Published in Reviews

Mushkin Midnight 16GB USB stick tested

by on22 December 2010

Index



Review:
Turbo Mode for USB 2.0

Nowdays you can choose from tons of USB sticks, so Mushkin's Midnight Series tries to stand out from the crowd. Obviously, the only significant difference in the flash-drive world is the rated speed. The Midnight Series is rated with 40MB/s read-speed and 30MB write-speed. The only problem is, you need special drivers to reach such speed. The USB stick looks rather big at least for our 16GB test-sample:

mushkin_midnight_blister


 

mushkin_midnight_wc

 

Conclusion

To reach the specified speed, you need to install a special driver. While under Windows XP this is very easy under Windows 7 we ran into some troubles. Our AMD890GX/SB850 test-system would not let install the driver because Windows said it's not digitally signed. So we had to force the System into the Test-Mode where unsigned drivers could be installed. Why it worked on our P55 system we can't say. Another problem is, the driver is only 32bits and no update to 64bit in sight. In the year 2010 with 64bit OSes around for five years it's not acceptable. Of course, it won't work with other OSes besides Windows.

mushkin_midnight_turbo_software

Aside from that, the stick worked without flaws and there is virtually no speed difference between P55 and SB850. Of course without the drivers you get only 30MB/s read-and 20MB/s write speeds. The 16GB stick is the most price-sensitive one with a price of about €41,- while the 8GB costs only few bucks less and the 32GB and 64GB versions are accordingly more expensive. If you are lucky and have USB 3.0 ports, you can get even faster sticks such as the ADATA Nobility 32GB stick which only costs €6,- more and the 16GB version for only 30,-.

 

mushkin_midnight_woc

 


 

MSI P55-GD65, i5-750 test-platform non-Turbo, Windows XP:

 mushkin_midnight_p55_xp_cm

mushkin_midnight_p55_xp_as

mushkin_midnight_p55_xp_atto

 

 MSI P55-GD65, i5-750 test-platform non-Turbo, Windows 7:

mushkin_midnight_p55_w7_cm

mushkin_midnight_p55_w7_as

mushkin_midnight_p55_w7_atto

 

MSI P55-GD65, i5-750 test-platform, Turbo-Mode, Windows XP:

mushkin_midnight_turbo_p55_xp_cm

mushkin_midnight_turbo_p55_w7_as

mushkin_midnight_turbo_p55_xp_atto

 

MSI P55-GD65, i5-750 test-platform, Turbo-Mode, Windows7:

mushkin_midnight_turbo_p55_w7_cm

mushkin_midnight_turbo_p55_w7_as

mushkin_midnight_turbo_p55_w7_atto

 


 

ASRock 890GX/SB850, Non-Turbo, Windows XP:

mushkin_midnight_sb850_xp_cm

mushkin_midnight_sb850_xp_as

mushkin_midnight_sb850_xp_atto

 

ASRock 890GX/SB850, Non-Turbo, Windows 7:

mushkin_midnight_sb850_w7_cm

mushkin_midnight_sb850_w7_as

mushkin_midnight_sb850_w7_atto

 

ASRock 890GX/SB850, USB 3.0 (Renesas), Non-Turbo, Windows XP:

mushkin_midnight_usb3_xp_cm

mushkin_midnight_usb3_xp_as

mushkin_midnight_usb3_xp_atto

 

ASRock 890GX/SB850, USB 3.0 (Renesas), Non-Turbo, Windows 7:

mushkin_midnight_usb3_w7_cm

mushkin_midnight_usb3_w7_as

mushkin_midnight_usb3_w7_atto

 

ASRock 890GX/SB850, USB 3.0 (Renesas), Turbo-Mode, Windows XP:

mushkin_midnight_turbo_usb3_xp_cm

mushkin_midnight_turbo_usb3_xp_as

mushkin_midnight_turbo_sb850_xp_atto

 

ASRock 890GX/SB850, USB 3.0 (Renesas), Turbo-Mode, Windows 7:

mushkin_midnight_turbo_usb3_w7_cm

mushkin_midnight_turbo_usb3_w7_as

mushkin_midnight_turbo_usb3_w7_atto

Last modified on 22 December 2010
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