Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor USB Drive Review
By: Michael Phrakaysone

 

Just how fast memory technology has advanced over the years, it never stops amazing me.  It always advances at such incredible speed and when you think you have the best gadget, largest or fastest device, something other comes along that supersedes what was possible.  You know those floppy disks of early years?  Well that thing is totally extinct and along comes the trusty USB drive that we all utilize today.  I believe that the flash based USB drive is “the greatest thing since sliced bread” and what more can be done to advance this innovation further?  I mean the USB drive is so useful and practical that it’s erasing the need for CD media, DVD media and now even Blu-Ray media. 

Corsair compared to other companies in the industry is a relatively young brand that has been designing and manufacturing high-speed memory modules since 1994.  However, over the last couple of years, Corsair has been at the forefront of offering superfast DDR memory and innovative flash memory products to the enthusiast crowd.  Our last Corsair review was back in 2005 regarding the TWINX DDR memory modules. 

Four years later and today I will be reviewing another Corsair product that comes in the form of an unique USB drive that looks to offer the total package in terms of delivering large amount of space, water resistance up to 200m, offering anti-shock features and being extremely durable in its design able to withstand just about anything thrown at it.  It’s only fitting for Corsair to give it the “Flash Survivor” nameplate.  Today I review the Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor USB drive and tell you if it’s something that is worth your hard earned money.

About Corsair

“Corsair has been a leader in the design and manufacture of high-speed modules since 1994. Our focus has always been on supporting the special demands of mission-critical servers and high-end workstations, as well as the performance demands of extreme gamers. While maintaining this core focus, in recent years, we've also brought our expertise, technology leadership and legendary quality and reliability to memory and other technology products for the more mainstream consumer.”

Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor Product Overview

The Corsair Flash Survivor is “an extremely durable, water resistant, drop-tested flash USB memory drive. By design it is perfect for transporting valuable data such as personal files, photos and applications without having to worry about damage or loss of data due to the elements.”

Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor Product Features

  • Protected by a Limited 10-year Warranty.
  • Encased in extremely strong CNC-milled, anodized aircraft-grade aluminum.
  • Water resistant to 200M through the use of an EPDM waterproof seal.
  • Protected from vibration or impact damage through the use of a molded shock dampening collar.
  • Plug-&-Play with any USB 2.0 certified peripheral computer port (backward compatible with USB 1.1).
  • USB extension cable and Dog Tags included.

NOTE: I just wanted to point out the 10-year warranty.  I think that is probably one of the longest, if not the longest warranty I’ve come across for a USB drive.  Corsair is very confident in their product lasting more than 10 years according to their flash drive wear leveling PDF.  Corsair claims that their flash drives are able to handle at least 10,000 write cycles.  Whether or not the Flash Survivor is able to withstand a 10-year lifecycle remains to be seen but I suppose you can feel a level of confidence in such a claim. 

Also the question of how simple it will be to claim warranty if anything would go wrong is another question.  We’ll talk more about that later on in the review.

Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor Product Specifications

  • OS Supported: Microsoft Vista, XP, 2000, Me, MAC 9.X and above, Linux Kernel 2.4.2 and higher
  • Other functions supported: USB bootable and activity LED to indicate data transfer activity
  • Power requirement: 5V +/- 10% USB bus powered with no external power required
  • Power consumption: Read (less than 60mA), Write (less than 125mA), Standby (less than 1mA)
  • Environment: Operating temperature (0 to 70 degrees Celsius), Storage temperature (-25 to +75 degrees Celsius), Humidity (5% to 95%)
  • Certification: FCC, CE, VCCI, USB-IF, Microsoft WHQL

NOTE: I just wanted to point out that I could find no available specification on Corsair’s Flash Survivor product page regarding the claimed read/write speed of the Flash Survivor USB drive.  We’ll see how fast it can perform later on in this review, but having no read/write speed information would lead me to believe that it probably won’t be the fastest USB drive on the block.  It seems that the Flash Survivor is targeted to those who don’t want to worry about damage or loss of data through the elements as they say.

First Impressions

Corsair Flash Survivor

The Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor comes in standard plastic blister packaging (the ones where you need scissors to open) and you’ll notice that it contains military pattern design which probably signifies that the device is super strong and means business.   Flip towards the back and we see features of the product.  You’ll notice that the Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor is assembled in Taiwan.

Open the Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor and you are presented with the following items…

  • Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor USB drive
  • Corsair military style “dog tag” – Use on the actual USB drive to keep from losing
  • USB extension cord

The Corsair dog tag that is included with the Flash Survivor is a nice touch.  It looks pretty cool (shiny) and displays the Corsair logo on it.  The dog tag will be used in conjunction with the Flash Survivor so you can use it as a lanyard to prevent the USB drive from going missing. 

Let’s look at the Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor USB drive now.  The Flash Survivor looks literally stunning and I’ve never seen anything like it before.  The whole military strength look is intimidating and we see military font for the “SURVIVOR” name and 32GB designation.  It looks relatively bulky so this is not for everybody.  Some people like small USB drives and the Flash Survivor is nothing like this.  It’s one of the bigger USB drives I’ve come across and obviously it needed to be in order to have that strength Corsair always talks highly about.

The actual enclosure is perfectly made and Corsair says that the Flash Survivor is made from CNC-milled, anodized aircraft-grade aluminum, something that I cannot dispute because it looks and feels exactly as such.  The enclosure is super-strength strong and offers zero flex at all.  All the edges are perfectly aligned and you cannot dispute how it was made.  I literally slammed a hammer on the Flash Survivor and it made that aluminum “ping” vibration sound and offered no visible indication of what just happened. 

On opposite edges of the USB drive is where two rubber pieces are placed to indicate open/close direction, give it some clearance off tables and also provide added protection for the EPDM waterproof seal that is located inside the Flash Survivor.  Open the Flash Survivor, remove the aluminum cap and you see a small rubber EPDM waterproof seal that prevents water from seeping into the device and I can tell you right now that it does work as you’ll see in the gallery.  I dumped the USB drive into water for about 10 minutes, opened it and found zero water inside.  Even the aluminum cap is pretty cool as it is not only fingerprint resistant but also water resistant; it leaves behind little water on the body.

Performance and Results Testing

The Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor USB drive will be tested in HD Tach, HD Tune, Flash Memory Toolkit and CrystalDiskMark to verify its speed ratings and also will be put through the stop-watch test verifying how long it takes to transfer 716MB and 1.36GB video files onto the USB drive.  This is the same procedure conducted on the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go Micro USB drive review.

The Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor USB drive is not the fastest USB drive out there but it’s not the slowest either.  I suppose I would call it acceptable but that’s about it.  The fact is that if you’re looking for speedy file write transfers, the Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor is not that device to do such things, it left me a little disappointed.   Read speed is alright but write speed lagged behind.

Whereas the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go Micro could achieve an average read transfer rate of 28.6MB/sec @ 0.6ms access time, the Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor USB drive could only achieve an average read transfer rate of 21.3MB/sec @ 1.6ms access time.  

The maximum read burst speed according to HD Tach for the Verbatim was 32.8MB/sec vs. 29.2MB/sec for the Corsair.  Again the average read speed was consistently lower than the Verbatim.  Overall the Corsair’s read speed is consistently 7MB/sec slower than the Verbatim.

The same can be said for write speed performance.  The Corsair across the board is consistently 3-4MB/sec slower than the Verbatim.  The fastest write speed seen on Flash Memory Toolkit for the Corsair is 4820KB/s whereas the Verbatim’s fastest was 7138KB/s. 

But the biggest difference here was the consistency on Verbatim’s part.  The Verbatim achieved numbers close to 7MB/sec write speed for each test whereas Corsair in the same test, write speed performance was erratic ranging from as low as 2.6MB to 4.8MB/sec.   The HD Tune graph tells it the best.  The Verbatim’s line is consistent and is close together but the Corsair’s line is erratic with a sudden drop off in the middle.  Please look at both galleries to see what I am talking about. 

For another test, I timed how long it took to copy over a 716MB video file and a 1.36GB file to the 32GB  Flash Survivor.

  • 716MB to 32GB Flash Survivor = 1 minute, 59 seconds
  • 1.36GB to 32GB Flash Survivor = 4 minutes, 11 seconds

In case you have forgot, these are the times for how long it took to copy over a 716MB video file and a 1.36GB file to the 4GB Store ‘N’ Go.

  • 716MB to 4GB Verbatim Store ‘N’ Go = 1 minute, 19 seconds
  • 1.36GB to 4GB Verbatim Store ‘N’ Go = 2 minutes, 44 seconds

Over the course of about two months of using and testing the Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor, I did come across multiple problems that over-time lead to prematurely failure.  I feel I am inclined to tell you the honest truth of what I had experienced but I do believe I just happened to receive one bad apple because after consulting with Corsair, they agreed that I had received a faulty unit and shipped off another new unit that to this day of testing for about 3 months, I have had zero problems regarding reliability and no prematurely failure to report of.

The problem I had experienced to the “faulty” 32GB Corsair Flash Survivor was that… 

  • The Corsair on three separate occasions had already lost its own partition, losing the files on the device and Windows advising me that the drive is not formatted and that I should format before usage.  I always “safely remove hardware’ before removal.
  • Windows did not pick up and recognize the Corsair from time to time.  It’s very strange because sometimes when I plugged the Corsair in, Windows could not see it and the computer would stall for a bit until I removed the device from the system.
  • I couldn’t pile on more than 18GB worth of files onto the device.  It would claim that the destination drive was already full.

While the replacement Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor USB drive was still relatively slow in its performance department, I have never experienced any reliability problems or awkward situations ever again during my extra 3-month testing and hard usage.

I can vouch for the Corsair warranty RMA service to be very fast and easy to complete.  Everything is done through Corsair’s website where you would need to request an RMA ticket.  I received an RMA approval in just a few hours the same day.  All that was needed was a description of the problem, the product you own and standard information such as name and address.  Once the RMA ticket is approved, you send back the product and get back a replacement within a few days.  I recall once I received notification that Corsair had received my device, it took under a week to receive a replacement through UPS shipping service, fully paid.  My Corsair’s RMA experience was very positive to say the least.

Conclusion

I leave this review with mixed feelings regarding the Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor USB drive.  I have nothing but praise regarding the abilities of the Flash Survivors physical abilities.  It’s really water resistant, super-strong and can take lots of abuse, the construction is definitely top-notch and the performance is acceptable. 

However at the same time, acceptable performance just isn’t good enough for me. 

And the fact that I had one of this Corsair 32 GB Flash Survivor’s fail on me prematurely in a two-three month span is semi-alarming to say the least.  I do know from time to time, bad batches of products happen from time to time happen but isn’t that something quality assurance personnel are supposed to prevent from happening?  I surely hope that I did receive one bad apple out of the many products Corsair produces.  I’ve known their TWINX memory modules that I am using since 2005 to be reliable with zero issues.

If you’re looking for a rugged USB drive that can withstand anything thrown at it and can live with average performance, the Corsair Flash Survivor is highly recommended.  If you’re looking for a performance standout, I’m not sure the Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor fits the bill.  In my experience with the Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor, it concludes with a hit and a miss.   If the performance can be improved, that would help greatly and solidify it being one of the best USB flash drives I’ve tested.

Corsair

Pros and Cons

  • + Extremely strong because of CNC-milled, anodized aircraft-grade aluminum.
  • + Water resistant holds true.
  • + Can take lots of beatings and it holds up like nothing happened.
  • + 10-year warranty and RMA process is simply and fast.
  • + Read speeds are pretty fast.
  • - Write speed not fast enough for something that looks military. The military is strong and swift, the Corsair Flash Survivor is strong but not swift.
  • - First unit prematurely died on me in 2-3 months time.
  • - Could be too bulky for some.
  • - Could be too pricey for some.

 

 

 

 

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