Customer Reviews

Patriot X-Porter Mini 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive PSF8GMUSB

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've owned this little flash drive for over a year. It has been a work horse, suffering many abuses in my school bag, but still maintains a stable environment for my work. It's always had a quick transfer speed and has repeatedly gone from mac to pc and back again with no troubles. It is tiny, small enough to fit in my macbook's usb slot even when other cables are plugged into the other slots. My only "issue" with the drive is that because of my abuse, the little orange cover sometimes slides off when I try to remove the drive from the computer. This is EASILY remedied by a firm grip on the drive, not yanking it out from the lanyard I attached to the drive. =}

I've been so impressed w/ this drive, that when my daughter took over my drive (it holds her whole itunes folder -- no more multiple disk back-ups for her!), I bought myself another.

I had a Patriot X-Mini 8GB drive for nearly a year (from June 2008 to May 2009) and loved every day of owning it. It's a fast, sturdy, dependable drive that you really can't go wrong buying. My only complaint was that after a few months the rubber housing for the drive started to slip off and the cap would fall off in my pocket. Given the small size, large capacity, quick read and write speeds, and overall durability of the device, that was honestly a very minor issue.

Unfortunately, in May I accidentally fried my X-Mini by plugging it into a mangled USB port on a co-worker's computer. This was entirely my mistake and happened through no fault or defect of the X-Mini itself. Thankfully, I was in the habit of doing regular backups, so I didn't lose any data, but believe me now I look at every USB port before I plug in any device. At first I resolved to buy the exact same flash drive again, since I loved it so much, but I shopped around a little and took a chance on a new model by Verbatim, which was at the time called Store 'n' Go Micro, but has now been renamed Tuff 'n' Tiny. I've had this device for over six months now and have zero regrets about owning it. On durability and speed, it's comparable and perhaps better than the X-Mini, and since it doesn't have a casing or cap of any kind, there's nothing to work loose with prolonged use like the rubber housing of the X-Mini. As I said, I loved my X-Mini and you can't go wrong buying one, but as long as you're shopping I would definitely recommend giving the Tuff 'n' Tiny a look.

This little USB drive rocks. It's so small yet holds so much. The Patriot x-mini has very fast transfer speeds, sports a nice rubber skin, has a solid construction, and is very reliable. Every USB drive I've owned has failed in some way in months--but this little guy has been going strong for about a year now. Plus, it came with none of the horrible U3 (or similar) software installed. Great buy.

Once you've used it for a while it tends to fall out of the rubber enclosure, and at that point there is no longer anything connecting it to your key chain.

I received one of these for free through Amazon for buying a qualifying AMD processor and wasn't sure what to expect. Free is free, however. I tried loading a small 2.9 gig file on it and man was is terribly slow. USB 2.0 is quite slow as it is, but this thing almost instantaneously dropped to under 4MB/s, what a nightmare. It might be alright for transferring documents for school or something, but it seems like you can easily misplace it or crush it.

It's the thought that counts I suppose, but I'd avoid buying something like this when there are plenty of better options out there. Patriot usually offers quality products, but not on this one.

I was looking for a small USB memory key to carry around and wanted something that was mechanically robust and in the 8 to 16 gig range. This thing is built like a tank. The outer "waterproof" covers slip off to reveal this unit to be housed in a single piece metal jacket. The covers are soft and fit well. They should keep dust and lint out but I don't plan to go swimming with this product.

There are smaller, higher capacity sticks out there but they fall short on mechanical design and durability. The only downside I can see is that this product is not available in a 16 gig capacity.

I purchased one Kingston Digital 8 GB DT101G2, one Patriot X-Porter Mini 8 GB PSF8GMUSB, and one Patriot Xporter XT Boost 4 GB PEF8GUSB based on reviews and tested them for write speed, since this is the most important factor for me.

I copied a 620MB folder with 160 assorted items to each drive fresh out of the box.
Results:
Kingston 8 = 76 seconds (8.1 MB/s)
Partriot Mini = 77 seconds (8.1 MB/s)
Patriot Xporter = 59 seconds (10.5 MB/s)
Any of these thumbs would be a fine device for everyday use, all with fine write speeds.

The Xporter does stand out in speed being 20% faster than the other two, but on the flip side it is pretty bulky for a thumb drive. It is 2.9 inches long and almost 0.5" think. It is also rubber coated which is great for durability/dropability but also is sticky in the pocket for better or worse. This will be the drive I use when I need big files moved fast and easy.

I think the Patriot Mini will be my daily thumb based on the combo of size and speed. It's tiny (1.6" long) and rubber coated like its bigger brother. The rubber cap on both Patriots stayed on better than I expected. I don't foresee loosing them.

The Kingston is a fine drive with good speed (The Amazon Tech Specs say it is a 5MB/s write but my test was 8MB/s). The design is adequate, but I get the feeling I'll use this one with the mindset that if I loose it one day I won't be brokenhearted. Its the drive that I will let you borrow when you ask me.

Both Patriots came clean with NO software pre-loaded. I LOVE that! The Kingston had some file management exe on the drive but also had a handy uninstall icon right below so it is easy to get rid of which I did as soon as I was done with my test.

I use this drive every single day to back up my work, and I adore it. It's a perfect size, fun case material, and hey, my favorite color! Add a short dog tag-style beaded chain through the loop hole and it works great as a key chain.

The end cap does loosen up a bit with lots of use (I've had mine several months now), though it has never actually fallen off, even in my pocket. This is not so much a problem now that it's winter, as the cold makes it fit a lot tighter.

But what prompted me to make this review was me forgetting to take it out of my pocket and running my jeans through the laundry a few days ago. Went to put everything in the dryer and hey look, isn't that my thumb drive there in the bottom of the washer? ...Oops? XD I took off both cover pieces and let it dry out for the rest of the day, then plugged it into my computer and voila! It loaded just fine with all of my data still intact.

So while I don't recommend you run it through the washer (warm/cold cycle, btw, not hot water), I DO recommend you buy this great little drive. Especially if your favorite color is orange. <3

This drive sticks out a mere 1.15" when inserted into my netbook's USB port, which is far more convenient and safer than any other flash drive I own. I worry about accidentally wrecking a longer drive--or worse--the port it is plugged into, by routine handling of my laptop or netbbok with one plugged in (and for good reason: I've seen the damage that results from a long plugged-in drive getting whacked).

Durability? Don't know yet; heavy use for 2 weeks isn't long enough. The cap doesn't fit very tightly, but seems adequate to keep out dust & bulk liquids. The width doesn't interfere with other

Transfer speeds are fairly fast, especially reading from the device: Using the Windows 7 default FAT-32 format with default (4kB) block size: 7.5 MB/s write, 20 MB/s read; FAT-32 formatted with 64kB blocks: 10.8 MB/s write, 20 MB/s read. My tests were done with fresh, full formatting and one 3.6 GB file. I recommend formatting with FAT-32 for flash drives where all files will always be under 4GB each.

I got two of these during a sale event... I am happy with the size but not very happy with file transfer. Filling up this drive took almost an hour... i was getting from 2-5 mbps transfer rate... slow for a usb thumb drive i think.