Patriot Xporter XT Rage 8 GB USB 2.0 High Speed Flash Drive Up To 25MB/s WRITE Speed PEF8GRUSB

The Patriot XT flash drives are the best for speed and reliability. I move tons of data (documents, graphics and photos) to my flash drives, and after I make changes to some of the data, I copy to the flash drive again (replace existing folder), several times a day moving multiple gigs of data (obviously hard on the drive, but I don't know a better way to save my work. And, really I care much more about saving work that I put thousands of hours into, than I care about a flash drive. I can always buy a new drive, but I can't get my work (data) back if it is lost.

I know that my use is hard on the drives and I have killed many flash. So, to be careful, I back up onto several flash drives, plus a Maxtor External hard drive. I have tried many different brands and Patriot XT drives (XT Boost and XT Rage) are by far the best. Remember, I have killed many flash drives, but I have never had any problems with any Patriot drives. Also, I have never had a problem with any PNY...Read more

Construction seems fairly good. I can't comment on the little keyring hole as the other reviewer did. I don't find those holes large enough on most drives to actually use on a normal keyring.

The drive is fast though, and performs at the peak of usb 2.0 drives, and that's one measure that is important to USB sticks in everyday use if you're copying around large enough files to justify having a 16GB drive.

Sequential file test, using test size of 2GB, 4MB at a time, within a 14.5GB test file.

Iteration 1: writing...11.8MB/sec, reading...35.4MB/sec
Iteration 2: writing...11.9MB/sec, reading...36.7MB/sec
Iteration 3: writing...12.0MB/sec, reading...36.8MB/sec
Iteration 4: writing...12.0MB/sec, reading...36.7MB/sec
Iteration 5: writing...11.8MB/sec, reading...36.7MB/sec

I rarely bother writing reviews, but this lil' gadget is such an exceptional value it's well worth spreading the good news.

The retractable connector and the smart choice of housing plastic that gives it an uncommonly good grip are noteworthy, but the quad-channel transfer technology is nothing short of amazing.

This thing has read and even write speeds that are so much better than any other USB flash drive I've used that it's almost like using a hard drive.

Patriot Memory came through big time with this latest addition to their family. I'll be buying more as Christmas presents later this year. I've never seen anything like it, and the price is really quite good for the superior performance it offers.