Kingston Releases 256GB DataTraveler 310 Flash Drive

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
The digital age and lifestyle is a great thing, but now more than ever, storage space is of utmost importance. We mostly have our media to thank, with HD movies taking upwards of 10GB each, or more, our music, and even our images. If you're a photographer using a D-SLR, each image can take 10MB or more on your PC and SD card. Then there's games, which today can take up to 15GB with ease.

kingston_datatraveler_300_256gb_021810.jpg

You can read the rest of our news post here.
 

Psi*

Tech Monkey
$1108 ... how much is an ounce of gold?

You do wonder who the buyers are ... or are expected to be?
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
That's a great question. To be honest, I don't think it's designed for anyone, but rather is used as proof that the company delivered something to market that no other has. To me, $1,100 for a thumb drive is just foolish. Suck it up with a 2.5" enclosure, and you could double the capacity, and also the overall speed.

Or, pick up 4 or more 128GB thumb drives for the same price, and still have twice the amount space to juggle.
 

killem2

Coastermaker
I am wondering though, what are the pros / cons to doing a thumb drive over a small enclosure and using a 2.5 drive? I know one is smaller of course but the size of an exclosure is maybe the size of a wallet? maybe a small paper back book? A reader's digest?
 

Psi*

Tech Monkey
What is a reader's digest ... kidding.

But your thought is a workable idea with docking bays. It is pretty easy to find docking bays that handle 2.5" HDDs.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I wonder if it really even costs them near that 1100 to make.

I have no doubt it would come close. The yield of those memory chips must be low, and because their densities are so huge, the cost would likewise be high. Look at 4GB DRAM modules compared to 2GB. The prices exponentially go up as you cram more storage into the same space. I am giving a simple explanation of it, but that's the basics.

How about a device that lets you stripe thumb drives?

If I have stripped in front of a thumb drive before, is that the same thing?

I am wondering though, what are the pros / cons to doing a thumb drive over a small enclosure and using a 2.5 drive? I know one is smaller of course but the size of an exclosure is maybe the size of a wallet? maybe a small paper back book? A reader's digest?

Given the price, getting an external enclosure or dock like Psi* said makes far, far more sense. For $1,100, you could pick up a nice 256GB SSD for around $500 and chuck it in an external enclosure. The bonus is that it would be a lot faster, even through USB (those chips in the 256GB thumb drive have got to be a lot slower than chips in smaller drives).

Personally, I'd just get 2.5" mechanical drive, at around $500 for $150 or whatever they are, get an external enclosure, and lug that around. Sure, you have to be more careful with mechanical drives, but I can't begin to recall how many times I've broken a thumb drive by bending it while it's plugged into the PC. Imagine accidentally doing that with a thumb drive that costs $1,100!
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Guys, quit knocking the price! When I see articles like this it just means in a few years it will be $30 at the local Best Buy. :D

Wasn't it in 2001 that a 256MB CF card was $130? A 1GB Microdrive was $360 and had just been developed by IBM... Tech has to be developed before prices can begin to come down!
 

Tharic-Nar

Senior Editor
Staff member
Moderator
Nah, we'll have 70GB games over unstable Wi-Fi connections with no resume option and a 10GB monthly download limit before then..... oh wait, thats now....:rolleyes:
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Yup, games take up more than ever. Installed Alien vs. Predator the other day, and it takes up 16GB! But, I think when you take scaling into consideration, even a 16GB game isn't that bad, given our 1TB and higher hard drives. I remember purchasing Duke Nukem 3D upon release, and at 30MB, I could install it to my 500MB drive 16 times. With AvP, I can install it to my 500GB 31 times.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Rob, that's insane! 16GB is just a fraction more space than Windows 7 64bit takes!
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Rob, that's insane! 16GB is just a fraction more space than Windows 7 64bit takes!

That's true. It is kind of ridiculous as I mentioned, but at least our hard drives are bigger than ever. On a 1TB drive, 16GB is still just a drop in a bucket.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
That's true. It is kind of ridiculous as I mentioned, but at least our hard drives are bigger than ever. On a 1TB drive, 16GB is still just a drop in a bucket.

...And yet you wouldn't know it by how loudly people complain about Vista's 20-25GB installation size... :rolleyes:
 
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