Introduction

OCZ have become popular with Memory enthusiasts over the past year, they have been producing better and better memory performance over some of their rivals too. The Rally Flash Drive is yet another in the line of improvements OCZ have been making. Believe me when I say that this is one heck of a fast Flash based drive.

The OCZ USB 2.0 Rally Flash Drive puts data transferring in the fast lane and leaves the competitors in the dust thanks to the implementation of leading edge Dual Channel technology.

Pick up the pace and transfer your music, pictures, videos, and data to your laptop or desktop in record time or simply “Plug and Play” them instantaneously from the convenience of any USB port. The Rally Drive excels when managing a wide range of media, and is optimized to more rapidly transfer today’s larger (5MB and up) files.

The durable OCZ Rally stores vital documents, presentations, images, music and more in an ultra sleek pocket-size drive, so you can access your files without having to disconnect other USB ports to make room, a common problem with many oversized competitor drives. A glowing Blue LED in the base of the drive signals high speed transfer activity from start to finish.

Need more Speed? The incredibly fast and stylish OCZ Rally Flash drive is designed to be the fastest most reliable USB flash memory drive on the market, and makes use of cutting edge technology and comes backed with a limited lifetime warranty for the ultimate peace of mind.

• High Speed USB 2.0 Certified
• True Plug and Play
• Dual Channel Technology
• Available in 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB capacities
• Dimensions: 2 5/8"(L) x 5/8"(W)
• Aluminum Chassis
• Blue LED Status Light
• Lifetime Warranty
• Accessories
  
  • Keyring
  • Lanyard
  • USB extension cable

System Setup

As always we are using our main review system for the memory tests, in addition to the machine we are using the following drivers and components.

The Hardware

• AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Processor
• ATI X850 XT PCI Express Graphics Card
• Sapphire Axion RS480AS9-A58S Socket 939 Motherboard
• Creative Labs X-Fi Xtrememusic Soundcard
• 180 GB Western Digital Hard Drive 7200 RPM, 8mb Cache
• Sony 16x DVD-RW
• Apple 20" Cinema Display

Installation of the OCZ Rally is a breeze, if you are running Windows XP then all you need to do is to plug it into any of your free USB 2.0 ports and you are ready to use it straight away. Windows as always, will recognize it as a removable storage drive and you will be able to drag and drop files to it and enter the drive via explorer or My Computer just like you can with any other hard drive you might be using. As I have already mentioned, using the OCZ Rally in a computer with USB 2.0 ports is a must as the speed will be far far slower when connected up to a plain USB 1.1 port.

Benchmarks & Information

The OCZ Rally USB 2.0 Drive looks just as  good as it sounds, for once we have a flash drive that looks stylish instead of cheap and tacky like other competitor products have done. One other plus here is that the drive is very thin, this is great news for those of us who already have many other USB devices connected and don't want to worry that you will have to unplug one just to get the USB flash drive connected up. Not everything here is perfect though, at the USB end of the drive, you have a cap covering the connection, this is great to keep it safe, but once you take the cap off you will need to put it somewhere safe as it won't attach the back of the Rally Drive, yeah its a little annoying, but it won't detract buyers I hope as speed wise this is one excellent Flash drive.

Overall in the benchmarking we have done with the OCZ Rally USB 2.0 Drive it has set a benchmark that other USB flash drives will now have to meet, we measured 20.4 MB/sec reading speed and a extremely fast 16.9 MB/sec write speed when testing out the drive, I'm sure you'll agree that these speeds are exceptional for a USB flash drive. We also tested various bulk copies to the drive too, a 250 MB demo file I transferred from my hard drive to the Rally drive took just 15 seconds, amazing speeds when compared to other USB flash drives on the market right now. So if you are into speed then this is the one to go for.

I also did various tests on the drive in terms of copying large numbers of files too, many large 1.5-2.0 MB photo files transferred over with no problems at all and were just as fast as the other benchmarks have been, for example I copied 100 1.5 MB photos in a few seconds and then I was able to pop upstairs and view them on my Xbox 360 without any hassle what so ever and showing them on the 360 proved to me how fast the read speed is on the OCZ Rally USB Drive

Conclusion

Overall the OCZ Rally USB 2.0 Flash Drive is a great buy for those who want to keep their data with them when on the go, the transfer speeds are superb and I can't say a word against the design of the drive either other than the lack of a place to keep the cap. Installation, well what installation...this really is as good as USB flash drives can get right now, its superb, if I can find fault anywhere it is with the UK price, its around £70 while the US price is just $70, but we pay over the odds for everything here anyway. So if you want a USB Flash Drive with speed, go with the Rally.

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