SanDisk Cruzer Blade USB Flash Drive

Performance:

The test system used in this review was an HP dc7900. The computer came equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz CPU, 2GB of DDR2 800MHz memory, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB SATA hard drive, NVIDIA Quadro FX570 256MB PCIe graphics card and Intel 82567LM-3 gigabit network card. For the operating system, I installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Enterprise.

To test the performance of the SanDisk Cruzer Blade, I ran a series of benchmarks using CrystalDiskMark 3.0, HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0, ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46 and SiSoftware Sandra Lite 2010.SP2. To get a feel for the "real world" performance, I also copied and pasted 500MB of random files and directories in Windows Explorer.

CrystalDiskMark 3.0:

First, I ran a few quick tests using CrystalDiskMark. This benchmark tool measures the performance of a storage device by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its random read and write speeds using blocks 512K and 4K in size.

SanDisk doesn't really say what kind of speeds the Cruzer Blade is capable of. Using CrystalDiskMark we can see that the drive is able to read at nearly 20 MB/s and write at 5.7 MB/s.

HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0:

Next, I used HD Tach to test the Cruzer Blade's read, write and burst speeds as well as its seek times and CPU usage.

The performance here was very similar to what we saw with CrystalDiskMark. Looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the Cruzer Blade had average read and write speeds of  19.1 MB/s and 5.7 MB/s, respectively, as well as a burst speed of 20.2 MB/s.

ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46:

I also used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test the Cruzer Blade's sequential read and write speeds. The test was run using blocks ranging in size from 0.5KB to 8192KB and the total length set to 256MB.

When tested with ATTO, the Ultra Backup topped out at 19.9 MB/s when reading and 5.5 MB/s when writing.

SiSoft Sandra File System Benchmark:

While I am not a big fan of SiSoftware Sandra's optical drive benchmarks, it is a great tool if you want to test a system's performance quickly and easily. One of Sandra's more useful tests is the File System benchmark. This benchmark gives each drive an overall score, or "Drive Index," based on the results of its read and write tests.

SiSoftware Sandra Removable Storage/Flash Devices Benchmark:

Designed with removable storage and flash devices in mind, this benchmark tests a drive's read, write and delete performance using six different file sizes (512 Bytes, 32kB, 256kB, 2MB, 64MB and 256MB).  The results are then given in both operations per minute and the corresponding net transfer rate in kB/second. This benchmark also computes an "Endurance Factor," representing the wear and life expectancy of flash devices.

Here too the Ultra Backup yielded some mixed performance. While the drive was relatively quick when writing small files, it lagged well behind the SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise and Kingston DataTraveler 150 when writing files 2MB and larger.

As I mentioned above, Sandra also expresses performance in operations per minute. To keep things simple, I've limited the results to the combined index and the total number of read/write/delete operations for each file size.

The Endurance Factor represents the wear and life expectancy of a flash device. According to SiSoft, this number is computed by "dividing the average performance (normal condition, i.e. sequential write) to the lowest performance (high-stress condition, i.e. same block re-write)."

"Real World" Benchmark:

To test the "real world" performance of SanDisk's new flash drive, I copied and pasted 500 MB worth of randomly generated files and directories. All of the files are between 10 bytes and 32MB in size and no more than four directories deep.

While the Cruzer Blade had no problems holding its own when reading, it took more than four minutes to write our test data.

Final Thoughts:

With the Cruzer Blade, SanDisk has joined the ranks of companies offering ultra-small USB flash drives. This affordable, paper clip-sized drive easily fits on a keychain, giving users the ability to take up to 16GB of data with them where ever they go. Aside from the Cruzer Blade's exposed USB connector, my only real complaint is its performance. While the drive held its own when reading, its write speeds were quite slow at times.

The Cruzer Blade is available now in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities. Suggested retail prices range from $14.99 to $77.99 depending on the size. However, the drive can be picked up for considerably less from Amazon or through some of the vendors on PriceGrabber.

Highs:

• Small and lightweight
• Five year warranty
• Reasonably priced

Lows:

• Slow write speeds
• Exposed USB connector