Ha Ha, now you force me to remember how to spell 'Peripherals'!

That's Peri-phe-rals, but maybe who cares.

Hardware General was much easier

Anyway back on topic.

I have a particular need, so no point in suggesting different to the below. (But will that stop you?)

Where and what is the lowest level Mb and cheapest USB memory sticks available generally?

And no, not ones that look like Sushi or a fish, or whatever.

Just your basic very cheap, down to 4Mb, 8Mb, 16Mb, 32Mb, 64Mb thereabouts one.

Really like if you wanted to have them replace Floppy disks, that you would leave with someone and not care if you did not get it back, and vice versa, that sort of thing.

Do they make them?

well, flashmemory is DAMN cheap. you can get 256mb for around 20 bucks.
you cant really get things smaller than that.

hell 1-2gb can be had for between 70-100 dollars

I've seen 512mb usb sticks for around $20 in a Big W catalogue the other week.

The sweet spot is currently 1gb, which I've seen for as cheap as $15.
Add another $10-15 if you prefer to buy a brand name stick from a retail store.

from msy.com.au

Companies such as TREK used to make 8 MB, 16 MB, 32 MB and 64 MB Flash Drives, yet after some time of production and advancement to higher capacities, technological depeciation set in, and as Sam mentions - if a 256 MB Flash Drive can be bought for $20 - there's no point manufacturing anything lower than 128 MB, as an 8MB Flash Drive would be next to nothing in price and thus not worth producing in the first instance.

TREK Flash Drives (see list of interesting varieties) are the very best I've used, and thus are alot pricier. My standard 512 MB TREK Thumb Drives have been through the laundry around a dozen times now.

However, another brand which is dependable and alot cheaper, is SanDisk Cruzer << see prices on the 512MB models.

From earlier models of SanDisk Cruzer that I've tested, they seemed to work and last just fine. The only hitch, which may no longer be a hitch since last I purchased, was that it couldn't be plugged into a keyboard USB, and required a High Power USB Port at the back of the computer (which can be a bit of a bitch if one has a G4 Tower and needs to go crawling about in the dark behind the machine).

Still, SanDisk Cruzers are cheap as chips and can be found at DickSmith's, Tandy, Jay Car, Office Works, and so forth.

Click here to view SanDisk Cruzer 256MB Flash Drive for $20.00

Cheers,

cw

Office works are selling 1GBs for $25-$30 (LG)
Selling Imation 4GB for $119

I've not seen any difference between the noname brand and others like SanDisk. I can't see the justification of paying more for the name. USB is USB.

Make sure it's a known brand. some of them from strathfield dont work with macs..

Well... try running a USB Flash Drive through a washer and dryer ten times, and then see if it's fully functional... lol.

The USB low power port and the USB high power port, does appear to be the difference between prices.

In the case of TREK Drives, the company that started it all, their USB Flash Drives tend to be pricier because there's more to them, than just the basic plug-in / copy function.

The TREK Thumb Drive Mini is pricier because of its size and durability.

The TREK Thumb Drive Touch is security activated, as it reads the user's finger print via a sensor, before allowing access to itself.

Whilst as the Trekstore holds a maximum of 60 GB, with both high and low speed USB.

Mostly, TREK's products are of a high quality and design, plus unique possibilities in various models. (I believe there's one with an antenna that allows you to watch TV whilst using it! )

I buy TREK because they're really small, neat and resilient (tough little buggers) - and sure, one can buy much cheaper USB Flash Drives that hold a tonne, but look like some tool Doctor Who would have on him - too bulky to fit neatly into a keyboard USB - ie:


Still - if you want something really cheap, that doesn't hold Gigabytes of info, that you can hand over to other people, without too much bother as to whether they're going to misplace it, brand names like Cruzer are hunk-dory, and cheap.

Australian Link for SanDisk Cruzer.

cheers,

cw

My Sandisk Titanium 512mb went through the washer, and still works perfectly. It was rather surprising.

I picked up an LG 4GB for $99 yesterday.

Don't buy cheap brands of Flash memory, they will die in the arse sooner rather than later. Trust me, I've scoured the web, purchased 2GB USB drives and had them just burn out or die in a matter of weeks, usually when there's DATA I NEED ON THEM.

Now I have a Sandisk 4GB Cruzer Micro and it's been solid on my keyring for months

Stick to Kingston, Corsair, Sandisk and Transcend.

I spotted some 1g thumb drives for as low as $4 over in the States and was feeling pretty lousy about our prices here but the stuff posted above sounds pretty good and I feel a lot better now.

Hardley Normal in Adelaide has Toshiba 1 gig USB2 memory sticks for $39 at the moment; 2 gig are $69 I think...