March 16, 2007: Flash Voyager and Flash Voyager GT Performance Update

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At the end of February, Corsair launched the Flash Voyager GT family of USB drives. These drives are completely optimized for performance, using a new ultra-fast controller and SLC flash memory. The GT family is clearly marked with GT logo and distinctive red “wings”, rather than the blue wings of the standard flash voyager.

As the GT is now available in the channel, we are moving our standard Flash Voyager to MLC, rather than SLC, flash technology. In a nutshell, SLC is fast and expensively priced, MLC is slower (particularly on writes, where it is about ¼ as fast) and is significantly less expensive. Moving the “blue-wing” Voyager to MLC technology allows us to immediately reduce the price substantially, making the Voyager an excellent general-purpose drive with performance that is still substantially faster than mainstream.

So, in a nutshell, if you are interested in a flash drive that is very high performance, and you are able to pay a higher price for this performance, then the Flash Voyager GT is the product for you. If you are looking for a moderately priced flash drive with better than average performance, then the Flash Voyager is your best bet.