[djbbenn]

Introduction

I would like to thank PQI for the review sample.

Established in 1997 by Jance Lu, Power Quotient International Co., Ltd. (PQI) is one of the largest memory module manufacturers in the world. Memory module production was the main focus during the early stages of the company but after years of experience, cutting edge R&D technology and professional knowledge, PQI quickly expanded with multiple lines of world class products and officially registered and listed on R.O.C. Over-The-Counter Securities Exchange in 2002. PQI`s channel of sales network extends overseas through its subsidiary companies with offices in USA, The Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. With a total of over 900 employees, professional fields covering DRAM Modules, Flash Cards, DiskOnModuleTM and Multi-Media products, PQI is now ranked a top ten DRAM and Flash leading manufacturer in the world.

From the manufacturer:

• Plug and play though USB 1.1 or 2.0 port
• Smallest USB flash drive in the world
• Store and transport date, music, pictures and videos

Packaging

When I first had the i850 drive in my hands I could not get over how small the device is. It comes in a very economical packaging but displays and describes the unit well. These drives will be available in densities up to 4 GB. On the back there are descriptions of the drive in eight different languages.

A Closer Look

The Intelligent Drive i810 comes on a small chain and loop so it can be hooked onto a cell phone, or attached to a lanyard if one so desires. It is made of all plastic with the exception of the electrical parts.


The chain is easily removed via a clip. When it comes to plugging the i810 into your computer, you push on the back of the unit and then slide the USB connector out. The whole connector is the actual flash memory, and shows how they got this unit so compact.


On the back side of the unit, you can see how the connector slides into the body. The body is purely a protective mechanism for the Intelligent Drive. The advantage of having a body with the connector sliding out of is that there is no end cap, and therefore no chance of loosing the cap.


To give a true perspective of just how small this unit is, it's shown here plugged into a standard 15.4" laptop and then laying on a DVD. The only thing that worries me about something this small, is it can be very easy to loose - At least when it comes to the likes of me.

Performance

We used the following devices for our comparison:

• OCZ Rally 1GB
• OCZ Mini Kart 1 GB
• OCZ Roadster 1 GB
• Super Talent RBST 1 GB
• Corsair Flash Voyager 512 MB
• Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 512 MB
• Sandisk Cruzer Micro 2 GB
• PQI Traveling Disk i221 1 GB
• Verbatim Store'n'Go Pro 2 GB
• SuperTalent RBST 1 GB
• A-Data MyFlash PD7 1 GB
• A-Data Football Disk 512 MB
• Thermaltake MUSE external HDD enclosure
• Generic Stick USB 1.1 256 MB

HDTach was used in the following two benchmarks.


This first chart is the average read performance of the i810 drive in Megabytes per second (MB/s). The drive's read is a little above average, but is nothing off the charts. Its performance is still quite good and will suffice for almost any end-user.


The next performance chart is one that measures Access Time, which is rated in Milliseconds (ms). The Intelligent i810 drive shines when it comes to access time with its of 0.7ms. It is right up there with the leaders of all the other drives we have so far tested.


We also use ATTO disk benchmark to see how the drive performed with different sized files. We used the default settings of the application which tested files sized in the range of 0.5 KB to 1024 KB. If you look closely you'll notice once the benchmark hit the 64 KB file size and larger, the performance leveled off. This always seems to be the case with drive tests, that files 64 KB and larger are what are needed for optimum performance.

Value and Conclusion

	The Intelligent Drive i810 1 GB by PQI sells for about 16.99 USD.
	Price Very small and compact Very good access times Lifetime warranty No end cap to loose
	Too small/easily lost? Average write speeds
9.0	The Intelligent Drive i810 is a great "little" drive. The performance of the drive is fairly decent and the unit is extremely tiny. Personally I think with such items that smaller is better when it comes to physical size. It's nice to have a large capacity disk on you, yet nothing that is large that it sticks in your pants or bangs around your neck if it's on a lanyard. On the other side of things, some may find it too small and easily lost. With capacities up to 4 GB available, it's the perfect solution for those seeking a physically small storage solution with lots of capacity.