I've been looking to get a thumb drive and have found that some brands are quite reasonable. Check the selection at NewEgg. In looking at the different drives, it came to mind that speed and and security may come to play in the final decision.

Before selecting a drive, consider what you will be putting on the drive and where you will be taking it. If you will have personal information on the drive, consider Pass2Go or KeePass Password Safe.

If you will have banking or confidential work documents on the drive, you might want to consider spending the extra for a Kingston's DataTravaveler® Elite and DataTraveler Elite - Privacy Edition

The more costly drives also have better data transfer rates (faster read and write).

Do shop around(especially in your local area):

Google Search: 'Portable USB Sticks+Buy': 46 pages

Click to view attachment

Check PCConnection

In the current catalog they have 1gb flash drive for $29.95 after $10.00 rebate.

Is one "brand" any better than another? Are there any brands to "avoid"? I ask because our company always uses Kingston sticks when adding memory to a PC.

I have no idea Corrine. Perhaps there are some comparative reviews that Google can uncover. Since they are all chips, I would exepct them all to be about the same.

Heeya

I've read an huge article in a German computer magazine (CHIP) some days ago. They've tested nearly 120 USB Memory sticks from 512 MB up to 4 GB capacity and which ones are worth to get bought.

It was interessting to read that the transfer rates of some sticks are much higher when in use with computer chipset that suits (f.e. Intel or NVidia) but showing up with half of the possible transfer rates if not (f.e. ATI- XPress, VIA-Chipsets).

Another issue they've tested was the handling of USB sticks. Many sticks are small and lean, others are too big. This can occur problems when using USB connections at a notebook which are assembled too close together. If wanted I'll check for that link to the article (which is in German).

Another elegant and handy solution are so called Flexi Drives. These are looking like card readers.
The benefit is you can use that memory cards, you're using with your digicam or camcorder. Known formats are Secure Digital (SD) and Multimedia Card (MMC), with an additional adapter you can also use miniSD, microSD, MMCmicro and MMCmobile. F.e. Sharkoon offers such a Flexi drive caled Flexi-Drive XC+ but nearly all producers of portable storage systems offer them too.

Details for that storage media:http://www.sharkoon.com/all_eng.htm

When looking at this Flexi stick it reminds me of Ltd. Commander Data's emotion chip which is hidden under one of his thumbnails ;)

8 GB are the limit for USB sticks?... well look at this sticks first but don't ask what they cost:
64-GB ~5.000 Dollar (ca. 4.140 Euro), 16-GB stick ~1.500 Dollar (ca. 1.242 Euro).
http://www.buslink.com/B1/

Well and here its time to think over if it's better to buy a external 2,5"- or 3,5"- HDD than such a monster stick.

BU