It’s been a while since I looked at any USB Flash Drives, so I figured it was about time. This isn’t just any flash drive either, it’s one of only a few 64gb drives on the market today. The OCZ Rally2 64gb flash drive is obviously large capacity, but it’s got a metal housing as well that makes it tough and durable. I’ve got two other 64gb drives on hand for comparison, so continue on for the comparison and review of the Rally2 64gb flash drive.

The 64gb Rally2 comes in the familiar sealed plastic clamshell style package, we can see the drive through the front and there’s some information listed as well. Included with the drive is a lanyard for carrying the Rally2.

The Rally2 is a black metal drive with the Rally2 logo on one side and the OCZ Logo on the other.

Specifications:

OCZ USB 2.0 Rally2 64GB Flash Drive

The enthusiast’s favorite flash drive! The OCZ USB 2.0 Rally2 Flash Drive features a sleek and ergonomic design housing and is one of the fastest flash drives available. Thanks to the implementation of leading edge Dual Channel technology, the Rally2 puts data transferring in the fast lane and leaves the competitors in the dust.

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 Rally2 Drive excels when managing a wide range of media, and is optimized to more rapidly transfer today’s larger (5MB and up) files.

The ultra durable OCZ Rally2 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. Available in a modest 1GB all the way up to an ample 64GB capacity, choose the capacity that’s right for your storage needs.

The incredible OCZ Rally2 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.

Features:
High Speed USB 2.0 Certified
Up to 30-35MB/s (read), 15-20MB/s (write)
True Plug and Play (Compatible with MAC OS X)
Dual Channel Technology
64GB Dimensions: 87.0mm (L) x 16.0mm (W) x 8.0mm (H)
Aluminum Chassis
Orange LED Status Light
Lifetime Warranty

Accessories: Lanyard

System Requirement:
USB port
Operating System: Windows 98SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS 9.0 or later, Linux Kernel 2.4.2 or later

Part Numbers: OCZUSBR2DC-64GB

 

So I’ve got two other 64gb drives on hand, a Kingston and a Patriot, the OCZ is the longest of them, but the thinnest. The Rally2 64gb is also a bit larger than the OCZ Rally2 32gb  version as well.

Actually I’ve got three Rally2 drives now, a 4gb, a 32gb and the 64gb and I noticed that the lanyard for the 64gb is thicker, or heavier than that of the other two, nothing really ground breaking but just an observation really.

The Rally2 does have an orange LED in the end that lights up and blinks for activity.

So now we know what it looks like, let’s check out the performance.

First up I’ve got SiSoft Sandra 2009 SP2 Removable Storage Benchmark, higher scores are better.

As you can see, according to SiSoft Sandra the Rally2 performs very well.

Here’s a look at the 256MB files test:

as we can see here the Rally2 is a bit slower than the others.

Next up for testing I’ve got DiskBench and the time it takes to Copy To, Copy From and Read From the USB drives. For all testing I used a 350MB .AVI Video file. Results are in seconds so lower is better.

As you can see the write times of the Rally2 is a bit slow compared to the Kingston and the Patriot drives, but the Read specs is close.

Here’s the actual transfer rates for the above tests, higher scores are better.

Here again you can see the Rally2 is slower at writing than the other two drives, and even the read speeds are as well.

One observation here is that the specs list the write speed for the Rally2 at 10-15MB/s, but as you can see I didn’t quite hit the 10MB/s mark.

While it’s not the fastest out there, the Rally2 is the least expensive of all three drives, coming in around $5 cheaper than both of the others.

Honestly I’m a bit disappointed by the Rally2 and its performance, I was expecting it to be a the fastest of the bunch, but you can’t win them all I guess.

Conclusion:
The OCZ Rally2 is a well made and inexpensive 64gb USB flash drive. It might not be the fastest out there, but it looks good, and it’s the least expensive of those I’ve tested to date.

 

Pros:
Least expensive of those tested
Well made
Includes lanyard

Cons:
Not the fastest of those tested
Didn’t hit the rated specs for write speeds

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance