OCZ Throttle 32GB eSATA Flash Drive Review

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

The OCZ Throttle 32GB eSATA Flash drive is really fast in the synthetic benchmarks and even the real world testing as you saw on the previous pages. If you are looking for something faster than a USB 2.0 Flash drive for file transfers the eSATA interface it certainly an option that you should look into if the systems you work with have eSATA available on them. When moving roughly 30GB of files like we did in the real world testing the OCZ Throttle saved over a half an hour of time and to those that work on deadlines or are in a hurry that is very important. Looking past the speed of the drive you have to keep in mind that the USB 3.0 interface is quickly coming and that looks it will be much faster than eSATA with file transfer speeds reaching 625MB/Sec! That is more than tiwce the speed of eSATA (300MB/Sec) and all USB 3.0 ports will have have power running to them, so there won’t be a need for a cable to get power. Intel has said that USB 3.0 based discrete controller cards are expected in 2009 with platforms coming out a little later. Since both Intel and AMD are working on motherbaords that support USB 3.0, we can only assume that USB 3.0 based flash drives will come out around the same time. Since that is more than half a year away those that need impressive file transfer speeds now need to look no futher than the OCZ Throttle and the eSATA interface.

The OCZ 32GB Throttle eSATA that I reviewed here today starts at $92.99 plus shipping on PriceGrabber, which makes it about 70% more expensive than the OCZ ATV 32GB USB 2.0 Flash drive as it runs $54.99 after rebate. Is the extra $38 for faster read speeds worth it? That is up to you to decide. When it comes to the warranty, the OCZ Throttle comes with a 2-year warranty should anything go wrong with the drive.

Legit Bottom Line: The OCZ Throttle 32GB eSATA Flash drive is the fastest ‘thumb drive’ ever tested at Legit Reviews, but the question is if the eSATA interface will catch on before USB 3.0 arrives.