SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.0 Flash Drive Capsule Review
by Ganesh T S on November 27, 2014 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- USB 3.0
- Flash Drive
- SanDisk
Storage Benchmarks
Synthetic Benchmarks - ATTO and Crystal DiskMark
SanDisk claims read/write speeds of 245 MBps/190 MBps and 260 MBps/240 MBps respectively for the Extreme and Extreme PRO. These are backed up by the ATTO benchmarks provided below. Unfortunately, these access traces are not very common in real-life scenarios.
CrystalDiskMark, despite being a canned benchmark, provides a better estimate of the performance range with a selected set of numbers. As evident from the screenshot below, the performance can dip to as low as 8.7 MBps for 4K read accesses at QD32. However, these types of accesses are not common for the large size file transfers that form the primary use-case for the Extreme and Extreme PRO.
Real-Life Benchmarks - robocopy and PCMark 8 Storage Bench
Our testing methodology for DAS units also takes into consideration the usual use-case for such devices. The most common usage scenario is transfer of large amounts of photos and videos to and from the unit. The minor usage scenario is importing files directly off the DAS into a multimedia editing program such as Adobe Photoshop.
In order to tackle the first use-case, we created three test folders with the following characteristics:
- Photos: 15.6 GB collection of 4320 photos (RAW as well as JPEGs) in 61 sub-folders
- Videos: 16.1 GB collection of 244 videos (MP4 as well as MOVs) in 6 sub-folders
- BR: 10.7 GB Blu-ray folder structure of the IDT Benchmark Blu-ray (the same that we use in our robocopy tests for NAS systems)
The general trend we observed was that the SanDisk Extreme was better at read benchmarks (though the Extreme PRO was quite close). When it came to the writes, the Extreme PRO pulled ahead (sometimes by as much as 25 MBps for lots of small files).
For the second use-case, we take advantage of PC Mark 8's storage bench. The storage workload involves games as well as multimedia editing applications. The command line version allows us to cherry-pick storage traces to run on a target drive. We chose the following traces.
- Adobe Photoshop (Light)
- Adobe Photoshop (Heavy)
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Illustrator
Usually, PC Mark 8 reports time to complete the trace, but the detailed log report has the read and write bandwidth figures which we present in our performance graphs. Note that the bandwidth number reported in the results don't involve idle time compression. Results might appear low, but that is part of the workload characteristic. Note that the same testbed is being used for all DAS units. Therefore, comparing the numbers for each trace should be possible across different DAS units.
The workload traces from PCMark 8's storage bench are meant to evaluate SSDs (which is the reason the drives based on SSD controllers give great results). The firmwares in the SanDisk units being evaluated today are not optimized for these types of accesses. We wouldn't read much into the standings of the SanDisk units in the above graphs, except for the fact that one shouldn't try editing multimedia files directly off them.
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kyuu - Saturday, November 29, 2014 - link
Don't be such a tool. AT (and most other review sites) have always relied almost entirely on manufacturers sending review samples. AT does not make enough money to purchase tens of thousands of dollars a year purchasing the items. These sites aren't run by independently wealthy millionaires.No one can deny that Anand leaving sucks, but you can hardly blame the man for taking a job that almost certainly pays much better than running this site ever did. Or do you regularly receive job offers for really great gigs and turn them down?
Ryan Smith - Saturday, November 29, 2014 - link
As always, if you have any complaints about the site or the articles, please be sure to bring it to our attention. You guys are our bread and butter, so if you see us slipping or otherwise think we could be doing something better, we'd like to know.I can be reached via email or Twitter.
-The New Boss
akdj - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
Ryan, you're a F'ing stud. You, the entire crew. Anand may have 'found' or been the genesis, but those of you there now, that have been for quite some time, and seem to have the fortitude and gumption to continue. I wish you NOTHING but the very best of luckIt takes only a tool like that (tool=such a perfect word, my apologies for the plagiarism;) to Gomer up a conversation. What said tool 'doesn't get' is
A) you do indeed get phones, tabs, motherboards and C/GPUs, NAS & DAS... & you sign an NDA for said piece typically receiving a version 'ahead' of the gen pop.
When the release happens, your NDA is clear, articles, reviews and opinions are posted.
B) your site is well respected by most technology companies in the world. I'm unable to name a better site with objective testing, data, and subjective usage details so well written and from such and extremely wide variety of gear. Other than Windows phones, but I'm not sure anyone gives a pair of poops about them anyway
Keep up the incredible work. Anand is a name. You and your crew are and have been his backbone for years. Anand, while congrats are in order, wasn't the reason the detailed plethora of reviews here exist. It's Brian and another at least ½ dozen guys and gals with so much more intelligence and experience with these units than literally ANYONE reading ...much less commenting
Human nature is ultimately going to 'end' with a subjective take or opinion
Brian's was spot on. As are his Android, Apple, motherboard and power supply reviews. Their fair and obviously 'repeatable' on your own and evidenced traditionally by sales figures
Don't like it, Go Away. This isn't the place for that horseshit, especially when you've not submitted anything to the conversation ...nor did you probably take the time to read it, and if you did, I understand the meaning of tool. You. Didn't. Get. It.
I'll explain, if it's 'TL': This 'thumb' drive is incredibly fast compared to your SanDisk or PNY 4GB stick from 2011 you picked up. By ten, maybe twenty fold. Now...WTF does that have to do with the namesake and his career?
stephenbrooks - Friday, November 28, 2014 - link
I got a 128GB PNY drive and ran into weird driver issues. Takes about 20 seconds to appear when I plug it in (after a lot of continuous HDD access). Then the transfer rate is s-l-o-w with like a 2 second delay per file. Attempting to switch on write caching in Windows broke the registry in such a way it no longer recognised the USB disk at all and I had to manually delete a load of entries. Weird and obviously disappointing.stephenbrooks - Friday, November 28, 2014 - link
This was, however, not the USB3 version:PNY Attache III 128GB Flash Drive - USB 2.0 - P-FD128ATT03-GES3
thudo - Monday, December 1, 2014 - link
USB3.1 is 10 Gbps compared to half that with by-gone era USB3.0 lest I mention the incredible power output 3.1 will have which will literally be able to recharge a laptop. Its worth the wait considering the long term benefits.akdj - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
No it's not. There's NOTHING on the market that can saturate USB 3's thoroughput @ five Gb/s. Thunderbolt 2 is 20 Gb/s and I've owned a TBolt 1 since 2012 with your '10 Gb/s' with power output not yet established (& variable with current USB amperage).That's ridiculous. Wait for an output theoretical and still in the drawing board...
...when there's nothing it will do 'better' than today's current offerings?
That's silly. Need a computer, buy a computer. By the time thudo's computer is available, cool, pop the drive --- buy said USB 3.1 housing and controller, put drive in, plug it in and BAM! Same. Speed.
Oh well. Cool thing, by then we'll be paying today's HDD prices for tomorrow's SSD storage and NAND, M.2 or PCIe SSDs. My current MBP is hitting speeds near a Gb/s writing and exceeding at about 1,070-1,100 read times. That's. Flying! And it's a TB, weighs less than 5 pounds with the charger and lasts nearly all day with the power of my 2009 Mac Pro (actually quicker!).
Check out the new mobile reviews and speeds of their internal NAND modules. They're exceeding 200Mb/s these days and it's a HUGE part of the 'user experience' when downloading, installing, updating or utilizing an app for video/photo/artistic manipulation & it's speed to swap out those mini files quickly.
I'm not sure there's a consumer modem, ISP or ANY hardware that could or would benefit from anything faster than USB 3 or thunderbolt. Not that advancement is bad. But waiting is foolish.
Bullwinkle J Moose - Saturday, November 29, 2014 - link
PNY Blows ChunksI learned my lesson
So should you
My 128GB Attache reads and writes at 1/2 the listed speed
My PNY SD Cards give me frame drops in a camcorder that only requires 1.5MB/sec write speed yet the card is listed for 10 times that speed
Bullwinkle J Moose - Saturday, November 29, 2014 - link
Sorry, I made a mistake in my post aboveThe PNY that drops frames on a camcorder that only records at 1.5MB/sec is actually listed at 30MB/sec write speed
All my old Sandisk cards listed at 15MB/sec write speed work fine with this camcorder and DO NOT drop frames
Sorry for the error
thudo - Monday, December 1, 2014 - link
Hmmm.. owned 2x these PNY 3.0 USB drives and they start at 60+mb/sec write and never ever had a single issue with them in terms of reliability and speed in any system. I even have 2 more coming as mentioned (128Gb USB3 ones for $87 all in FOR TWO!!).