Corsair 32GB Survivor Flash Drive Author:  Jason Dumbaugh Date:  2008.05.15 Topic:  Memory Provider:  Karen Thomas PR Manufacturer:  Corsair

Test System:

The tests were performed on the VenomOoze rig with the following components:

• Cooler Master 650W Real Power Pro Power Supply
• Super Talent 2GB DDR2-1000 RAM kit
• EVGA 650i nForce ULTRA LGA775 Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 overclocked to 3.21GHz
• Thermaltake BigWater 760i Liquid Cooling System
• ATI Radeon HD3450 Graphics Card
  

Testing:

When we checked the properties on the Corsair 32GB Survivor, we notice a couple of things immediately. First is that the maximum capacity of the drive is 30.6GB, next is that it is formatted with the FAT32 file system. In order to transfer large files to the drive, we had to re-format it in the NTFS file system. This was initially attempted using Windows XP, but would not allow the format to be anything other than FAT32. After transferring it to a machine with Windows Vista, the NTFS format was achieved through the Disk Manager.

Speed transfer test:

To test the transfer speeds of the Corsair Survivor, we compiled a RAR archive of files totaling the sizes listed below. These files were then copied to the device and timed using a stopwatch. Once we hit files larger than 4GB or so, the error "Disk is full" would occur. This is because the FAT32 format does not support the transfer of a single file that is above the 4GB mark. We were forced to reformat to NTFS for the transfer of our 4.8GB file. Unfortunately, the change in format also changes the transfer rates drastically. The times, as well as the calculated transfer rates are listed below:

From these charts, we can see that the transfer rates were approximately 50% of the original rates with the smaller files when formatted in NTFS. This leads to one question, do you want to be able to transfer single large files or have faster transfer rates? In my personal opinion, I choose FAT32 for the faster speeds. Chances are, the file you transfer will not exceed 4GB. If you have a folder that is 4GB in size, the files inside may be ten 400MB files. This is ok, and will transfer without problems.

We compared the 32GB Survivor with the 8GB Survivor GT in a previous article. The speeds of the 8GB Survivor in FAT32 format are listed below:

Below is the graphical comparison of the two drives. Not only does this show the difference between the 32GB and 8GB drive, but it also shows the speed differences for the 8GB GT edition. The GT edition is obviously faster, but you need to ask yourself, speed or storage?

Real Time Pricing: