Installing OS from Flash Drive - Read or Write more important?

[Knufire]

As I have a bunch of Newegg gift cards sitting in my email, I was thinking about getting a nice 16 or 32GB 3.0 Flash drive to use with the tools Thideras mentioned here to put all my bootable needs on (Win7 32/64bit install, Win8 install, Memtest86+, SeaTools, OCZ SSD Toolbox, probably dive into Linux as well, etc.)

Looking at my budget $40-55, I'm kinda stuck between a few drives:

• Mushkin Enhanced Ventura Pro 32GB - R/W 120/70
• Team X101 32GB - R/W 120/70
• ADATA N005 Pro 32GB - R/W 180/50
• Corsair Voyager GT 32GB - R/W 220/50

I originally wanted the Lexar JumpDrive Triton (pricy, $50 for 16GB, but 145/110 RW speed).

I know the Corsair Voyager series has been one of the most durable flash drives in the past, but it seems like they're having quality issues with the USB 3.0 versions, a lot of people saying that they die within 2-3 months.

Between the other two, I'm not sure about the difference between the Team and the Mushkin drives (probably the same NAND chips), but I could go with the ADATA drive for nice boost in read speeds by taking a hit in write. I guess my decision boils down to which speed I care more about for my uses.

Various newegg reviews (if you trust them), have benched the flash drive with CrystalDiskMark or ATTO, all of them do hit or surpass their rated sequential speeds. Obviously, there's a significant hit with the smaller file sizes, but they all seem to perform the same relative to each other.

Which one would you choose, or any other suggestions?

 

[ssjwizard]

Read speed is definitely the metric you want(actually sequential IOPS read but your unlikely to find that for a thumb drive). Since the OS installer does not write anything to its media as it assumes that its on an optical disk your OS setup is going to be proportionate to how fast you can get it into memory. The main issue with fast USB drives is that you usually need USB3.0 to get those speeds and that generally requires drivers.

Beyond a fast flash disk the best way to do OS installs that ive found is creating a 4GB partition on the beginning of the SSD and copy the OS installer there. My laptop can install win 7 in around 10 mins. Ive got a samsung 830 coming tomorrow so Ill be able to report on how fast a SATA3 installs win 7 when attached to a real modern desktop chip.

 

[Knufire]

I've thought about that, but this is mostly going to be used on laptops and such, as I end up being computer repair for the majority of my extended family.

 

[petteyg359]

The main issue with fast USB drives is that you usually need USB3.0 to get those speeds and that generally requires drivers.

Found that out on my current laptop. It'll boot fine from a drive attached to the USB 3.0 port, but once it gets to the installer, it can't read from it. Luckily, the powered eSATA port uses a USB 2.0 connector, and it could install from there.

 

[hajalie24]

How about getting a portable hard drive instead? Read speeds should be are generally much better than any usb 2.0 flash drive.