Does anyone have any suggestions on a physically small portable SSD. I have looked around and so far they all are still bulky compared to their standard memory stick counter parts. Guessing because of the extra control hardware and such.
I really want something that I can put on my key chain that I carry around with me at all times.
I mean every USB stick is a kind of SSD, right?
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I have one of those, they work quite reliably, just somewhat pricey at the time of buying for me.
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My dad has one of these in his car for music:
Would advise to put a string on it, because it is tiny.
I also have one of those. It works well but gets extremely hot. It worries me.
I use these small sandisks but it’s not ssd and rather slow usb2.0 so …
Maybe instead of a typical SSD a simple Flash Drive or mSata in the housing. Even M.2 NGFF 2230, when inserted in the housing, will have some dimensions, unfortunately.
The heat hasn’t worried me so far, and I use this quite often for moving large files around at work.
I might be wrong but I always thought SSDs had better I/O performance. I assumed it had something to do with the controller. I could be totally wrong about that.
Or maybe it has changed over the years and high end flash drives are basically the same as a portable SSD.
Flash likes it warm. The warmer, the lower the chance a cell fails.
SSD simply means flash memory, nothing more. There are good ones and bad ones in every form factor imaginable. The best price/performance external SSD should still be a SATA drive in a 2.5" case with a proper controller. A while back I bought a Samsung T3 1TB drive and that one is pretty neat. Also have a 256GB Corsair Flash Voyager GTX which is in stick form but … THICC! If it has to be smaller than that, just use a cheap USB-stick.
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-model-cmfvygtx3c-512gb/p/N82E16820236343?Description=CORSAIR%20Voyager%20GTX%20512GB&cm_re=CORSAIR_Voyager_GTX_512GB--20-236-343--Product
Funny You mention that. 512GB is on sale. I have heard these are the fastest “Non-SSD” thumb drives you can buy.
i don’t have any, but for size, this one seam to be as small a you should get …
Again, I don’t understand where the line for that distinction could be.
By definition EVERY USB stick is a Solid State Drive.
Hard drives are hard drives. Regardless of form factor, connection type or speed.
The same goes for SSDs.
USB sticks are just a sub-category.
Non-SSD USB sticks don’t exist.
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I agree with you about the technical definitions. I Kinda think the spirit of what the OP was getting after are referneces to enclosure style thumb drives, standard 2.5 inch style adaptations, or proprietary formats with dedicated performance oriented controlers + fast flash memory. I think what he was trying to convey is a more along the lines of speed rather than litteral definition of hardware. I could be wrong, but that’s how I read it. And also notice I used the quotation marks to kinda “qualify” my remark.
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That’s not correct. An SSD is made of, at least, flash memory and a controller. If what you said was correct saying magnetic platters or HDD would mean the same but it doesen’t.
Samsung T series drives are pretty common and have high reputation since they’re based on the SATA SSDs. There are also the Sandisk Extreme portable SSDs and they should be pretty good too. Anything in the size of a USB drive are pretty old and not really that fast (see the Kingston HyperX red USB drive thing that’s very bulky). I don’t think you’ll ever find anything that stays comfortably attached to a keychain.
Ok, if we go full anal about it… I also didn’t say it needs a PCB to connect the flash memory to something. 
Flash memory as the storage medium is the only defining factor for a drive to be a SSD.
Better that way?
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Whizdumb
I think what he was trying to convey is a more along the lines of speed rather than litteral definition of hardware. I could be wrong, but that’s how I read it. And also notice I used the quotation marks to kinda “qualify” my remark.
Yes, that is what I was trying to convey, sorry I probably should have just come out and said that. I would like a memory stick that would work will for running VMs off of it. I would think I want something with high IOPS in the 4K Random Access.
Again I could be totally wrong but I was thinking SSD drives have more complex controllers then the traditional flash drives that work better on the IOPS
MetalizeYourBrain
I don’t think you’ll ever find anything that stays comfortably attached to a keychain.
Ok, that is what I was wondering. I will start researching into some of the suggested thumb drives.
The Voyager GTX and the SanDisk Extream Pro that @Whizdumb and @Novasty suggested might be the way to go. The sequential read speed is basically the same as the advertised Portable SSD speeds
Those enclosures with an M.2 Sata SSD in them are amazing.
Can be pretty cheap too.