Is it worth paying a few dollars more to get a USB 3 flash drive over a similarly-sized USB 2 one? Although I don't have a pressing need for another USB drive, I'd heard such good things about the SanDisk Extreme that I decided I could spend the $15 on a super-fast 16GB model and find a use for it later.
On getting the packet open I decided to compare its speed with my current hard disk, a Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB, and also with my trusty old USB 2 SanDisk Cruzer 8GB. I also checked how the Extreme's speed varied depending on whether it was plugged into a USB 2 or a USB 3 port. The results were quite interesting:
Given the Extreme has twice the throughput of my hard disk I would have like to have experimented with booting to Ubuntu from it, but unfortunately my Gigabyte motherboard is a trifle too old to support booting from a USB 3 drive. Still, when copying ISO files of multiple gigabytes it'll be nice to use a drive which is 8 times faster than my old one, or where the speed of my hard disk is the limiting factor.
Note that not all USB 3 flash drives are as fast as the SanDisk Extreme. Make sure to check some reviews before splurging your pocket money.