1 Benchmarks:PNY Micro Sleek 16GB
2 ===============================
3 :author: Aaron Ball
4 :email: nullspoon@oper.io
5 :revdate: July 13, 2017
6
7
8 == {doctitle}
9
10 I bought a pair of USB2 PNY Micro Sleek USB sticks from my local tech shop
11 today. I did quite a bit of research before purchasing them.
12
13 While doing research on lifespan and actual read/write speeds, I discovered
14 it's fairly difficult to find real benchmarks for any given usb stick on the
15 internet. I can't speculate as to why, but I'll do my best to contribute a few
16 benchmarks for mine.
17
18 I'm going to rant for a few sentences here. Despite the dramatic increase in
19 quantity of storage in recent years, the quality of the underlying "solid"
20 storage and intermediate components have not increased at the same rate. For
21 example, the USB 2 spec allows for transfer rates of around 480 Mb/s (roughly
22 60 MB/s). If you've ever tested, you found that most USB 2 sticks only get
23 around 6 \- 10 MB/s at best. Solid devices supporting the USB3 spec are even
24 more disappointing. To the credit of the external HDD manufacturers though,
25 external rotating drives are generally very fast by comparison (typically
26 greater than 100 MB/s read/write)
27
28 Please manufacturers, make better portable storage.
29
30 Despite all that though, here is my benchmark.
31
32
33 image:files/pny_micro_sleek_16gb.jpg[height=350]
34
35
36 Write
37 -----
38
39 Write 1MB Block, 4096 Count (4GB of zeros)
40 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
41
42 [root@null ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1M count=4096
43
44 4096+0 records in
45 4096+0 records out
46 4294967296 bytes (4.3 GB) copied, 495.355 s, 8.7 MB/s
47
48
49 Write 1GB Block, 2 Count (2GB of zeros)
50 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
51
52 [root@null ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1G count=2
53 2+0 records in
54 2+0 records out
55 2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 248.904 s, 8.6 MB/s
56
57
58 Writing a Real-world File
59 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
60
61 You thought the previous write tests were bad? It took 208 seconds to copy a
62 Fedora iso to the usb stick. Note that this iso file is coming from a ram disk
63 that averages 3 GB/s read speeds.
64
65 [root@null ~]# dd if=/mnt/Fedora-Live-Xfce-i686-22-3.iso of=/dev/sdb
66
67 1697792+0 records in
68 1697792+0 records out
69 869269504 bytes (869 MB) copied, 208.453 s, 4.2 MB/s
70
71
72
73 Read
74 ----
75
76 NOTE: For these reads, we'll be writing the data to a ram disk to reduce the
77 possibility that the destination storage would be a bottleneck.
78
79 Read 1MB Block, 4096 Count (4GB stream)
80 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
81
82 [root@null ~]# dd if=/dev/sdb of=/mnt/dd.out bs=1M count=4096
83
84 4096+0 records in
85 4096+0 records out
86 4294967296 bytes (4.3 GB) copied, 153.179 s, 28.0 MB/s
87
88
89 Read 1GB Block, 2 Count (2GB stream)
90 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
91
92 [root@null ~]# dd if=/dev/sdb of=/mnt/dd.out bs=1G count=2
93 2+0 records in
94 2+0 records out
95 2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 77.3436 s, 27.8 MB/s
96
97
98
99 Summary
100 -------
101
102 Well, it seems these USB sticks are very "ho-hum". They average about 9 MB/s
103 when writing zeros, 4.6 MB/s when writing real data, and 28 MB/s when reading.
104 Keep in mind that the spec for USB2 allows for 60 MB/s. 4.6 MB/s is 7.6 percent
105 of the spec's allowed maximum speed.
106
107 My next test is to see how these hold up under six months to a year of use.
108
109
110 [role="datelastedit"]
111 Last edited: {revdate}
112
113 // vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
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