2021 07 07                                  FORTE WORKS!

The new computer, Forte, is working, and it's pretty powerful. In the CineBench R23 test it beats everything except the Threadripper 2990WX, the AMD 32 core 64 thread predecessor. The 16 core 32 thread Ryzen 9 5950X in Forte scores 25076, where the Threadripper's CineBench score is listed as 30054. Forte also scores just ahead of Intel's Xeon W-3265M, with its 24 cores and 48 threads.

CineBench content creation application

Just as important, Forte does this in a walk. The maximum CPU temperature reported by HWMonitor is 65 C, and it mostly runs about 60 to 62. The CPU can easily handle 80, even 90. It's loafing! The huge Dark Rock Pro 4 air cooler is cool to the touch, barely warmer than the case. According to HWMonitor the CPU "package" is consuming (and therefore dissipating) about 125 watts, while the cores themselves are burning about 105 watts of that, each core about 6.5 watts.

The Forte CPU is unlocked, meaning that it can be overclocked. However, as far as I know it isn't overclocked. I tried manually overclocking it slightly, but the CineBench performance got worse, so it's back to "reset" values. Nominally that's 3400 MHz, though HWMonitor does seem to show that the individual core clocks run from 3800 MHz all the way up to 5040 MHz on occasion during the CineBench test, and I don't know why it's doing that. Another CPU test program is HeavyLoad, and during a HeavyLoad test the clocks run a little over 4000. Clearly, I have something to learn yet about overclocking the Ryzen 9 5950X on the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboard.

Missing a fan in he upper left of the
photo. Note the HUGEness of the "be
quiet" air cooler. The memory modules
almost disappear beneath it.

In the meantime, the computer isn't quite complete. There are two red LEDs on the top front of the case that blink continually, as if the case thinks that the computer inside is asleep, though it's wide awake and working hard. There's also an empty two-pin header on the motherboard called PLED that might be related, and I suspect that there's a two-pin connector from the case buried somewhere that still needs to be connected. If that exists, I haven't found it yet. It's a mystery.

By the way, Forte really is quiet. Even when the package is dissipating 127 watts or so, and the fans are keeping the CPU temp down to 60-62 degrees, the fans are inaudible with all of the skins off the case. I admit to being somewhat hard of hearing, but I have pretty good hearing aids and this computer is QUIET!

                                                     NewEgg Shipping

Today is July 9.

There's a fan missing. On Thursday, July 1, I ordered two Phanteks 140mm LED case fans from NewEgg, one red, one orange (in case they couldn't scrounge up a red one). According to NewEgg those were shipped by NewEgg, one from Fontana CA on July 1, and the other from Indianapolis IN on July 2. One of them stopped briefly in Stillwater, MN (where I live), and then proceeded to the US Postal Service in Brooklyn Park MN, not to be seen since. The other went directly to Brooklyn Park where it too disappeared. Both were shipped by the UPS "Mail Innovations" service, which UPS describes as follows: "Mail Innovations is not a day definite service."

Well I guess not! According to UPS one of those fans has an estimated delivery of Tuesday, July 06 by 7:00 PM, and the other Wednesday, July 07 by 7:00 PM. Today is Friday, July 09, all day. No fans yet.

One could argue that a delay should be expected because of the intervening Fourth of July weekend. OK, that sounds reasonable, except that the Fourth of July was not a surprise this year. In fact it happens every year on or about July 4. It's actually possible to plan for it, and even predict an accurate delivery date despite the interference of the July 4 festivities. 

Note that it's expedited. Certainly glad it's not
just a normal shipment

I'm totally underwhelmed by the service of NewEgg, UPS, and USPS. In fact, in the meantime, I ordered a different fan from Amazon (for a different computer) on Tuesday, July 6, and received it the morning of Thursday, July 8. Excellent.

The USPS seems to be going downhill fast. Letters within the metro area here, once dependably prompt, now take an indeterminate number of days. The same is true of packages. But NewEgg and UPS know this and persist in using a delivery service which is not "day definite" and not even reasonably prompt. The only solution I have for this is to avoid NewEgg whenever possible. In fact it would have been possible in this case, and if I had done it my computer would be complete and I could button it up. Grrrr.

                                                              UPDATE  Saturday, July 10, 2021

UPS Tracking now says that one of the fans is out for delivery today, only 9 days after the order. No time specified. Nothing on the other fan - apparently it hasn't been in detention long enough yet. I'll post here when either of them arrives.

OK the first fan did arrive today at about 3:45 pm, only 9 days after the order. It's installed.

 2021 07 03                           FANS

Bill of Materials

Most decisions have been made, the Bill of Materials has been decided and everything ordered and, in fact, most of the parts are here. The one exception is the graphics card. Good ones are available only at scalpers' prices. An inexpensive, low-performing card was ordered and is here; we will see how well it works.

Fans:

In my opinion, fans perform two somewhat different functions:

1. First: They bring in cool air from outside the case, pushing out warmer air. Whether a particular case fan is blowing in or out, it circulates air from the outside to the inside. Consumer-grade computer cases are VERY leaky and meant to be; there is no chance of actually creating a significant pressure in the case, either positive or negative, unless you want to use a lot of duct tape. Air movement in and out is the point. The Phanteks Enthoo Pro "PH-ES614PTG_BK" ATX case comes with one black fan in the front, blowing in, and one in the back, blowing out. In addition, the EVGA power supply has its own fan, pulling air in from outside the case at the back, and exhausting it downward out of the case, or vice-versa, I'm not sure. That fan only goes on when the power supply needs it. I have added five more very-quiet but colorful fans, three blowing into the case and two blowing out. In addition I have replaced the provided front and back black fans with colorful ones. They're the same fans, from the same company, but with white blades and LED illumination.

2. Second: The fans move internal air over the surfaces of components that need that air movement to remove their heat. Best example: the Dark Rock Pro 4 CPU Cooler needs a lot of air flowing over its cooling fins, to remove 100-200 watts of CPU heat. The cooler actually came with two of its own fans for that, and I might add a third. OK I just ordered the third, a quiet 120mm fan. The G Skill Trident Z Neo memory modules also need air flow, as does the WD Black M.2 PCIe 4 disk drive. So does the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboard (where do these names come from?) as well as the graphics card, regardless what that may eventually be. Further, to improve the air flow within the case, I added a very quiet blue 200mm fan (Big Blue Honker) inside the case blowing on the CPU cooler, the memory sticks, the M.2 PCIe Gen4 drive, the graphics card(s), and of course the motherboard itself.

Fan noise: In my opinion, fan noise has more to do with the speed of the air that's moved than with the amount of air moved. It's about turbulence, especially turbulence right where the fan blades and the air collide. For this reason a fan should rotate as slowly as possible while moving air as efficiently as possible. It seems clear that fans are not all equal in this regard. Some are much better than others, and size does matter, the bigger and slower the better. As an example, the Phanteks PH_F120SP, a 120mm fan, moves air at 54.4 CFM at 1300 RPM with 24.2 dBa of noise, while its bigger brother, the PH-F140SP, a 140mm fan, moves 82.1 CFM at 1200 RPM with 19 dBa of noise. Fan blade design makes a difference too, and may be important in this comparison.

By the way, dBa simply means dB (decibels) over no noise at all. A rock sitting perfectly still on the ground generates 0 dBa of noise. A rock band, on the other hand, may generate as much as 120 dBa of sound (or noise, depending on the perceiver). Of course that much sound can immediately damage a person's hearing. Normal conversation may be about 60 dBa. Technically it's a little more complicated than that, but those complications make no difference in this discussion.

Current state of assembly. Note:
cooler is not yet attached to computer.

A fan producing 19 dBa of sound is very, very quiet, barely audible, if at all, even with your ear right there. Adding another identical fan doesn't mean it's now 19+19=38 dBa. It's all logarithmic, where doubling anything increases the value by 3, so you simply add 3 to 19 and get 22 dBa for two identical fans. Well, that's convenient!

So then let's add another identical fan, to get three. What is the sound level now? I don't know, it's calculable using logarithms, or you can look it up in a table, but why bother? There's an easier calculation. If we add TWO new fans to the two we already had, for a total of four, we just doubled the sound again, so you guessed it - we add another 3 dB to get 25 dBa for the four fans. That level of sound is still very quiet, down in the barely audible range. If we double again, adding four more, we're at 28 dBa, close to what we have in this new computer, possibly less than 30 dBa, certainly less than 33. Some of the fans that you can buy develop 35 dBa all by themselves. Just one fan. Not buying that fan!

What does this tell us? First, it might be better to add several very quiet fans than a few noisy ones. Second, choose fans carefully! We're doing both of those things in this computer. Fans: Seven Phanteks PH-F140SP colorful LED 19 dB 140mm fans blowing in or out of the case (3 top, 1 bottom, 2 front, 1 back), one obscured fan in the power supply, two black ones in the Dark Rock cooler, (a third one ordered in an earlier paragraph of this post, destined for the back of the cooler, got too close to the mobo and was not attached), and an Aero Cool Silent Master 18 dB 200mm 800 RPM blue-LED Big Honker fan inside, almost in the middle of the case. I think that's all. We have a fan in every location that it makes sense to put one, plus Big Honker, for a total of 11 fans. Of these, eight are colored by red or blue LEDs (I deliberated about an orange one). Seven of those eight, the 140mm bunch, also have switches that will disable their LEDs but not their rotation if it just seems like too much of a circus in there.

A quick primer on fan wiring: Fans with four wires connecting to headers with four pins can have their speed controlled by pulse-width modulation (PWM), if so selected in the BIOS. In contrast, fans with three wires/pins are controlled by voltage, also called direct current. Four-wire PWM control is thought to be better, as it offers a greater range of control. The bigger the fan, the more significant this distinction becomes. End of primer.

One fan is taken care of already: the power supply fan is managed w

The hub is right in the middle. Power and PWM 
signal are at the ends, and four of the six output
connectors are occupied.

ithin the power supply. All of the remaining 10 fans require 12 volts to reach full speed. The Phanteks Enthoo Pro PH-ES614PTG_BK ATX Case has a fan-control module (hub) with a PWM input and six outputs. It's called the PWM HUB in the documentation, but that's pretty much exactly what IT IS NOT. It can receive a PWM (4-wire) signal from the CPU_FAN or OPT_FAN header on the motherboard, and separately receive 12V power from a SATA cable, but it cannot pass the PWM signal forward to any fan, because all six of its outputs are 3-wire. See primer above. Instead, it distributes voltage-control direct-current fan power to the six output connectors. Since we have 10 fans, I will use  some two-way fan splitters, thus allowing for plenty of fans to receive voltage control. There are other PWM fan headers on the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboard as well, and I will use one of those for Big Honker, which takes a little more power than any of the rest. In particular, there is a header called H_AMP (high-current). 

So let's connect one of the cooler fans to the mobo header called CPU_FAN, and the other cooler fan to CPU_OPT. Both headers are 4-wire, meaning that they will send PWM fan control, and both fans are 4-wire, meaning that they will receive pulse-width modulation signals and act upon them to control their speed, and tell the headers how they're doing. I assume that the CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT headers will provide the same PWM signal. The manual doesn't say so, but the internet seems to think that CPU_OPT is slaved to CPU_FAN. That takes care of the CPU cooler fans in the best possible way, connected directly, no hub involved. The CPU fans will both respond to the actual needs of the CPU.

We have eight fans left, connecting most of them to the alleged "PWM Hub." We still need a 4-wire PWM signal from somewhere to correctly drive the hub. It turns out that there are four more fan headers on the motherboard, CHA_FAN1, CHA_FAN2, CHA_Fan3, and H_AMP. All of those headers are 4-wire, and I believe that all of them can be configured in the BIOS to send a PWM signal. I hope. The header I like the best is CHA_FAN1, because it is located in the middle of the motherboard next to the M.2 disk drive, the graphics card, and close to the CPU itself. The PWM signal sent by CHA_FAN1 will be different from that sent by the CPU, more specific to the motherboard's needs. That's a good thing. We will connect the seven identical case fans to the hub, and connect Big Honker to H_AMP. Done connecting fans.

 2021 06 18                        BOX and COOLING

My computers need names, to reduce the confusion:

• STIRLING 2021 - Built last February, currently running a Ryzen 9 3950X CPU. Stirling is a lovely town in Scotland where my beloved and I stayed overnight on a 2nd honeymoon trip some years back. Three Stirling computers have been built so far, but only Stirling 2021 exists here now. One failed, and another is put to good use elsewhere.
• FORTE - The computer we're building now. The word origin is probably French, meaning "strong point." Usage and pronunciation may be influenced by Italian, as in music. Pronounced for-tay in my office, accent on "for," it is simply the name of my next computer.

So far we have decided on these components:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X CPU, 16 cores & 32 threads, $799.00 Amazon, two on order, one due very soon, one in July.
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero, PCIe 4.0 and more, $449.00 Amazon, ordered for delivery Wed, Jun 23.
• Windows 10 Professional, FPP, box pack, full version, USB. Not yet ordered. Some are available for $99, but that price seems low and I'm suspicious that it might be a knockoff. I want the real thing from Microsoft.

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X CPU which is arriving soon could be used in either Stirling 2021 or the new Forte. We'll see. It depends a little on how soon the second one arrives. It's on order too.

be quiet BK022 Cooler
Image from Amazon web page

A "be quiet" brand BK022 Dark Rock Pro 250W TDP CPU cooler (air, not liquid) was ordered and has arrived. $89.90 from Amazon. It remains to be seen whether that will fit on the selected motherboard in the selected case above/beside the selected memory cards. It's a big honker, weighs 2.4 pounds, and will sit directly atop the 5950X CPU. 

It came with a second fan, not attached but attachable. I'm still a little confused about where the loose fan should mount. There's a space right in the middle of the cooler - the image shows a fan there. Should the loose fan go there? If so, why wasn't it mounted there at the factory? If there's room, should I add a third fan on the back, pulling air rather than pushing? Why not?

Phanteks Enthoo
Pro PH-ES614PTG_BK

The case will be the same as the one used in the Stirling 2021 computer, the Phanteks Enthoo Pro "PH-ES614PTG_BK" ATX Case with tempered glass side panel and integrated RGB (LED) lighting. Ordered from eBay (Newegg store), $109.99, shipped yesterday, should arrive in a week. Size HWD 21.1 x 9.4 x 21.7 inches. The glass side panel is one whole side of the case, so you get a spectacular view of the innards, taking full advantage of any RGB inside. And for other reasons as well, I really like this inexpensive but full-featured case. 

The case has three bays for optical (CD/DVD/BD) drives, and I'm still a believer in optical discs. Many of us still have a library of movies or games on CDs, DVDs, or BDs that can be played on the computer. You can still buy "My Cousin Vinnie" on DVD or BD from Amazon.

Full case with lots of RGB

Much more important, we write some of our backups on Blu-ray M-Discs because they are a genuine archival medium. An M-Disc in a bank vault will last longer than the bank. Even in our own fire-resistant safe they will probably last far longer than anyone now alive, and longer than we will have computers and drives capable of reading them, if they don't fall prey to some risk other than simple deterioration. See the previous post about risks (theft, fire, flood, etc.).

New laptops are too thin to have disc drives these days. USB flash drives are not archival. So it's just a good idea to have a highly competent computer around that can still read and write CDs, DVDs, and BDs. A good LG drive which will do all of that costs $74.99 at Amazon and hooks directly into a standard SATA port on the motherboard. I have two here in Stirling (and can write two backup BDs at once), but Forte can get along with just one. It's easy to add another. One drive is on order.

2021 06 16                                                      SECURITY 

OK So far the new computer will have: 

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X CPU, 16 cores & 32 threads 
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero, PCIe 4.0 and more 
• Windows 10 Pro, full version, USB 

  

But first some words about security: BitLocker is Microsoft's full-disk encryption facility, and it works. The computer must be and will be BitLocker compatible. It turns out that BitLocker has almost no impact on performance, even gaming performance, so that's not a downside. I think that the the mobo (motherboard) should probably have a header for a TPM (Trusted Platform Module), and the "Dark Hero" does. I'm not certain about actually using a TPM though, because I think that the CPU or the firmware may also provide the necessary BitLocker functions. If so, the separate TPM module would not be necessary. In fact, last I looked, new ones with the right updates were kind of hard to find. On a previous computer I enabled BitLocker with a tiny USB flash drive and no TPM. Important point: Even if the mobo is compatible and everything is in place, BitLocker doesn't have to be enabled. 

 

If you're not a BitLocker (or Microsoft) fan, or you don't have the Professional version of Windows, an excellent alternative is VeraCrypt, an open-source and thoroughly-audited facility which has both a full-disk encryption mode and a file-encryption mode. In fact, the best security may be found with a combination, where BitLocker is used to encrypt the whole disk, and the most precious individual files are further encrypted with VeraCrypt. Examples: A lawyer's client files, an engineering company's proprietary designs, the computer owner's social security numbers, bank accounts, and website logon passwords. I do use both BitLocker and VeraCrypt, plus several more. 

 

Please do not use the same password for BitLocker and VeraCrypt, or for anything else. That would entirely defeat the additional security. That's what a password vault is for, and there are some very good free ones.

 

In addition to BitLocker and VeraCrypt, there are other very useful encryption facilities. For example, I use Macrium Reflect to back up entire disk drives, and those output files can be encrypted. I'm sure that some of the competitive backup facilities can do the same. There is also a free and widely-used zipping app called 7Zip which is better than the Windows zipper in several ways, especially because its zipped output files can be encrypted. Here is a partial list of a few handy encrypting apps:

• BitLocker (requires Windows 10 Pro) 
• VeraCrypt (replaces TrueCrypt) 
• 7Zip 
• Macrium Reflect (or competitors) 
• KeePass (password vault, or competitors) 
• EFS (Windows "encrypting file system") 
• Lots more ... 

Macrium Reflect

Please PLEASE do not lose your BitLocker keys! Or your VeraCrypt passwords or PIMs, or any other encryption keys. There is likely no recovery except for your backups, and only then if the backups are UNencrypted or you know THEIR keys. Losing the keys is the same as a disk crash. Obviously, it's not a clever plan to keep the only copy of your encryption keys WITHIN the encrypted files. Please please write the keys on paper, or in a file within an UNencrypted DVD or flash drive, and keep that in a safe place, like a bank safe deposit box or your best friend's top dresser drawer, several miles away. Note: If you have more than one disk, you will have more than one key. You must save all of them. 

No matter what you think, the keys are not safe in the residence (or office) where the computer is located. Period.

 

Here is an only-slightly tongue-in-cheek list of risks to keeping the keys in the residence: Theft, computer virus, ransomware, fire, flood, lightning, hurricane, tornado, sinkhole, earthquake, termites, C-drive failure, other drive failure, smoked motherboard, smoked CPU, BitLocker failure, other encryption failure, Covid-19, another pandemic, asteroid impact, ultra-Plinean volcanic eruption, lunar cataclysm, black hole consuming the earth, gamma-ray burst, nuclear explosions, coronal mass ejection, sun going nova, or bad luck. 

 

The point is: Some of these could actually happen, and some WILL happen to some people who don't have their keys. Please don't be one of those. My residence is not safe, and neither is yours.

 

There is no rule against keeping the keys in multiple places. It's a really good idea. 

Backup is even (far) more important than encryption, and we have said little about it here. There is much more to be said about security, but saved for another time. 

The next post will get back to building a computer.

2021 06 13

What computer shall I build this time? I'm a retired guy with an appreciation for excellence and (maybe) enough budget to do excellence. My computer experience started in 1962 with the University's Control Data 1604 using a magnetic tape operating system. Indeed, even though that computer cost a million dollars, disk was still a dream. My how times have changed.

I'm going to make (another) very hot, dual-purpose, world-class (if consumer-grade) Windows 10 desktop computer.

New Computer with RGB (LED) Fans
Photo by Don

Last February, 2021, I fired up a really nice new homebuilt desktop computer with an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X CPU, the gamey little brother of the Ryzen 9 5950X CPU, which is is arguably the hottest silicon on today's market. Both CPUs sport 16 cores and 32 threads with speeds that make them appropriate for BOTH gaming and content creation. At the time, I bought the 3950X instead of the 5950X to avoid scalper's prices and sellers with odious reputations. That computer is working very well, thank you, but perhaps I'll upgrade to the 5950X soon anyway. The ASUS mobo and everything else will support the big brother.

Now I want to build another new computer just because it's fun to build hot computers. I don't really have any use for it yet - perhaps I'll sell it, or use it and sell the first one. Cost is an issue, but performance is a bigger one. Here are some features that are already pretty much decided:

Photo by Don

Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. I'll get one somewhere, maybe two. Prices are coming down and the sellers are looking more reliable. In fact, BREAKING NEWS, last week (June 5, 2021) Amazon was selling these from their own warehouse to prime members, with 3-week delivery, at the AMD list price of $799. Today they aren't, though. Sigh. Guess I should have snagged one when I could have. Yep. 

More BREAKING NEWS - I just ordered one from Amazon Prime with delivery in July. $799.00 Sold by Amazon, shipped by Amazon. And just now I hear that delivery will be in June after all. I like Amazon.

ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero,
 Image borrowed from Amazon

Motherboard: ASUS ROG, X570, exact model to be determined. TUF? STRIX? Crosshair? What kind of a name is "Crosshair" anyway? (oh, it's a rifle sight). Or "Strix" for that matter (a mythical bird of ill omen). I choose ASUS only because I have some experience with ASUS. Most of that experience is good, though not all. Is there a better mobo? Comments invited. Maybe this isn't so very decided after all. Having done some searching, I'd probably choose the same board that I bought before, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero, though I was advised online not to waste my money on "that brick." 

Looking further, however, I'm now attracted to the newer ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII "Dark Hero" mobo. It's more expensive yet, but has every feature of the plain ordinary brick plus Wi-Fi, and seems somehow simpler and more straightforward. In particular, it doesn't seem to need its own fan to cool the X570 chips. It's just cool all by itself. $433.89. BLT (ShopBit.com).

More coming soon ...

Which Flash Drives Are Best for Backup?

The most appropriate form of backup depends on the type of threat to the files. For example, a permanently-connected hard disk backup drive will protect against failure of the primary disk drive, but not necessarily against fire, flood, theft, viral infection, ransomware, you get the idea.

Online backup protects against most of those but it can be painfully slow and, in my own experience, may fail when recovery is required.

I do create monthly backups on archive-quality Blu-ray M-Discs, and keep those in safe places, but would like something more frequent and current.

How about a nightly flash-drive backup that I can carry with me if I like? Below are tests of some drives. All prices are Amazon Prime:

Corsair Voyager Vega (CMFVV3-128GB) USB 3.0 128GB Ultra Compact Low Profile Flash drive $53.99

Of the drives that I tested this is easily the best, though also the most expensive. I like the very small size, making it perfect for a complete backup that can be carried inconspicuously in a pocket, a wallet or purse, briefcase, shoe, wherever. A bright little blue activity light flashes during data transfer. The drive seems to get a little warm during transfer, but not hot.

Using a USB 3.0 port, the flash drive writes data at about 432 megabits per second (Mbps), which is about 9% of the 5,000 Mbps USB 3.0 standard.  My recent backups are 25 zipped files running about 77 GiB (82.6 GB) total, and the transfer is completed in about 25 minutes.

Using a USB 2.0 port with the same drive, the write speed is about 205 Mbps and the whole task takes about 54 minutes, more than twice as long as when writing from a USB 3.0 port. Maximum theoretical data transfer speed for USB 2.0 is 480 Mbps, so the flash drive is actually writing at 43% of theoretical. Not bad, but I'll stick with USB 3.0.

Lexar JumpDrive S75 (LJDS75-128ABNL) USB 3.0 128GB $33.29

Second in price, second in performance.  This flash drive has the same 128GB nominal capacity as the Corsair, but is physically much larger (see image), the largest I'm testing, and far from wallet size. Using USB 3.0 it writes at about 293 Mbps and finishes the 77 GiB job in about 37 minutes. It doesn't seem to get warm. It does have an activity light. If size is not an issue, it's a less-expensive alternative to the Corsair and about 2/3 as fast.

Patriot Tab Series Micro-Sized (PSF64GTAB3USB) USB 3.0 Flash Drive, $17.99 for 64GB, no 128GB version currently available.

Though it hardly seems possible, this drive is even smaller than the Corsair. It doesn't get hot. It has no activity light. The 64GB version can't take my entire backup, but a transfer of about 40GB yielded a write speed of about 169 Mbps, or 21 MB/s.

Sandisk Ultra Flair USB 3.0 32GB (SDCZ73-032G-G46) Flash Drive High Performance, $29.99 for 128GB.

This drive is a big disappointment. I previously held Sandisk in high esteem, based on prior experience, but this drive is WAY over-hyped. A lot of ballyhoo about high-speed USB 3.0 performance (even in the name), but it heats up and actual performance falls off dramatically after a minute or two. A 24 GiB transfer achieved a rate of about 166 Mbps, finishing in a little over 20 minutes. Lots of marketing, not so much product. It might be OK for some applications, but not for this backup. By comparison, the Corsair finished the same 24 GiB task in less than 8 minutes.

It gets hot to the touch when writing, and warm even when idle. No activity light. Note: Testing was done on 32GB models, not the 128GB model. I believed the hype and bought several, but they perform badly and I won't be buying anything more from Sandisk. Ever.

Testing platform:

The computer used for these tests is a two-year-old ASUS H170-Pro motherboard with an Intel i7 6700 3.4 GHz Quad-core CPU and H170 chipset running Windows 10. Five USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports are available at the front of the system. The C: drive is an SSD, but only 4GB of the backup data comes from C:, the rest coming from Seagate SSHD hard drives on SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports.

More about the backup:

All of the tested flash drives are bootable on this system (and several other systems). In particular, they are intended to be used as Macrium Reflect Rescue media, with backup files then written and rewritten to them as desired.

All are USB 3.0. In my opinion, USB 3.1 is an unnecessary enhancement in a backup application unless the destination drive is actually able to write at speeds of at least 1 or 2 Gb/s, and no flash drives are that fast yet. Be wary of the 3.1 hype.

Read speed was not measured on any of the drives. They are backups, and if all goes well I will never have to read from them except very occasionally to verify that they are written correctly.

Prices are what I actually paid, and may change at any moment, most likely down.  This technology is moving fast, and no doubt new devices will soon make these obsolete.

CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD UPS Review

Love the Hardware.  After four days (!), the UPS works exactly as hoped, or even better.

The software, not so much.

Hardware:

We have one nice, new home-built desktop computer and several laptops, all on a network.  The UPS serves three purposes, in order of importance:

• Avoid harm from bouncing, flickering, up/down/up power failures like those we experienced several times last Monday.  Those erratic fluctuations put sensitive computers, disk drives, and disk data at serious risk.  I've had an older computer fail because of a simple down/up power outage.  Was it the power supply, the mother board, CPU chip, what?  Spare me!  Last Monday's repeated power failures resulted in an effort by Windows 10 to "repair" the SSD on this new desktop during one of the several reboots.  Was the repair successful?  I may never know, but was inspired to buy a UPS.
• Keep the network running, including the internet (DSL modem).  The laptops mostly laugh at power problems anyway, being battery-powered already, so all they need is the Wi-Fi network to continue unaffected for a while.
• Allow work on the desktop to continue undisturbed through short power outages.  That's why I bought a 900-watt UPS for a 110-watt load.  For any given load, a higher-rated UPS is likely to have bigger batteries, which will last longer when the power goes off.

Connected to the UPS are: (1) Computer; (2) Monitor; (3) DSL modem/router and WAP; (4) Network switch; (5) 3TB network drive; and (5) Speakers. According to the UPS display this array pulls 117 watts when the computer isn't very busy.  The sealed lead acid batteries in the CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD are rated at 9 ampere hours and 24 volts, for a nominal 216 watt-hours.  Thus my computer and the rest of the load might theoretically run for a maximum of 216/117 = 1.8 hours, or 108 minutes.

In practice the computer can pull much more, going up to 220 watts when the CPU gets really busy.  Moreover, there are inefficiencies in the UPS, and of course the UPS won't allow the battery to run all the way down, so I'd be content to get half of the 108 minutes.  Almost an hour, that's enough.  We live in a suburban city, and rarely experience outages longer than an hour anyway.  Indeed, when I unplugged the UPS from the wall, everything ran normally for 68 minutes, more than expected, even though I was actively using the computer throughout that time.

So the UPS works surprisingly well and I'm happy with the hardware.

Software:

The software is called Power Panel Personal Edition:

Nothing comes with the unit - no DVD or thumb drive in the box.  You have to find the software on the CyberPower web site, then download it.  Here is the link for the  CP1500AVRLCD Model.  Click on the Downloads tab.  The unit does come with a USB cable, providing the data connection between the computer and the UPS.  And see update below - that cable may be all that you need.

The Power Panel Personal Edition looks nice, with displays of power source, battery capacity, and estimated run time.  However, going into the Configure options and exploring a bit more, it turns out that the software INSISTS on automatically shutting down the computer AND the power to all device at some point.  Yes, the software will turn the UPS completely off!  You can choose whether this is a few minutes after the AC utility power failure, or a few minutes before the batteries will fail altogether, but those are the only two choices and it's going to happen.  When it does, everything goes down, including the network, in my case.

This is exactly the opposite of what I want in a UPS.  Power should stay UP as long as possible.  The software offers a brief (10 second?) popup window allowing the shutdown to be aborted, but you'd better not miss it!  I especially want this to work when I am not around.

When we have an AC utility power failure here, we really don't know when it will be back.  How about an option to shut down the computer, but not the UPS, when half of the power is gone?  Or a third, or two thirds?  This would allow the network to keep running, and for much longer than it would run with the computer and monitor drawing power.

Further, there is risk of data loss.  Much of the time I have applications open (e.g. VeraCrypt volumes, the Mail app) that shouldn't be open when the computer shuts down - they should be closed first, or data integrity is imperiled.  What is really needed is a way for the computer to interact with the UPS - to know whether power is coming from the line or from the battery, for example.  Perhaps a command-line script that could be launched when the UPS switches to battery power.  Power Panel Personal Edition provides no such hooks.

There is another version of the software, Power Panel Business Edition, which appears to be free, and which may have more functionality.  Perhaps someday I'll look into that.  In the meantime I will uninstall Power Panel Personal Edition.  The UPS itself has a very nice front panel which tells me what I need to know.

I've also developed a command-line script that detects whether the scanner and laser printer are both off line, indicating that AC utility power has been lost.  If so, the script waits for a programmable number of minutes (now 15) and then offers the user (me) an optional graceful shutdown.  It shuts down the computer (but not the UPS) if the answer is Yes or if the prompt times out after 5 more minutes.

Update 2016 February 27:

Since installation and uninstallation of CyberPower's Power Panel Personal Edition software, the standard Windows laptop battery-level indicator icon appears in the taskbar of the desktop computer if the USB cable is connected from UPS to computer.  Further, when the AC utility power fails and the UPS switches to battery, the computer recognizes that, displays the "percent full" battery status, and employs the special power options for turning off the monitor and/or shutting down when on battery, just as if the computer were a laptop.

I don't know if the battery-level icon showed up before the Power Panel software was installed - I didn't notice it.  It probably showed up as soon as the USB cable was connected and the CyberPower driver downloaded.  In any case the normal Windows power options, now present with the Power Panel software gone, are preferable to those offered by the Power Panel software.

My system still wants advance warning of a pending shutdown though, so that the shutdown can be done gracefully.  Therefore the command-line script mentioned above is still in place.  I've tested the software by unplugging the UPS, so now I'm almost (not quite) hoping for a real power failure.