Any idea why the ADATA, TCELL, and PNY thumbdrives all report USB3.0 but list different speeds (The other brands don't even declare speeds...)?
Also, are the USB ports in the Model S USB3.0? What is the maximum speed that the Model S can read from the built-in usb ports? Is there any benefit or need to pay more for the PNY when the hp & ADATA models are cheaper at the same speed or slightly slower but still usb3.0?
one usb drive is not the same as another, on the flash drive there is both the controller and flash memory, both of these parts all behave differently between brands so that results in different speeds between each model.
ive seen some usb 3 drives with a max speed of 60MB/s while others are 350MB/s, so never assume that they all go "5Gb/s"
if they dont declare speed, i wouldnt even bother with them regardless of the price, Kingston and Scamdisk (sandisk) are known for putting ultra cheap flash parts in and it results in a God awful slow drive.
the thing is, for music, it almost doesn't even matter, ALL flash drives even usb 2 drives are more than fast enough to play music. but if you copy music often, its just easier if you have a faster drive so you dont have to wait.
also some drives offer longer warranty, OCZ had a life time warranty on the original 1GB metal drives and i had to use that warranty once because i shocked the drive to bad it restarted my computer, and even eventually that board failed. (the static discharge was so intense i could see it, heard it, and was painful)