USB 3.0 Flash drive vs USB 3.0 SSD.

[Koodauw]

Can someone help me out. I am looking for a fast way to transfer some pictures and other large files from computer to computer. Would be somewhere in the range of 20Gb-60Gb.

Would a USB 3.0 flash drive be any different than a usb 3.0 SSD? A flash drive can be had for much cheaper, so would there be any reason to go with a USB 3.0 SSD? Perhaps read/write speed? Lets assume were comparing a 128GB USB 3.0 flash drive and 128GB USB 3.0 External SSD.

Your input is appreciated.

 

[matreya]

USB sticks use slower and cheaper memory than SSDs do. A USB3/Thunderbolt attached SSD would be enormously faster than a USB stick.

 

[Nemic]

An SSD will be far far faster than a USB flash drive.

However if you are only planning on doing the file transfer one time, or perhaps infrequently; then the flash drive will cost a lot less money.

An SSD will cost you more money, but if transferring large amounts of data fairly frequently; then the time saving may be deemed worth the extra cost.

In your question you state wanting "fast", so go for the SSD.

 

[Koodauw]

Thank you for the help everyone. Much appreciated.

 

[danielwsmithee]

OWC makes a fast USB flash drive with the speed of an SSD. It is called the Envoy Pro Mini.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ENVMKU3S120/

 

[Koodauw]

OWC makes a fast USB flash drive with the speed of an SSD. It is called the Envoy Pro Mini.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ENVMKU3S120/

thank you for posting this, looks like its also the same price as a SSD!

 

[Childs]

Sandisk Extreme flash drives are really fast and reasonably priced. You should check out this one:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-Transfer-Speeds-SDCZ80-064G-GAM46