(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

BarryK wrote: Note, I was using a Lexar 8GB stick as a swap partition. It is near-new. Anyway, something has gone wrong with it, it now flashes continuously. Will do a reformat, see if that fixes it.

As shown in the list below (from userbenchmark) anything else besides the (expensive) Mushkin Ventura Ultra and SanDisk Extreme sticks have write speeds for small files under 2MB/Sec (and 60% of the sticks under 500KB/s!). Both of them are using SSD controllers that makes all the difference.
Anything else will be problematic for an OS and really bad for swap.

I wonder if USB3 or USB2 storage drives have better performance. I still have 2.5 USB2 drive that has provided faithful service on a laptop whose drive died in 2006. It 40GB but still solid and robust, while providing portability when needed.

I have not tested this versus any sticks as the laptop ports are currently filled with it and its mouse+keyboard. Again, any test would still be limited to USB2 tests.

There are better small form factor USB storage that is available in the 2.5 size that bring longevity to the table along with storage access speed. This is not a match in size, of course, but would yield portability. Saw a recent ad for 1TB USB at a ridiculously cheap cost.

This thread's discussion peaked my interest in USB transfer speed.

Real test
Tested Samsung 250GB SSD 750 SATA3 in a USB3 enclosure. On an in-store PC 366MB/sec. Test your laptop with this at the PC store. If it doesnt exceed anything else you've seen on USB, return it. I think for the cost, you will take it home. $70 on Amazon.

Store did not have this

And the small Samsung T3 250GB is rated at 450MB/s read-write over a USB 3.1 interface. Reviews are here.

Available free shipping direct from Samsung with a fair return policy.

I always use 4GBs pendrives (because 2Gbs are no longer provided).. It the same ideaa why i am used to Puppy Linux, and my Pupsaves at 500MB maxi.
I prefer many Flash drives, each one with three puppies maxi on it.
So speed to read 4GB, even if slow, is not very important..
But when a check disk is done at boot, i don't waste minutes to wait for control is finished.
I would wonder about speed is speed was to slow for my convenience.. I'll feed back numbers soon.
Something important if what you do with your computer, games videos or only... programming , then 32 bits would be enough. And speed depends on the number of fingers you type with.

However i bouhgt an 8GB for XenialDog,

Pelo wrote:I always use 4GBs.

But when a check disk is done at boot, i don't waste minutes to wait for control is finished.

,

Are u saying since pupOS loads to RAM, speed of flash is not important in practical terms? seems reasonable...

are u skipping fsck command for faster boot time?

Alas that Pelo cannot reply since was banned from Forum some time ago.

As written before, there is a website which displays users Hardware and all kinds of measured parameters : https://usb.userbenchmark.com/
Avg bench % gives the performance.
Value % gives the performance / price ratio.

When odering by Value %, these models are shown to be cheap and fast :
SanDisk Ultra Flair USB 3.0 128GB (€25)
SanDisk Ultra Flair USB 3.0 256GB (€55)

I started this thread about four years ago and the other day I had the need to test a few USB Drives. I had forgotten how to do it then I remembered this thread.

To make things a bit easier, if the need arises again, I wrote a little script. It only test read speeds using the hdparm utility but it provides adequate information. Read the help in the script for more information.