If you were to buy one of these flash drives what would it be?

[waloshin]

A) CORSAIR Survivor 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive - $35

- Usb 3: Read - Up to 79 MB/s, Write Up to 21 MB/s

- Built from lightweight, aircraft-grade aluminum Water proof to 200 meters Vibration and shock resistant.

B) CORSAIR Flash Voyager 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive

- Usb 3: Read - Up to 75 MB/s, Write Up to 18 MB/s - $25

-The Flash Voyager USB 3.0 features Corsair's proprietary all-rubber housing which is extremely durable, water resistant and drop-tested for worry-free transport of your valuable data.

[wolfen69]

The poll should include a choice for neither. I only buy Patriot XPorter XT drives. Always among the fastest and highest rated. They are usually among the most expensive, but well worth it.

[waloshin]

The poll should include a choice for neither. I only buy Patriot XPorter XT drives. Always among the fastest and highest rated. They are usually among the most expensive, but well worth it.

Cause I am looking for a drive that can run Ubuntu fine, I currently have a Western Digital My Book Essential which runs Ubuntu very fast through Parallels ,but I want something more portable ;).

My external drive can boot up Ubuntu 10.10 in 24 seconds so thats pretty decent for a usb harddrive.

[Nixarter]

I like the corsair rubber flash drives. I've had some before and they were all very durable, and lasted until they were obsolete. And that's despite rough treatment- temp extremes from about -5F to 140+, water, drops, and so on.

[jjex22]

I'd go B - just a value thing, you would really need the extra specs of A to justify it- $10 more - the rate these things fall in price - I got a kingston 8GB for a fiver (+£2.5 p&p) two weeks ago - they were three times that before the summer.

There was a really interesting piece on the gadget show earlier this year where they tested huge amounts of usb keys in a sort of death match - yes i didn't agree with all their tests, but it was interesting that what it seemed to show was that resistance to damage was almost random - a cheapo brand x survived being put on a BBQ! I think they've done a similar test a couple of years ago, but I can't remember how it turned out - just flash drives being ran over with cars!

Edit: on reflection i think the BBQ may have been the test that finally killed it... but i can't remember - someone will correct me!

[Linuxratty]

Patriot is my favorite.

[oldsoundguy]

Lexar Twist .. drive is guaranteed for life. Have a couple for my photography work and one dedicated to save my ~/home folder for backup and re-installs.

[Paqman]

Only buy A if you intend to do a lot of computing on the seabed and will get some value out of the extra $10.

I'd ignore all that "drop resistant" rubbish. All flash drives are pretty durable. Get the cheapest drive from a decent brand of the capacity you require.