Our thoughts
Looking at the £300 Corsair Flash Voyager GT 128 solely in relation to other USB pen-drives shows it in a positive light. Our tests show that peak read (33MB/s) and write speeds (26MB/s) are at the high-end of what current-generation USB drives can produce, helped on by the dual-controller design. The capacity, too, at 128GB, is massive, and the ruggerdised rubber housing will keep it safe from all but the most die-hard lunatics.The large capacity manifests itself in a pen-drive that is, by far, the largest we've seen. 10cm long and 4cm across, it is double the size of the 128GB Patriot Xporter Magnum. We could ignore the larger-than-normal dimensions but, invariably, they, and the price, bring other removable storage options into play.
A 160GB USB 2.5in drive performs to around the same level but costs 80 per cent less. Much like the mechanical drive, an eSATA-caddy-housed 128GB SSD (£250) is larger and requires additional cable(s), yet it's so, so much quicker.
Speed is important to note when the capacity rises to 128GB, as filling the Flash Voyager GT 128 takes around 90 minutes, whereas a high-quality SSD takes under one-third of the time. The performance difference is even more pronounced with small-file transfers.
That's the Corsair Flash Voyager 128 in a nutshell. It's quicker than other USB pen-drives, yes, but its price and physical size bring far more compelling solutions into play, if you can use them. Give us a £250 budget and we'd go with eSATA SSD every time, or a couple of 32GB USB sticks and an eSATA 64GB SSD.
Thinking about the bigger picture, the Voyager GT 128 appeals to folk who need to carry and transfer huge files across readily-available USB. That's a niche set of people, given our comments on speed, price, and comparison hardware, but we appreciate that they do exist and may not want or need to carry around a larger form factor with extra wires - or have access to eSATA.
What Corsair really needed to do was to launch the Flash Voyager GT 128 with double-ended USB2.0 and eSATA connectors, at a price lower than equivalent-capacity SSDs. As it is, it's kind of stuck as a product that, by its sheer price, limits itself to a niche group of people that need huge storage via the ubiquitous USB interface.
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the Corsair pen-drive is evaluated with respect to our 'extreme components' criteria, where value plays a small part of the overall score.
Corsair Flash Voyager GT 128 USB pen-drive
HEXUS Where2Buy
The
Corsair Flash Voyager GT 128 is currently on pre-order at Scan.co.uk
for £306.76,
including free delivery*.
*UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum.
*UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
