OCZ Rally 2GB and 512MB USB 2.0 Dual Channel Flash Drives
Everyone knows that OCZ is known for making some of the fastest enthusiast memory around. Everyone should also know that they offer some of the best customer service and warranty plans. The company has been making quite an impact in the memory department, both enthusiast and non-enthusiast. If you can recall, we were quite surprised that they had released their Titanium series. The Titanium was targeted for mission critical systems and low end servers. I found it a bit odd since it did not look like server memory and did not really behave like server memory. I loved it not for the purpose it served, but for the warranty behind it. Name one other company that would send you a replacement product BEFORE they get back the defect. Talk about great service. While not 100% perfect, OCZ still did manage to step into the server category. They just need to really differentiate their Titanium from their enthusiast stuff. The company is back again to introduce a brand new product. The number of computer users in an average household is growing insanely with each passing year. This can only mean that more and more files are being created and used. This also means that people are looking for ways to carry around their precious files, hence the lead to OCZ's new Rally USB 2.0 flash drive.
OCZ Rally 2GB and 512MB USB 2.0 Flash Drives
The package of the
flash drive comes with the drive itself, a lanyard, a small key ring, and a USB
2.0 extension cable. The Rally flash drive is enclosed in a hard aluminum
casing with a black finish. The drive itself is pretty light and is very
durable. The only gripe I would have with such a design would be that it
cannot really be thrown around or dropped very often. But then again, who
in the right mind would actually throw around flash drives? I do have to
admit though that the Rally looks amazing. It is sleek and clean, just the
way I like my toys to look.
Here is an image of
the 512MB Rally with the 2GB Rally. The only difference between the two
would be the size of the Rally image. There is absolutely no difference in
size and both of them weigh about the same. The big news about the Rally
is the dual channel capabilities. Although GeIL announced dual channel USB
2.0 flash memory earlier this year in Computex, we have yet to see it available
for purchase. This makes OCZ the first to release a retail dual channel
USB 2.0 flash drive.
Test Setup
Test System:
Competition:
The USB flash drive
that I used for transferring my data was the Corsair Voyager. The Voyager
is a great small device that has never let me down. The looks might not be
all that but it is sturdy and the rubber material prevents the drive from being
damaged.
Testing Methodology:
The Rally and Voyager drives are tested with the popular benchmarking programs SiSoft Sandra and HDTach. Both these benchmarks are able to calculate the read and write speeds of the flash drives. Since these are synthetic benchmarks, I included another test that is done in a "real-life" situation. I copied my small music folder of 390MB with 58 files to the drives. I recorded the time it took to transfer the complete folder and also recorded the time it took to delete the folder. I had a stopwatch with me and started the time recording as soon as I clicked paste or delete. Of course there will be a human error of +/- 1 second so please keep that in mind.
Results
HDTach
The read
performance of the Rally just dominated in this benchmark, by a good
lead too. Notice the random access time required for both the
Rally drives. It is significantly lower than the Voyager.
SiSoft Sandra
Removable Storage/Flash Benchmark
Wow.
The Voyager just turned around and dominated in this field. I was
a bit iffy about the results so I tested all the drives a total of three
times and took the average. Time after time, the Voyager beat out
the Rally.
SiSoft Sandra File System Benchmark
According to Sandra's File System
benchmark, the Rally regains the lead with blazing fast results.
"Real Life" Testing
It wouldn't be
proper testing if we didn't include a real life test to measure the Rally's read
and write speeds. As mentioned earlier, I used a stopwatch to record the
times taken to copy the 390MB folder onto the flash drives and the times to
delete the folder from the drives. After an average of three tests, the
Voyager consistently beat out the Rally, and by good margin too. The same
USB 2.0 port was used throughout all times to ensure consistency. I am
just puzzled at how the Rally's dual channel capability was not faster than the
Voyager. The 2GB Rally performed really closely, but the 512MB version was
really slow in this test. Although there will be the human-error factor,
it does not warrant a 17 second difference. I am not that slow at clicking
the start and stop button.
Conclusion and Thoughts OCZ's first step into the flash memory department seems to be of mixed results. You would think that the dual channel capability of the Rally would dominate in performance, but it was not so. The Rally did win a couple of the synthetic benchmarks, but when it came down to a real life situation where a file was transferred, it could not keep up with competitors. I think the important things that end users will care about would be the transfer rates, price, and durability. Unfortunately durability is not a test that we can really conduct. From the looks and build of the Rally, the small flash drive can withstand a good amount of beating before it is totally destroyed. The price tag of the Rally is marked competitively against their competitors, which makes OCZ's solution a reasonable choice. The performance side of the Rally is neither incredible or extremely poor. It wins and loses here and there, but in the end, it comes down to just being another portable USB 2.0 flash drive. All that really matters, at least to me, is that the capacity is big enough to hold my files. So is the dual channel capability a fluke? I wouldn't say so, but the real life performance sure didn't benefit from it. The Rally does look good next to my "true" Darth Vader Lego toy though.
Pros:
Cons:
We would like to thank OCZ for providing us the sample. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to hit us up in the forums. You can also check out more of our latest reviews on the front page.
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