Sandisk Cruzer Speed Test: 16gb vs 8gb

Black Friday 2008 brought a great deal on the Sandisk 16gb Cruzer drive. I wondered how it would perform next to the older 8gb model I had. The 16gb does not say it is ready boost compatible, you can see why. Here are the results:

In Windows Vista:
16gb
write speed: 5.3 mb/s
read speed: 23 mb/s

8gb
write speed: 7.4 mb/s
read speed: 27 mb/s

So, the read speed is relatively close (the 8gb is still faster). The write speed is about 40% slower on the newer 16 gig memory stick. That's a step backwards.

Here are some results inside XP Pro:
Using a 454 megabyte directory of files:

16gb wrote it in 1:41. Read it in 21 seconds.
8gb wrote it in 1:12. Read it in 20 seconds.

Summary: Great increase in space, it's slower than the older model...especially the write speed.

Want to read a really intense comparison between 20+ flash drives 12/2008? Click here.