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Today we are checking out a new flash drive from Patriot featuring a massive 128GB storage capacity. Known as the SuperSonic Magnum, this new flash drive utilizes eight channel technology in conjunction with USB 3.0 for fast read/write performance. Despite being somewhat pricey, we found it hard to go by the huge storage capacity which was just so convenient in a thumb size drive...
The third revision of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) was announced on November 17th 2008. Designed to transmit at speeds of up to 5Gb/s USB 3.0 is 10x faster than its predecessor USB 2.0, which was limited to 480Mb/s. USB 3.0 not only significantly reduces the time required for data transmission, but it also lowers power consumption and is backwards compatible with USB 2.0.
A year after the specification was announced the first USB 3.0 consumer products were released. However it was not until January of 2010 that the first certified USB 3.0 products were announced. Throughout 2010 we saw a number of USB 3.0 certified products released, though few impressed us as they failed to significantly outperform USB 2.0 devices despite the massive amount of available bandwidth. This was because although the potential for 10x more bandwidth existed, the devices were based on hardware only capable of going slightly faster than the USB 2.0 specification allowed. Even today most external USB 3.0 certified devices use mechanical hard drives, limiting their performance to a maximum of about 100MB/s. While this is a little over 3x faster than a similar equipped USB 2.0 device, it is not the 10x performance we have been dreaming about. However USB 3.0 devices based on Solid-State Disk (SSD) technology have been released, such as the Kingston HyperX Max, which do deliver around 6x more performance. That said, at $280 US for the 128GB version the HyperX Max is hardly cheap and the 2.5” design doesn’t make it all that portable. Certainly the most appealing external USB 3.0 storage right now are thumb drives. Their pocket size design means they are easy to transport and you can always have one handy. The unfortunate reality however is that most USB 3.0 thumb drives deliver quite poor performance. Out of the handful of devices that I have tested just a few stand out, with some of the better examples being the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 and Patriot SuperSonic. In fact, to date the Patriot SuperSonic has been one of the best, if not the best USB 3.0 thumb drive we have tested. The quad-channel design delivers impressive results that few thumb drives are able to match. That said, we think the SuperSonic has met its match. Patriot has again upped the ante, this time with what they call the SuperSonic Magnum. Using 8-channel technology the SuperSonic Magnum boasts some remarkable specifications, which we are now going to look at... |
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dukes |
Posted on: 09/14/2011 01:13 PM
I have the 64GB version which is why I was interested in the review. I can confirm that the speed will blow you away!!! |
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ProX |
Posted on: 09/14/2011 09:13 PM
So its pretty much an SSD on a stick, sounds good  |
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Curse |
Posted on: 09/16/2011 09:09 PM
thats a massive amount of storage for a little flash drive. the results were also quite amazing. |