Hardware Bistro

Product: Rush 3.0
Manufacturer: Centon
Supplied by: Centon
Price: 24USD/RM74
Launch Date: NA

 

As we all know USB 3.0 is an upcoming technology that will be the next most wanted storage or I/O interface since it has much faster speed than USB 2.0 technology; about 10x faster. Many storage vendors have started to ship their products with USB 3.0 interface and today we would like to bring you the first USB 3.0 flash drive from Centon with affordable price and compact size; RUSH 3.0. 

 

Company Profile

At Centon we strive to provide quality products, services and solutions that fit our customer's needs. We are committed to keeping jobs and assembly in America. By offering flexibility, low priced solutions, customized products and supply chain management, Centon turns customers into partners.

Centon's vision is to grow with its partners, increase its worldwide position as a leading memory manufacturer, incorporating the newest technologies into the company's product offerings, while maintaining the highest possible standards that have kept Centon strong since 1978.

 

Features

• Higher transfer rates
• Backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices & computers Full-duplex data transfers
• Lag-free transfer experience
• Low power consumption
• LED indicator to show link status
• Cap less sliding design
• Small form factor
• Plug and Play

 

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Just like other USB flash drives, Centon Rush 3.0 is packed with a simple see-through packaging but it comes with a sealed container so security concern is not an issue. 80MB/s & 60MB/s are advertised read & write speeds of Rush 3.0 based on the packaging.

 

Besides that Centon also stated the number of photos, songs and videos that it can store; Rush 3.0 8GB is able to store up to 1360 pieces of 12MP photos, 1920 songs or 120 minutes of H.264 video. No other accessory is bundled for Centon Rush 3.0 except a key-chain holder.

 

A Closer Look on Centon Rush 3.0

Centon has been in the memory and storage markets since 1978 but they are more active in US, Mexico and Latin America especially via e-retailers; hence it is not strange if you never come across with this brand before. Anyway memory, flash memory card, USB flash drive and SSD are Centon core products.

One of the significant advantages of having USB 3.0 device over USB 2.0 device are the speed as USB 3.0 is about ten times faster than USB 2.0 in theoretically. 4.8Gbps transfer speed is really tremendous as a 600MB data (1 byte equals to 8 bit) could be transferred from one device to another within a second; can you imagine that?

USB 3.0 device is fully back compatible with USB 2.0 device as they are having identical connectors. However in fact USB 3.0 connector comes with 9 pins instead of 4 pins where the additional 5 pins are 2 x SuperSpeed transmitter, 2 x SuperSpeed receiver and ground on top of the USB+, USB-, power & ground.

Centon has produced quite numbers of USB flash drives and some of the unique products are Pro (aluminum chassis), Bolt (ultra compact), Green Drive (eco friendly), Sport (waterproof) and etc. Rush 3.0 is the first USB 3.0 flash drive from Centon and the available capacities are 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

As we mentioned at above, the read & write speeds of Centon Rush 3.0 are about 80MB/s & 60MB/s; quite similar with other USB 3.0 flash drives from other vendors. Although USB 3.0 device is having 10 time faster throughput than USB 2.0 device but it is only about 4 to 5 times faster in real life testing; still not a bad results right.

 

The dongle size of Centon Rush 3.0 is about 55 x 20 x 8 mm which is pretty compact and it is the slimmer USB 3.0 flash drive that we have tested so far. Another advantage of Centon Rush 3.0 is its capless design and we like it very much as it can prevent the cap to be misplaced or missing unintentionally.

 

A blue LED indicator is embedded in Centon Rush 3.0 to show its link status and its connector is in blue color which is the standard color to differentiate with USB 2.0 devices. It is good to see a key-chain holder is bundled for Centon Rush 3.0 but we hope a lanyard will be provided as well since it is a much preferred item to hook up the USB flash drive.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

USB flash drive is a plug & play device where no rocket science installation or setup is required. However we have paired up a Vizo PCI-102 ExpressCard; USB 3.0 adapter with our HP Elitebook 2540p in order to test out a USB 3.0 flash drive since our system does not come with built-in USB 3.0 ports. Without further delay, let us find out the performance of Centon Rush 3.0; hopefully it will surprise us.

 

Test Bed

Notebook: HP EliteBook 2540p
Processor: Intel i7-640LM @ 2.13GHz
Memory: 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM
Display: 12.1" LED-backlit WXGA anti-glare
Graphic Card: Intel HD Graphics
Optical Drive: Panasonic 9.5mm DVD RAM
Controller: Vizo PCI-102 ExpressCard
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: Arctic Sound P311
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Operating System: Window XP Pro SP3/Win 7 Pro
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here are the Centon Rush 3.0's benchmarking results that we have obtained with our test bed. The sequence read and write speeds are about 32 & 21MB/s which are slightly lower than our expectation and hence we have tested it again on another desktop but the results are still the same. Anyway these speeds are definitely higher than the USB 2.0 flash drive especially the write speed. Furthermore we did not find any heat problem with Centon Rush 3.0 despite of its slimmer and compact dongle as most of the USB 3.0 flash drives generate quite huge amount of heat when it is operating. Anyway we hope to see greater performance for the next Centon USB 3.0 flash drive; giving another option besides the attractive price.

 

Verdicts

USB 2.0 interface surely will be replaced by USB 3.0 in the next coming few years except for those low quality or low cost products. Hence getting a USB 3.0 flash drive is definitely adorable to enjoy the greater speeds of data transferring especially for those large file size data. Overall Centon Rush 3.0 is a not a bad choice when selecting a USB 3.0 flash drive as it comes with much cheaper prices than other USB 3.0 flash drives besides the cap-less design and compact size. If price does matter and speed is not critical then Centon Rush 3.0 should be something that you should look into it.

 

Pros:

+ Greater performance than USB 2.0 flash drives
+ Slim & compact
+ Cap-less design
+ Attractive pricing
+ Generate less heat

Cons:

- Performance could be further enhanced 

Thanks to Centon for providing this sample for us to review.

 

 

 

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