OCZ Throttle eSATA Flash Drive *EOL

Over USB the Throttle scores quite well, switching to eSATA halves the random access time again, well below 1 millisecond. OCZ mentions write speeds of ~30mb/s, from our results we can see that over eSATA the Throttle already surpasses this claim at 8k file size chunks, and this flash drive is able to pass the 50Mb/s mark! 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."

"The OCZ Throttle slightly exceeds 50 MB/s in writing via eSATA, which is twice the value measured during the USB connection, showing a very solid performance. The ATTO Disk benchmark showed almost triple the speed in reading. If you already have access to a computer or laptop with an eSATA connector, the OCZ Throttle is the easiest connection. There can only be one winner and this is determined by looking at the ergonomics and performance of the product. The best eSATA portable stick is the OCZ Throttle 32GB, so it’s superiority gets our TREF Award."

“Ditching the bog-standard USB interface in favor of eSATA seems an odd move, but the Throttle did deliver lightning fast transfer and access speeds. Not every PC includes external SATA ports, fortunately, OCZ has included a mini-USB adaptor, which powers it when it’s connected via eSATA and lets it be read as (a fairly fast) USB drive when it’s not connected via eSATA. Clever stuff. A great idea, and well implemented. If you’re massively impatient and have an eSATA port it’s definitely worth the investment.”

"eSATA has really started to become popular on cases and other devices. It would be no surprise that we have started to see eSATA flash drives popping up. OCZ’s Throttle eSATA flash drive uses the eSATA connector instead of the USB connection for added speed. It does also have a miniUSB connection if you did want to connect it to a computer that does not have an eSATA connection. This drive is available in 8, 16 and 32GB versions and can be found online for $30 for the 8GB version."

"The Throttle key is extraordinary due to the presence of a double connector for USB 2.0 and eSATA. The key is usable on any PC using USB 2.0, which is extremely common. This makes for a drive that is very convenient to use just about anywhere. The icing on the cake, the performance of USB 2.0 is worthy of any of the best current USB 2.0 drives. To make the most of the Throttle and exploit its full potential, using the eSATA interface is key to the best possible results. The performance of the Throttle is then outstanding. Our tests revealed a write rate of 27.2 Mb / s and a throughput of 89.2 MB / s in read. The eSATA standard is better than any USB 2.0, by far!"

"In this economical downtime, I think that having a good present does not mean that you must spend a fortune. In fact, I think that flash drives are always good choices for the techies and non-techies out there. You can never have enough of these neat little portable storage devices. If you want a performance drive, we think the OCZ Throttle is a nice little device for its combination of eSATA and USB port. Our test shows that the eSATA port can offer close to three times of the transfer rate than the USB port in real-world tests. So it’s definitely a good one for those who always need to transfer large chunk of data around different computers if the system supports eSATA."

"If you've bought a laptop or desktop in the past couple of years chances are that it has an eSATA drive, which is basically a turbo-charged version of USB. The OCZ eSATA thumb drive is tiny, holds up to 32GB of data, transfers information over much faster then USB and if you need to put extract data on a non-eSATA compatible device it also has a USB 2.0 connection on the other end."

"The performance results of the OCZ Throttle in USB and eSATA are really big. It has a black semi transparent look which is quite simple and elegant. The prices for each model size are well worth it, when considering the huge performance benefits. In personal conclusion, the Throttle never leaves me and I have no trouble transferring large files. It also allows me to install software for holding by USB to troubleshoot a computer when it is needed. In short: happiness!"

"The maximum portable storage performance is through the eSATA port. In our test the eSATA drives easily outperforms the USB drives."

"Not strictly a USB drive, the Throttle connects to your PC via the same SATA interface as your hard discs. The result is blistering transfer speeds, but you’ll have to make sure your PC has an external SATA (eSATA) port. It can connect via USB as well."

"The OCZ Throttle is the Formula 1 unit of this roundup. This drive out performed all others included in this test. With the eSATA interface becoming more available on notebook and desktop PCs this is very interesting."

"Sticks with eSATA score best by far (see the first two places). If you have a PC with a eSATA interface, choose the fastest stick in the test - the OCZ Throttle eSATA. The OCZ Throttle eSATA is the absolute winner."

"Flash drives with additional eSATA connection like OCZ's Throttle are much faster than common USB drives. OCZ's eSATA drive Throttle outperforms USB drives easily, we've seen about 78MB/s read and 54MB/s write."

"OCZ has the answer for those people who need much faster than a simple USB flash drive, and they're accomplishing it with an eSATA interface. We see the Throttle posting excellent results - in the neighborhood of 3 times the speed over the USB connection. The OCZ Throttle 32GB is a very, very fast drive when used in eSATA mode, putting up outstanding results in the our tests, blowing away every USB drive we've seen to date. The OCZ Throttle 32GB packs a large amount of storage onto a relatively small device that has is extremely fast. It's lightweight, durable, and the aesthetic finish is gorgeous. If you are in the market for an eSATA drive, then the OCZ Throttle 32GB is one of your only choices and is a great one at that."

"Thanks to the eSATAp standard the Throttle can be used in combined USB / eSATA slots without additional USB cables. For example this was possible in our test model Aspire 8935G from Acer without problems. As a fast external memory medium we can therefore recommend the OCZ Throttle without limitations."

"Overall we are happy with the design and features of the OCZ Throttle. The OCZ Throttle eSATA drive offers performance and versatility for enthusiasts that demand the best hardware. The Throttle was able to outperform the SATA 3.5” desktop hard drive in both the Windows Defender and Windows Vista Startup tests. The read performance was particularly impressive, especially when using the eSATA interface. Overall the OCZ Throttle 32GB flash drive has impressed us immensely. The Throttle is one of the fastest USB flash drives that we have tested."

"OCZ Throttle has a very good performance, both used with the USB and external SATA. When you have an extra USB cable and already have external SATA on your computer it would be very hard to find something faster for a better price."

“First the OCZ Throttle looks like a regular USB drive howerver that is not the case: on one side you have a USB port, on the other an eSATA connector. The Throttle offers a combination of both. You could also look at it as an SSD based on the flash used but than with a different connection. In short: this is the next best thing when it comes to storage! The performance is just gigantic, its about twice as fast as a regular USB drive. The Throttle is affordable, universal and extremely fast – that’s what we love – OUR PRODUCT OF THE MONTH!”

“When we used eSATA port Throttle worked faster than former leader OCZ Rally2 Turbo. The difference was about 20MB/s while writing small files (xls), 3MB/s while writing huge files (DivX).”

“The best performance is provided by our test winner - OCZ Throttle eSATA 32-GB version, using the new super eSATA interface for data transfer. This is perfect for large media archives. The Throttle also has a USB port for older PCs. USB flash drives with the eSATA interface clearly performs better than conventional models.”

“OCZ is a company that likes to innovate and always wants to be a step ahead of the competition. The Throttle is no ordinary USB stick – it uses an eSATA port to guarantee faster file transfer. The Throttle is nearly twice as fast as a standard USB stick and also provides great storage at 32GB. The OCZ Throttle is slightly more expensive than a standard USB stick, but you will therefore have the extra speed and storage capacity."

“This drive is only a touch more expensive than other 32GB flash drives and offers far speedier transfer times if you make the effort. The eSATA write speed was over four times faster than USB 2.0, copying a 1GB file in just ten seconds.”

"While it may look like any other USB memory stick, the Throttle has an eSATA connector, allowing for faster transfers to and from the stick. Performance is not only as good as we'd hoped; it's actually better. Its addition of an eSATA port means that data transfer is much faster than most competing drives, so for that reason we recommend it.

“Whatever the benchmark, the OCZ Throttle with the eSATA drive has its own nominations for top performance - be it in reading or writing. The OCZ Throttle Drive eSATA has set up a new bar in performance - be it USB-based, but particularly eSATA-based - and is currently the fastest stick we have tested.”

“It looks like a USB stick, about the same size and weight...and yet it is not a USB stick. The OCZ Throttle USB stick is not just a regular flash drive, it offers you a huge performance boost over eSATA. The OCZ Throttle is a very fast and recommended replacement for your USB Stick.”

“Extremely fast, with the additional USB port for a compatibility extra and only slightly more expensive than "normal" USB memory sticks. OCZ delivers with a 32GB Throttle eSATA - an inexpensive and speedy eSATA memory stick. 91.5 MB/s is still triple the transfer rate of USB sticks. When testing the writing speeds in our test lab, the OCZ stick is even twice as fast as that of DeLOCK: 52.1 MB/s. Together with the good price of around 85 euro for 32GB, the OCZ Throttle is one of the most attractive eSATA memory sticks on the market.”

“For me the Throttle is the most versatile flash drive on the market and is also remarkably fast. This will satisfy users looking for a piece of hardware to acquire high capacity and maximize performance. For less than € 100 you have a flash drive of 32GB with the option of using it for much more than simple data storage, so for the same price as any other USB drive to get more speed and 32GB a world of possibilities open for use .  It's like having a SSD in a format where we can store and install what they want from us. This unit is a more complete USB drive and is more advanced, worthy of our most important prize. 10 to OCZ.”

“OCZ has managed to innovate in a somewhat saturated market of USB keys. Moreover, it opens the door to a niche little exploited yet, where memory searches for external high capacity, performance and ease of use. The velocities obtained with eSATA are substantially higher than those obtained with USB 2.0. It’s not even ridiculous to think about running an operating system from this type of device halfway between a USB key and an SSD hard drive.”

"As an ordinary USB drive, the wide-body Throttle screams. Use it as an eSATA (external Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) drive, however, and its speed practically triples. The glossy black plastic Throttle doesn’t have a typical male USB connector. Instead, it has a female mini-USB port and comes with a 2-foot extension cable. Plug the cable into a PC’s USB port to use the Throttle as a USB drive in virtually any computer. For top speed in a relative handful of systems, plug in the eSATA connector instead. The upside is tremendous speed from computers equipped with eSATA: up to 85.7MBps reading and 12.5MBps writing."

"While standard USB sticks are almost exclusively marketed on capacity and price, the OCZ Throttle recently entered the market with innovation. The handy stick may be "only" 32GB in size, but it offers an eSATA connection in addition to the mini-USB port. OCZ provides impressive proof with the Throttle that handy flash drives with an eSATA port are vastly superior than their USB counterparts. Increasing drive capacity makes this especially improved in performance."

"When we enable the eSATA functionality of the Throttle the jump in performance is huge. The large file copy test is more than twice as fast with the small file copy being almost too quick to accurately record. With the Throttle drive OCZ have created a drive which has a reasonable level of geek coolness in both appearance and performance. Packed into its 18g frame is a decent amount of storage which is flexible due to the two interfaces and performance through both cannot be faulted."

"When you've got a flash drive with the capacity of an articulated lorry and performance of Lamborghini it makes sense to plug it into an interface designed for such devices. This is exactly what OCZ have done with the Throttle, ditching the bandwidth limited USB2.0 interface in favor of the beast that is eSATA. This has resulted in a flash drive that not only outperforms some of the fastest USB drives on the market by a factor of at least two, but can also give many SATA hard disks a run for their money."

"Like its relative the OCZ Rally2, the Throttle is a very fast drive on USB2. When it comes to performance, the OCZ Throttle is a completely different animal when connected to the eSATA port. Yeah, this thing is fast. Top read speeds hit between 85 and 90MB/sec. Very few drives (solid state or not) can even come close to saturating this sort of bandwidth. Best Drives for fastest read/write speeds goes to the OCZ Throttle. The OCZ Throttle also has a ridiculously fast eSATA mode."

"eSata is that 'something else' OCZ has gone with for their “Throttle” thumb drive. [It] has a maximum transfer speed of 300MB/s, so it's a good future proof upgrade path from USB 2.0. You could say it's a simple evolutionary step for thumb drives, but I think it's a welcome one. As it stands, every new computer has sata ports, which are easy enough to convert into eSata.”

“OCZ Throttle gets you good data storage capacity with external disk performance, small footprint and weight and the dual convenience of a very flexible device. Featuring excellent performance even in writing, the Throttle does around 30 MB / s on average, a very good overall. Also, the access time is reduced further to just 0.2 ms and the percentage of occupancy of the CPU has returned to normal levels, with a value of 2.0%."

“And here comes the performance king! OCZ does not just ‘throttle’ all opponents , it crashes them on both eSATA and USB modes. OCZ, we congratulate you on this great achievement. A worthy recipient of the Good Choice Award.”

“There are products where you wonder 'why hasn’t anybody thought of this before?' – The OCZ Throttle is a product like that. OCZ promises read and write speeds of 90MB/s and 30MB/s, so the Throttle is not only a little bit faster, it’s a massive difference! Last but not least the Throttle is priced at the same level as high performing USB drives, if you are transferring a lot of data, the OCZ Throttle is a brilliant product!”

“USB keys have turned into an indispensable product for the majority of users. The capacities have continued to increase however the issue is the limitation on performance. OCZ's Throttle eSATA solves this problem, with 90MB read and 30MB write advertised by the manufacturer, but in our test we managed to hit even higher speeds! The Throttle comes with a cable in case you do not have a powered eSATA port. Sufficient capacity, amazing performance at a great price!”

"For around the same price as a mid range USB drive of the same size I would recommend these drives as future-proof. I'd like to thank OCZ for sending along this little flash drive. It's probably the fastest thing I've plugged into a port on my computer."

“We can conclude that OCZ Throttle eSATA Flash Drive is one of the fastest flash-memory based drives today. Using fast eSATA interface allows OCZ Throttle eSATA Flash Drive to break the speed limit of traditional USB drives and get closer to speeds of modern hard drives. Moreover, considering that of OCZ Throttle eSATA Flash Drive is pretty small and affordable (32GB costs less than 4000 rubles), we would definitely recommend it to owners of laptops with eSATA port."

“The performance of OCZs Throttle is something to show off! When connected via USB it already beats the flash drives tested by us before and competes with the ATV Turbo which makes use of SLC chips. When connected via eSATA it becomes really fast: depending on the benchmark the Throttle performed above the 90MB/s read and 30MB/s write."

“For transfer speeds this eSATA alternative is the fastest around.”

"The Throttle offers USB connectivity and has an eSATA connection as well offering roughly twice the performance of USB. If you have been looking for a flash drive that offers fast transfer speeds and a large capacity, the OCZ Throttle may be just what you need. The average read speed in USB mode was 28.4MB/sec. The average read speed in eSATA mode for the Throttle was 79.5 MB/sec, more than twice the speed of the drive in USB mode. You can see at a glance that the eSATA performance is much better than the USB performance. Overall, the Throttle is a great flash drive offering tons of storage and blazing fast speeds. In eSATA mode, the Throttle is by far the fastest flash drive I have ever tested."

“With the eSATA interface, the Throttle is easily the fastest flash drive I have ever tested. Fast speeds are very important on a drive that can handle 32GB of data and the performance makes the Throttle a very viable backup option. If you want a high capacity flash drive with the fastest data transfer speeds you can get the OCZ Throttle is for you. This flash drive is blazing fast and offers dual interface options that will work with every laptop and desktop around.”

“On average we got about 30MB/s write speed in eSATA mode. This was phenomenal, for those on the go transporting large files the Throttle would be great. Even in USB mode the OCZ Throttle was fast, coming in at 19.4MB/s. The OCZ Throttle Flash Drive offers great performance and speed utilizing eSATA. This is a great feature for those who need to copy data quickly from computers.”

"The OCZ Throttle takes the newest and fastest port on the PC and makes it usable for small portable storage. There was no competition from the others as one would suspect. Hovering always around 90MB/s with CPU usage. It is a shame that more computers don't come with eSATA, or better yet powered eSATA ports as drives like the OCZ Throttle would totally replace the typical USB flash drive. I should not have been surprised how fast the drive was, considering the unit takes advantage of the faster SATA transfer rates. But for those that do not have an eSATA port and want to purchase the Throttle you will be happy to know that it also has a mini-USB connection as well.”

“The eSATA port on OCZ Throttle shows all its virtues, almost like a lightning bolt with an average reading of 86.1 MB/s performance increase by 160% over that USB interface. The OCZ Throttle is a clear demonstration of the technology we will start to see in our daily lives. Using the eSATA is very comfortable, prevents shutdown / turn on the computer each time you need to connect the OCZ Throttle, as it is a conventional pen drive that uses a USB port. One of the good qualities that the OCZ Throttle noted, was to be portable, since it is designed to work both as a USB interface for eSATA. While eSATA is only able to take your performance to the maximum, operating with the USB port is very gratifying for those who still do not have eSATA.”

"The announcement of a 16GB stick, when 64GB sticks have been around for some time, cannot be considered sensational news. However, in the case of Throttle by OCZ things are different. Its design is a bit different, since Throttle is wider and relatively large, within proportion of course, but it remains convenient. But, what does this mini USB port doing at the back panel, and what is this "strange" plug underneath the cover? No, you are not mistaken, Throttle is not a USB flash drive, but an eSATA flash drive. The advantage is none other than a higher transfer and writing speed achieved by Throttle, when connected to an eSATA port, found on most PCs and notebooks nowadays. On the other hand, the USB port is provided for two reasons. The first has to do with compatibility, so that the stick can be used even when there is no eSATA port available, and the second concerns the supply of power in the case where the eSATA port is not self-powered."

"Clearly, the OCZ Throttle eSATA Flash Drive is a speed demon. In USB mode, the drive performed on par with the OCZ Rally 2 Turbo, making it amongst the faster USB based drives we've tested. In eSATA mode, it just leaves everyone behind. In the small file tests, the Throttle was almost 100% faster than it's closest competitor. With this much speed, it's hard to find any shortcomings. For those of you who do not have eSATA ports, the Throttle still has value as it does have USB. In case any of you are wondering, yes, if you put data on the drive via eSATA, you can read it with the USB connection and vice versa."

"There’s not much to be said about the eSATA Throttle, hands down it’s a winner in all tests with speeds that are well above the competition. The OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is the fastest I’ve ever tested while using it’s eSATA interface, it easily bests every other USB flash drive out there today."

“If are a fan of new technology, you will love the OCZ Throttle. The performance is simply awesome, we haven’t tested a USB drive which even came close to the level of the Throttle drive. This product is innovative and unique and more than a good alternative to regular USB drives as the price is also very competitive.”

“As you can see, the read performance on the OCZ Throttle is phenomenal. For some packet sizes, performance was even better than that listed on the specification sheet. This new drive's performance far exceeds any possible transfer speeds over USB. Here, the eSATA's abilities really shine through. An eSATA thumb drive like the OCZ Throttle has been long overdue. As an all around product, the Throttle is a pleasure to use. While it isn't the smallest drive on the market, it's definitely not too big to be less mobile than any other thumb-drive. Also, because the USB connection is by cable, there will be no sort of conflict with the Throttle blocking other ports. On the performance front, the read speeds from the Throttle are very impressive. At more than 93MB/s for maximum read speeds over eSATA, the Throttle provides a performance advantage that no USB drive can match. "

"I especially love the fact that the Throttle is also compatible with the standard USB ports so you will not be left out if your particular board may not yet have the eSATA port. Not to mention that the drive’s USB performance is the best we have seen among the drives we have tested. The fact that the drive will also be able to draw power from the USB port for those boards lack a BUS-powered eSATA port is quite ingenious and very handy in our opinion. Of course, if you can take the advantage of the eSATA port, you will not be disappointed by its performance. What is also great about the Throttle is that it is selling at comparable price to the USB based flash drives of similar storage space. I believe with the release of the Throttle, we may finally see eSATA takes off and slowly gaining popularities. Our hats off to OCZ for releasing such a product at the right time and provides such a great performance."

“The availability of USB drives is like sand on the beach but now OCZ has introduced something completely new for the flash segment, the eSATA Throttle drive which can also be connected via USB. The build quality is very good. Looking at all different performance charts, OCZ definitely delivers. Read performance had an average of amazing 84MB/s with a max of 90,7MB/s. It’s also interesting to see that the load on the CPU is much lower with the eSATA drive compared to USB. With the innovative Throttle eSATA drives OCZ shows there are real good alternatives in the flash segement to USB drives, especially in terms of performance and the price is about on the same level."

"The removable storage benchmark showed the OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is insanely quick when compared to USB 2.0 flash drives. The OCZ Throttle eSATA drive has wicked fast read speeds that make nearly all Flash storage devices look slow. The 32GB OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is hands down the fastest thumb drive we have ever used! Basically, the OCZ Throttle was able to transfer over 30GB of files in roughly 15 minutes."

"eSATA offers significant speed advantages over USB 2.0, which transfers data at a maximum rate of 480Mbit/sec. For now, however, you'll not find a faster data external data transfer medium for consumer computer products. I tested OCZ's 16GB Throttle flash drive, which comes in a sleek, black plastic case that measures 3 inches by 1 1/8 inches in size. OCZ has Kanguru beat on price, and on speed. If you're looking for an easy way to download those movies, photos or big files quickly and carry them in your shirt pocket, I highly recommend checking this drive out."

“When using eSATA, we can see that the Throttle offers a consistently higher read speed on average against the USB flash drive. Burst speeds give us a similar story, with a 94.6MB rate for the Throttle over eSATA against just 30MB of our USB 2.0 drive. You can see the vast improvement in overall read and burst speeds from the move to a Serial ATA interface here however, even using exactly the same flash cells, which certainly goes some way to backing up OCZ's decision to release this series of drives. From our testing, there's little doubt that using eSATA to access flash storage offers some genuine performance improvements over doing the same via USB, and despite its large 16GB of storage in the case of our particular sample the Throttle easily outran the various 4GB drives we had at our disposal to compare it to. What OCZ has offered here is a solid effort with plenty of storage on show, and at a reasonable price point to boot. If you're dying to make use of the eSATA functionality of systems you own, or can guarantee access to powered eSATA ports wherever you go, then the Throttle is a fantastic and innovative solution which is definitely a worthwhile purchase."

"One thing to note early on is that the results in HD Tach and HD Tune read tests seem odd, I went back and verified that yes, in USB 2.0 mode, the Throttle is able to break the previous speed wall in both tests. This drive is certainly fast, portable and easy to use especially if you have a powered eSATA port. One reason is that few setups are able to boot from a USB drive, whereas it is more likely that your setup will be able to use a drive such as the Throttle as a boot drive for whichever OS you choose. I also feel that USB 3.0 flash drives will come out initially with a price premium, and until we can see actual read and write speeds of the drives, the OCZ Throttle is king of the ultra-portable hill in terms of data transfer speed."