DanTheBanjoman
01-09-2007, 02:31 PM
[page=Introduction & Packaging]
Introduction
First I'd like to thank Goldenmars (http://www.goldenmars.com) for supplying me with these two items.
GoldenMars is a California based company that specializes in various kinds of memory (flash, USB sticks and system memory) and multimedia players. Next to their production facility in Taiwan and headquarters in California GoldenMars also has offices in Germeny (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/germeny.jpg), China and Hong Kong. So if you're near one of these places, you could most likely find some Goldenmars products near you.
They are now expanding from being an OEM manufacturer to targeting the retail market. To facilitate the changes, the company launched its signature brand “GeeDom” line of memory modules and flash based storage products in the retail market in the summer 2006, all GeeDom memory products come with a lifetime warranty.
We received two of these items to review. The first being a 512MB USB stick, which distinguishes itself from others by having a screen with a user defined label and information on free space. The second item is a 512MB SD card. Both are part of the GeeDom line which they launched last year.
Enough about GoldenMars, let's take a look at the products at hand.
Packaging
I received both items together in a box, both in their own retail box though. Before I broke them free they looked like this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/identityflashpackagefront.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/identityflashpackagefront.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/identityflashpackageback.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/identityflashpackageback.jpg)
The Identity flash drive
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/sdpackagefront.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/sdpackagefront.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/sdpackageback.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/isdpackageback.jpg)
The SD card.
Breaking free is the right word here, as much as I like to have my stuff packed well I also want to be able to open the box relatively easy. As you might knew, this kind of plastic isn't easy to open. Even with the kitchen scissors I had some trouble opening it. Unfortunately a lot of items are packed this way.
In the plastic there is the item, and a piece of hard paper with some information on the item. The SD card comes in a small plastic box in which you can keep it. Nothing special though, it seems to be nearly identical to others I have.
[page=The hardware]
Identity flash drive
First we take a closer look at the flash drive.
The model I got holds 512MB, however it is available with 1GB and 2GB as well. As most flash drives there isn't much to describe feature wise, this stick has a nice display which let you read out free space and the stick's name.
The flash drive is a bar with rounded corners, it looks pretty stylish. It is basically a plastic base with the front glued on, within the front is the display. The cap comes off revealing the USB connector, which makes chaotic people like myself lose it pretty fast.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/identityflash.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/identityflash.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/identityflashcap.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/identityflashcap.jpg)
As you can see there is a circle diagram which shows usage and the actual number of Megabytes that are left. Most of the screen is used for the identity, which holds a maximum of 11 characters. TechPowerUp happens to consist of 11 characters, coincidence?
The little circle to the left of the display is a small activity LED, this flashes when the drive is active.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/identityflashcord.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/identityflashcord.jpg)
In the upper right corner there is a little hole, which obviously is meant to put a cord through, however there is no cord in the box. However I did get some free screen wipes in the box as give away gifts. These screen wipes do double as cord, it wouldn't be a bad idea to add one to each stick.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/screenwipe.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/screenwipe.jpg)
A screen wipe combined with the flash drive seems to make sense.
How does the screen work?
The screen is what sets this stick apart from other sticks, so how does it work? I honestly don't know. However I would guess that it is powered by a small battery or capacitor which is charged via USB.
The data shown on the display, however, comes from the file system. The drive's name is actually what appears on the display and the free space comes right from the file system.
Of course this made me wonder if this stick is limited to FAT32 which it's formatted with when it comes out of the box. Before you can format an USB device as NTFS you have to change the policy of the drive, it can't be set for quick removal. After doing this the drive formatted just fine and worked without any problems. However, the screen was frozen at the state it was at before the format. So if you want to use the stick as NTFS drive you have to accept that it'll become a "regular" stick again.
SD card
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/sdfront.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/sdfront.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/sdback.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/sdback.jpg)
Second is the SD card. There is little to say about it. It looks just like any other SD card. It is rated at 150x which promises nice performance. The SD card is available in the same sizes as the flash drive.
[page=Performance]
Performance
To measure performance I used HD Tach, since the long and short tests came with nearly identical results on several sticks I decided to only show results of the short benchmark. This should make the list easier to read.
The test system was a Shuttle SB51G, there wasn't a specific reason to use this machine, it's just the one I use at the office.
For the SD card I used a cheap Sitecom card reader as well.
Identity flash drive
I collected various sticks around me and benched them, I benchmarked all on the same system so any differences caused by chipsets, drivers etc can be ruled out.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/flashdriveperformance.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/flashdrivelatency.jpg
The read speeds aren't exactly great, however this is not the feature which the stick is marketed for. For most people it is fast enough. However, the latency is a reason for concern. At first I thought it was a computer related problem, so I tested on three other systems with the same result. When copying big files the latency doesn't matter at all. However, when I attempted to unpack a 180MB archive with 4000 files in it it took nearly two hours to complete.
Due to the screen not updating when using NTFS I figured this might make a difference in latency since the display wouldn't read the filesystem all the time. Unfortunately this didn't solve the issue.
GeeDom SD card
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/geedomsdperformance.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/geedomsdlatency.jpg
Unfortunately I have no modern SD cards to compare, so I think the results might be a bit out of perspective. Compared to two older cards (one being MMC) this card literally flies. I also noticed the difference when taking pictures, I made several pictures in a row from a blank wall. Compared to the Peak card the delay in making pictures is really noticeable, which is to me far more important than some benchmark.
Two other cards that came with two Canon cameras could not be tested at all, for some reason HD Tach keeps telling me that I stopped the benchmark. However, seeing how these cards are over a year old as well I don't expect them to perform any better than the other two cards.
Edit: I tested the card with another reader, to my surprise it shows 17MB/s. Since this is a rather huge difference I figured this should be mentioned.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
Value & Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The 512MB Identity flash drive changes owner for $15, 1GB and 2GB versions cost $19 and $29 respectively. The SD cards are priced at $14, $20 and $26. Both items will soon be available in 4GB variants as well, though prices are not set for these.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
No more wondering what's on your stick
Looks stylish
Free space indicator
It says "techPowerUp" on it's display
The SD card performs well
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
No cord
High latency
</td></tr>
<tr><th>7.4</th>
<td>I expected both items to perform similar so I could aim my opinion at the GeeDom line of products, however I feel that SD card and flash drive don't play in the same league. The Identity flash drive looks good and has a display as main feature whereas the SD card looks plain but performs well. Therefore I would not recommend both products to the same person, if you wish to impress your friends with a cool looking USB stick or if you are extremely chaotic and need a way to find your Word documents on your USB stick the Identity flash drive is for you. The SD card would best suit someone who wants to get more out of his camera. Since I was using the Peak card myself, the GeeDom SD card is a huge improvement - I will be using this card myself. Next concert I visit I won't miss that one magic moment because my camera is still writing the last picture.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td></td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
First I'd like to thank Goldenmars (http://www.goldenmars.com) for supplying me with these two items.
GoldenMars is a California based company that specializes in various kinds of memory (flash, USB sticks and system memory) and multimedia players. Next to their production facility in Taiwan and headquarters in California GoldenMars also has offices in Germeny (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/germeny.jpg), China and Hong Kong. So if you're near one of these places, you could most likely find some Goldenmars products near you.
They are now expanding from being an OEM manufacturer to targeting the retail market. To facilitate the changes, the company launched its signature brand “GeeDom” line of memory modules and flash based storage products in the retail market in the summer 2006, all GeeDom memory products come with a lifetime warranty.
We received two of these items to review. The first being a 512MB USB stick, which distinguishes itself from others by having a screen with a user defined label and information on free space. The second item is a 512MB SD card. Both are part of the GeeDom line which they launched last year.
Enough about GoldenMars, let's take a look at the products at hand.
Packaging
I received both items together in a box, both in their own retail box though. Before I broke them free they looked like this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/identityflashpackagefront.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/identityflashpackagefront.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/identityflashpackageback.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/identityflashpackageback.jpg)
The Identity flash drive
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/sdpackagefront.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/sdpackagefront.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/sdpackageback.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/isdpackageback.jpg)
The SD card.
Breaking free is the right word here, as much as I like to have my stuff packed well I also want to be able to open the box relatively easy. As you might knew, this kind of plastic isn't easy to open. Even with the kitchen scissors I had some trouble opening it. Unfortunately a lot of items are packed this way.
In the plastic there is the item, and a piece of hard paper with some information on the item. The SD card comes in a small plastic box in which you can keep it. Nothing special though, it seems to be nearly identical to others I have.
[page=The hardware]
Identity flash drive
First we take a closer look at the flash drive.
The model I got holds 512MB, however it is available with 1GB and 2GB as well. As most flash drives there isn't much to describe feature wise, this stick has a nice display which let you read out free space and the stick's name.
The flash drive is a bar with rounded corners, it looks pretty stylish. It is basically a plastic base with the front glued on, within the front is the display. The cap comes off revealing the USB connector, which makes chaotic people like myself lose it pretty fast.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/identityflash.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/identityflash.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/identityflashcap.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/identityflashcap.jpg)
As you can see there is a circle diagram which shows usage and the actual number of Megabytes that are left. Most of the screen is used for the identity, which holds a maximum of 11 characters. TechPowerUp happens to consist of 11 characters, coincidence?
The little circle to the left of the display is a small activity LED, this flashes when the drive is active.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/identityflashcord.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/identityflashcord.jpg)
In the upper right corner there is a little hole, which obviously is meant to put a cord through, however there is no cord in the box. However I did get some free screen wipes in the box as give away gifts. These screen wipes do double as cord, it wouldn't be a bad idea to add one to each stick.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/screenwipe.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/screenwipe.jpg)
A screen wipe combined with the flash drive seems to make sense.
How does the screen work?
The screen is what sets this stick apart from other sticks, so how does it work? I honestly don't know. However I would guess that it is powered by a small battery or capacitor which is charged via USB.
The data shown on the display, however, comes from the file system. The drive's name is actually what appears on the display and the free space comes right from the file system.
Of course this made me wonder if this stick is limited to FAT32 which it's formatted with when it comes out of the box. Before you can format an USB device as NTFS you have to change the policy of the drive, it can't be set for quick removal. After doing this the drive formatted just fine and worked without any problems. However, the screen was frozen at the state it was at before the format. So if you want to use the stick as NTFS drive you have to accept that it'll become a "regular" stick again.
SD card
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/sdfront.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/sdfront.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/thumbs/sdback.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/sdback.jpg)
Second is the SD card. There is little to say about it. It looks just like any other SD card. It is rated at 150x which promises nice performance. The SD card is available in the same sizes as the flash drive.
[page=Performance]
Performance
To measure performance I used HD Tach, since the long and short tests came with nearly identical results on several sticks I decided to only show results of the short benchmark. This should make the list easier to read.
The test system was a Shuttle SB51G, there wasn't a specific reason to use this machine, it's just the one I use at the office.
For the SD card I used a cheap Sitecom card reader as well.
Identity flash drive
I collected various sticks around me and benched them, I benchmarked all on the same system so any differences caused by chipsets, drivers etc can be ruled out.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/flashdriveperformance.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/flashdrivelatency.jpg
The read speeds aren't exactly great, however this is not the feature which the stick is marketed for. For most people it is fast enough. However, the latency is a reason for concern. At first I thought it was a computer related problem, so I tested on three other systems with the same result. When copying big files the latency doesn't matter at all. However, when I attempted to unpack a 180MB archive with 4000 files in it it took nearly two hours to complete.
Due to the screen not updating when using NTFS I figured this might make a difference in latency since the display wouldn't read the filesystem all the time. Unfortunately this didn't solve the issue.
GeeDom SD card
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/geedomsdperformance.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GoldenMars/GeeDom/images/full/geedomsdlatency.jpg
Unfortunately I have no modern SD cards to compare, so I think the results might be a bit out of perspective. Compared to two older cards (one being MMC) this card literally flies. I also noticed the difference when taking pictures, I made several pictures in a row from a blank wall. Compared to the Peak card the delay in making pictures is really noticeable, which is to me far more important than some benchmark.
Two other cards that came with two Canon cameras could not be tested at all, for some reason HD Tach keeps telling me that I stopped the benchmark. However, seeing how these cards are over a year old as well I don't expect them to perform any better than the other two cards.
Edit: I tested the card with another reader, to my surprise it shows 17MB/s. Since this is a rather huge difference I figured this should be mentioned.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
Value & Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The 512MB Identity flash drive changes owner for $15, 1GB and 2GB versions cost $19 and $29 respectively. The SD cards are priced at $14, $20 and $26. Both items will soon be available in 4GB variants as well, though prices are not set for these.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
No more wondering what's on your stick
Looks stylish
Free space indicator
It says "techPowerUp" on it's display
The SD card performs well
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
No cord
High latency
</td></tr>
<tr><th>7.4</th>
<td>I expected both items to perform similar so I could aim my opinion at the GeeDom line of products, however I feel that SD card and flash drive don't play in the same league. The Identity flash drive looks good and has a display as main feature whereas the SD card looks plain but performs well. Therefore I would not recommend both products to the same person, if you wish to impress your friends with a cool looking USB stick or if you are extremely chaotic and need a way to find your Word documents on your USB stick the Identity flash drive is for you. The SD card would best suit someone who wants to get more out of his camera. Since I was using the Peak card myself, the GeeDom SD card is a huge improvement - I will be using this card myself. Next concert I visit I won't miss that one magic moment because my camera is still writing the last picture.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td></td></tr>
</table>