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OCZ Throttle 32Gb eSATA and USB Memory Stick Review

Storage/Other by jmke @ 2010-01-21

The fastest memory stick on the face of the earth? OCZ is definitely gunning for the title with their Throttle eSATA 32Gb unit, we measured read speeds up to 85.9Mb/s, almost three times as fast compared to your standard USB variation. More performance numbers and stress testing inside.

Conclusive Thoughts

Conclusive Thoughts

With the Throttle OCZ has introduced on the fastest small storage devices on the planet, today. We can’t deny the fact that USB 3.0 is closing in, but before that becomes a standard on all mainstream machines we’ll have to wait for 2011; meanwhile with the Throttle you can profit from eSATA which has become an industry standard for external storage on laptops and desktops worldwide.

Performance doesn’t come cheap, the Throttle is available for a premium, the entry level 8Gb stick can be had around ~€35, the high end 32Gb model costs €80+, which is quite high. But checking up on similar products from competitors it seems OCZ’s eSATA stick is quite competitively priced.

If the systems you have lying around have eSATA and you want higher performance than USB 2.0 can offer, we can heartily recommend the OCZ Throttle:

OCZ Throttle Recommended for

+ Exceptional performance over eSATA
+ More than respectable read/write performance over USB
- No carrying cord/string or hole to attach one
- Comes with a higher price premium

Comment from geoffrey @ 2010/11/05

Messing around with HTPC & XBMC lately, I stumbled upon the task of finding a proper data holder which:
1) boots super fast
2) is fast enough in main XBMC usage

USB keys are large enough to cary XBMC Live, cheap and bootable, but unfortunately "insanely slow" to boot from. But then there is the OCZ Throttle key!

NOTE: the Throttle key needs power from the eSATA/SATA port of your mainboard if using that interface. If your mainboard doesn't offer you that option you can perfectly connect the miniUSB port from the OCZ key to your pc USB port or USB hub, in that way you'll be powering the OCZ Throttle through USB whilest using eSATA for data transport.

XBMC install afterwards went smoothly and 5 minutes later the system went onlince for the first time. Check it out:

System used:
E8600 @ 2GHz
MSI P35 Platinum
NV 8800GT
2GB OCZ DDR2 PC1000
OCZ Throttle 32GB eSATA interface

Top notch performance, hot boot in 20s and smooth XBMC usage just as I required. Sale price for the 8gb unit is 30~40 euro, pretty much beats many mechanical hard drives and blows away all USB keys.

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