares?

USB3.0 for (most) any motherboard for $25? k.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813995004

I have one flash drive, and it was a gift from a teacher back when I was in high school. It's a 2GB, which at the time, was like $40. I use it almost solely as a boot disk.