Benchmark: Samsung Bar Plus 32 GB

It has been a while since I purchased another USB stick. This is mostly because they tend to have incredibly underwhelming performance by comparison to external hard drives.

That said, I have to say that I am very impressed by this new Samsung Bar Plus I picked up for a project for which I needed a very durable USB stick. I haven't tested the actual durability of this thing, but it's read/write speeds are certainly impressive.

/files/samsung-bar.png 
Benchmark started at Mon Nov 18 19:56:22 MST 2019

1 KB Block Size

Nov 18 19:56:22: *** Testing 1 KB blocks
Nov 18 19:56:26: Wrote 1K 10240 times. 10 MB written at 2.8 MB/s.
Nov 18 19:56:28: Read 1K 10240 times. 10 MB read at 5.8 MB/s.
Nov 18 19:56:55: Wrote 1K 81920 times. 84 MB written at 3.1 MB/s.
Nov 18 19:57:12: Read 1K 81920 times. 84 MB read at 4.7 MB/s.

1 MB Block Size

Nov 18 19:57:12: *** Testing 1 MB blocks
Nov 18 19:57:54: Wrote 1M 1024 times. 1.1 GB written at 25.9 MB/s.
Nov 18 19:57:59: Read 1M 1024 times. 1.1 GB read at 217 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:03:27: Wrote 1M 8192 times. 8.6 GB written at 26.2 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:04:07: Read 1M 8192 times. 8.6 GB read at 214 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:17:49: Wrote 1M 20480 times. 21 GB written at 26.1 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:19:27: Read 1M 20480 times. 21 GB read at 218 MB/s.

4 MB Block Size

Nov 18 20:19:27: *** Testing 4 MB blocks
Nov 18 20:20:09: Wrote 4M 256 times. 1.1 GB written at 25.7 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:20:14: Read 4M 256 times. 1.1 GB read at 216 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:25:48: Wrote 4M 2048 times. 8.6 GB written at 25.7 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:26:28: Read 4M 2048 times. 8.6 GB read at 215 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:40:19: Wrote 4M 5120 times. 21 GB written at 25.8 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:42:01: Read 4M 5120 times. 21 GB read at 211 MB/s.

1 GB Block Size

Nov 18 20:42:01: *** Testing 1 GB blocks
Nov 18 20:42:43: Wrote 1G 1 times. 1.1 GB written at 25.6 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:42:48: Read 1G 1 times. 1.1 GB read at 217 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:48:20: Wrote 1G 8 times. 8.6 GB written at 25.9 MB/s.
Nov 18 20:48:59: Read 1G 8 times. 8.6 GB read at 217 MB/s.

Summary

With an average write speed of about 25 MB/s and read speed of 215 MB/s (!!!), this is without a doubt the fastest USB stick I have owned. To top it off, it is made of steel (or at least feels like it). I plan on testing other USB sticks as I hunt for the most durable one for this project, but this one definitely takes the lead at this point.