OCZ Rally Dual Channel USB Flash Drive

The OCZ Rally flash drives look small and ordinary but they are certainly not frail. Their black aluminium chassis gave them a good heft. They feel good in the hand and in the pocket.

These drives also boast a dual-channel capability, which supposedly allows them to double their read and write speeds. Of course, their actual performance will still depend on the speed of the flash memory chips and flash controller used.

In our large files read tests, the OCZ Rally flash drives proved to be really fast, especially the 512MB model. We recorded read speeds of 18.3MB/s to 21.8MB/s from the three Rally drives. Not as fast as OCZ claimed but they were certainly faster than the Corsair Voyager we used for comparison.

When it came to write speeds, the results were a little different. The larger capacity OCZ Rally drives showed their fangs and were much faster than the 512MB model. Even the small files test which stressed the flash controller didn't faze them at all.

As far as accessories are concerned, the OCZ Rally flash drives came with a pretty complete package. Not only do you get a USB extension cable, you also get a lanyard and key ring.

The key feature that most people miss, and one which we would like to point out here, is its slim form factor. It's barely thicker and wider than the USB connector! This prevents the OCZ Rally drives from blocking the use of adjacent USB ports. That may seem like a small thing to worry about, but you will find it a great convenience when you actually use it.

In addition, these flash drive actually come with a lifetime warranty! Although flash drives are unlikely to fail, it's still good to know that if any of these drives fail, you can send them back to OCZ Technology for a replacement.

Because of their very fast write speeds, small form factor and lifetime warranty, we feel that all three OCZ Rally flash drives deserve our Reviewer's Choice Award! Congratulations, OCZ!

For more details, read our Comprehensive Review!