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Toshiba TransMemory EXII 64GB USB Drive Review

March 9th, 2015 James Leave a comment Go to comments

Overview

One thing we don’t talk about much here at pcG is USB Drives, as I admit they’re not really very Gamer centric, but of course we do all use them and we actually use them quite a lot here in the office. In the past we have always used drives like the Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 128GB USB 3.0 as they’re fast and more speed means less time waiting.

So when Toshiba asked if we would like to take a look at their new Toshiba TransMemory EXII 64GB USB Drive we jumped at the chance. The drive is a USB 3.0 drive that’s backward compatible and has a Read speed of 222MB/s and a Write speed of 205MB/s. Other capacities also include 32GB and 128GB.

As you can see the Toshiba TransMemory EXII 64GB USB Drive comes in smart small box, clearly stating those Read/Write speeds on the front. The back of the box goes on to cover the speeds that can be obtained, when using either USB 3.0 or USB 2.0. You’ll definitely want to be using USB 3.0 otherwise the drive will top out at a woeful 34GB/s!

At the time of writing the Toshiba TransMemory EXII 64GB is retailing for approximately £50 on MobyMemory and comes with an impressive 5 year warranty.

Specifications/Features

courtesy of Seagate

Model
	THNV32OSUSILV(BL8)	THNV64OSUSILV(BL8)	THNV128OSUSILV(BL8)
Technical Specifications
Capacity	32GB	64GB	128GB
Interface	Super Speed USB 3.0, USB 1.1/Hi-Speed USB 2.0
Write Speed	Up to 130 MB/s **	Up to 205 MB/s **	Up to 205 MB/s **
Read Speed	Up to 220 MB/s **
Power Supply	Bus powered from USB port.
Compatible PC Models	USB Interface (Type A) with Windows® 8, Windows® XP, Windows Vista™, Windows® 7 or Mac OS 10.0.2 or later (Only support for USB 2.0)
Warranty	5 Years
Dimensions	68.8 mm (L) x 21 mm (W) x 10.5 mm (H) (including a cap)
Weight	14g (main body only)
Operating Temperature	0° to +50°C (Recommended)
Storage Temperature	-20° to +60°C (Recommended)
Operational and Storage Humidity	20% to 95%RH (Non-condensing)
ReadyBoost functionality	Supported

* The term ‘Hi-Speed USB 2.0’ used herein is the name of a specification upon which this product is based, it does not guarantee the speed of its operation. USB 2.0 is not supported by Windows® 98 SE and ME.
* The terms ‘Super Speed USB 3.0’ and ‘Hi-Speed USB 2.0’ used herein are the name of a specification upon which this product is based, it does not guarantee the speed of its operation.
** e.g. Read and write speeds may vary depending on the read and write conditions, such as devices you use and file sizes you read and/or write.

* Additional details available here

First Impressions

As you can see the Toshiba TransMemory EXII’s a pretty slick looking USB drive with its aluminium and plastic exterior lending the little drive a premium look. The size of the drive also means that there should be no issues wherever you may try and plug it in, which is always far more useful that it sounds. As you can see the cap is easily removed and it can be placed on the back of the drive so you don’t lose it, although to be fair you probably still might as it’s really too loose for its own good!

Testing Methodology/Setup

Our Test Rig for this review (shown below) was treated to a fresh install of Windows 7 64Bit Ultimate N (service pack 1) with all associated Drivers installed. I also ensured that the drive was connected to one of the Intel (not a 3rd party provider like ASMedia) USB ports aboard the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer motherboard.

Test Rig Setup

Case	Cooler Master HAF XB	Power Supply	Corsair Professional Series AX 760i
Motherboard	ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer	CPU	Intel Core i5-4690K
CPU Cooler	Raijintek Themis	RAM	HyperX Savage 2400MHz 8GB Kit
Graphics Card	XFX AMD Radeon R9 290X DD Black Edition	SSD	HyperX FURY 120GB

Hardware Performance

We use ATTO Disk Benchmark to confirm the drives claimed performance levels, in this case we are looking for READ: 222MB/a and WRITE: 205MB/s.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

Toshiba TransMemory EXII 64GB

Looking at the results you can see that we couldn’t quite match Toshiba’s claimed Read performance of 222MB/s, the best we got after trying a few tests was 209MB/s, close, but not really close enough! Write performance was actually the highest we have ever seen on a USB Drive at 201MB/s and very close to Toshiba’s claim of 205MB/s.

What we can see and say at this point is the Toshiba TransMemory EXII is the fastest USB Drive we have ever seen. But some of you may well ask what are we going to use it for? Well the speed of a drive such as this means it’s actually faster than any HDD out there and even as fast as a Hybrid SSHD drive! Meaning that the Toshiba TransMemory EXII is the perfect place to keep your steam library, especially if you consider the 128GB version. You might want to check out our Steam on Pen Drive article here.

Also you can install Windows from USB by following the simple instructions below. And using the Toshiba TransMemory EXII I was able to install Windows 7 onto one of our test HyperX Fury SSD’s in under 8 minutes! That’s from start (pressing F11 to boot from the USB Drive) to landing at a ready to go Windows desktop, impressive stuff! 😉

Run – CMD (in the Windows Run box)
DISKPART
LIST DISK (to see all physical drives on your computer)
SELECT DISK 1 (assuming disk 1 is your USB drive. Make sure you select the right drive here! Refer to the output from the LIST DISK command)
CLEAN (to wipe out any existing volumes on the USB drive)
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY (creates a new primary partition on the USB drive)
ACTIVE (Marks the newly created primary partition as ‘active’)
FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK (formats the newly created primary partition in the FAT32 file system. The QUICK parameter saves time by doing a quick format)
ASSIGN (to give the new partition a drive letter)
Close
Now copy the entire contents of your Windows Install Disc to the USB Drive

Final Thoughts

When it comes to USB Drives they don’t get much faster than the Toshiba TransMemory EXII USB Drive with its claimed 222MB/s Read and 205MB/s write. Although we couldn’t quite match these speeds in our testing, which gave us 209MB/s Read and 201MB/s Write.

This means that the Toshiba TransMemory EXII is the perfect place for some of your favourite Steam Games and it will also allow you to take your Games easily to another PC either in your home or at a friend’s! Not only that but you’ll also continue to benefit from faster than HDD speeds, while you’re Gaming… 😉

Using the EXII we were also able to install Windows from the Drive in under 8 minutes, impressive stuff!

So if you’re on the lookout for a smart looking, high capacity USB drive, then I would say you the Toshiba TransMemory EXII should probably be at the top of your wish list…