OCZ Rally2 4GB Thumb Drive

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by Rob Williams on August 9, 2006 in Storage

So, you are looking for a high-density thumb drive, but don’t want to have the slow speed that usually coincides. OCZ recently launched 4GB versions of their extremely popular Rally2 thumb drives, and they prove to be a winner. Faster than most of it’s competition, and cheaper to boot.

Page 2 – Benchmarking Reports


Testing the 4GB version of the Rally was going to prove interesting. Due to the higher density, I had no doubts that it would prove slower than the 2GB version. The previously reviewed 2GB model claimed 23MB/s Read and 18MB/s Write, which proved quite true. The official specs for the 4GB model are not found on the OCZ website, but after testing I would conclude on 25MB/s Read and 13MB/s Write.

To begin with testing, a fresh installation of Windows XP Professional SP2 was used. All un-needed applications were closed, included Firewalls and Virus Scanners. All tests were completed twice to assure accurate results. All testing was completed against my 2GB Rally, which I still use daily.

HD Tach RW 3

HD Tach is one of the most in-depth storage benchmarks, and is one of the few that actually includes a Write test in addition to the Read. The 4GB version held a consistent 25MB/s Read and 13MB/s Write on average, though was beat by the 2GB version all around. This was to be expected. As we can see though, the added density caused a major hit to the latency… from 2ms up to 62ms!

HD Tune

HD Tune is another great storage benchmark that uses similar techniques to HD Tach. Though it’s good to have a second opinion. The comparative results are what we have been in the above benchmarks, however the overall Read is lower than what HD Tach reports, on both the 2GB and 4GB. The 2GB version is undeniably faster, however the 4GB holds up quite well.

Sandra Removable Memory Benchmark

I personally am not much a fan of Sandra for this purpose, because the results are more complicated than the previously used tools. However, they do give solid information when comparing more than one drive. The performance scaling is similar to the other tests, although there is a massive difference between the 2MB Write test and the 64MB Write test. This shows us that the process of copying larger files will be far better than copying a small one… such as this 2MB.


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Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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