| Article Index |
|---|
| LaCie iamaKey Review |
| Features, Specifications and Size |
| Performance: ReadyBoost |
| Performance: Real World Access |
| Problems |
| Conclusion |
| All Pages |
The LaCie features list for the iamaKey is simple and direct:
- Fast transfer rates (Read mode: up to 30 MB/s; Write mode: up to 10MB/s)
- Reliable, shock-proof, scratch-proof and water-resistant
- Plug & play
- Up to 8GB of storage in one drive
The official specifications from LaCie read as follows:
| Interface | Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (backward compatible with USB 1.1) Windows ReadyBoost compatible |
| Interface Transfer Rate | up to 480Mbits/s |
| Size |
2.24 x 0.94 x 0.12 in. |
| System Requirements |
Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista™ |
| Box Contents |
LaCie iamaKey Cap |
| Comments |
*1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5–10% less). |
| Warranty |
2 Year Limited Warranty |
Out of the box the 8GB key provides just over 7.5 “real” GB of data space – about 8.08 billion bytes. I find this a little unusual for a memory device – usually the disk manufacturers are the ones who fall back onto using SI units for Kilobytes, Megabytes and Gigabytes – memory manufacturers generally use “powers of two” instead, just due to the internal designs of the chips. Hopefully this means that the LaCie iamaKey will have some space set aside for spare memory locations – and that if a sector in memory fails, the controller will use this spare space instead of marking parts of the key as bad (broken).
In fact as can be clearly seen above, there is almost nothing on this key when delivered from the factory – the only files are the Windows icon for the drive, and the autorun.inf file that makes that icon work (and hidden metadata files).
It’s big enough to store lots of data – but how does it perform?
