These days they are everywhere, but the flash drive as we know it has only been around for a little over a decade, having been first introduced in late 2000. Trek Technology developed the first flash disk and IBM marketed it under the "DiskOnKey" brand, featuring a whopping 8MB of storage. This was impressive at the time considering the form factor and because floppy disks were still widely used to move small amounts of data.

Even the fastest USB 2.0 flash drives are unable to match today's conventional hard drives. Considering that we often cite hard drives as the slowest component in a computer, it's about time we moved on. The storage industry has been preparing the shift to USB 3.0 connectivity for quite some time.

Dubbed SuperSpeed USB, USB 3.0 offers bi-directional (full-duplex) communication and a tenfold boost in transfer speeds as well as improved capabilities, all while maintaining compatibility with USB 2.0 devices. (Read our USB 3.0: What You Need To Know Guide for a full rundown of the new interface).

In terms of tangible improvements, USB 3.0 flash devices are still yet to reach their full potential, but as the standard matures the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) considers it reasonable to achieve a throughput of 400MB/s, or just about enough to transfer a 27GB high definition movie in a little over a minute rather than 15 or more with USB 2.0.

So although the claimed 225MB/s read performance of the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 is roughly just half that of the USB 3.0 interfaces maximum bandwidth, it is still significantly faster than the USB 2.0 devices that it is replacing. Before we jump into the benchmarking section of our review let’s just take a closer look at the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0...

This means at $1.95 per gigabyte the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB thumb drive is more expensive than most of today’s high-end internal SSD products. However the advantage of the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 is of course its physical size, as this is designed to be a highly mobile high speed storage device.

The 64GB memory capacity of this thumb drive provides ample space for users to store multiple media files without having to delete older files. As Kingston has pointed out on their website, the 64GB capacity allows for roughly 17067 ten megapixel (3648x2736) images to be stored, or 659 minutes of 12Mbps 1080p content.

Kingston has wrapped the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 flash drive in a durable aluminum and rubber enclosure which provides shock resistance for up to 15Gs to ensure greater protection of your data. The aluminum part of the enclosure is blue while the rubberized part is black.

At just 11.3 grams the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB is extremely light, just as the original DataTraveler 3.0 was. The drive measures 1.6cm thick x 2.3cm wide x 7.5cm long, making it roughly the same size as the older DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0.

By combining a single-chip USB 3.0 flash memory controller with 8-channel technology, the Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 delivers claimed sequential read performance at speeds up to 225MB/s and up to 135MB/s sequential write speeds. Finally, the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 is available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities and carries a 5-year warranty.

The Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB allowed for a throughput of 149.8MB/s, making it 43% faster than the older DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 16GB. Still when compared to the Patriot Supersonic Magnum 128GB the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 was 26% slower.

When measuring the throughput of the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 in our game download test it was exceptionally fast delivering 189.2MB/s. This meant that it was 92% faster than the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 and just 4% slower than the Supersonic Magnum.

Finally when testing the Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 in our program download test we found that the bandwidth was reduced to just 132.7MB/s. Still this meant that it was 26% faster than the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0. However it also meant that it was 32% slower than the Patriot Supersonic Magnum, which was a disappointing result.

The Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB provided 55% more bandwidth when compared to the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 16GB in our single large file upload test. With a throughput of 105.7MB/s it was still 12% slower than the Patriot Supersonic Magnum 128GB.

The DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 became much slower in our game upload test with a bandwidth of just 49.5MB/s. Still this made it 36% faster than the old DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0. However when compared to the Supersonic Magnum it was 16% slower.

The program upload test saw the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 deliver virtually the same performance as the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0, making it 19% slower than the Supersonic Magnum.

The copy performance of the Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB when using a single large file was remarkable. Here it allowed for a transfer speed of 85.4MB/s, making it over 3x faster than the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0. Moreover it was 27% faster than the Supersonic Magnum 128GB, beating the Patriot drive for the first time.

The DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 was much slower in the game copy test as performance was limited to 51MB/s, making it 8% slower than the Patriot Supersonic Magnum. Still when compared to the old DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 it was 58% faster.

Finally the last copy test uses our program data and here the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 provided a bandwidth of 21.4MB/s, making it 15% faster than the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0.

As you can see, with a sequential read speed of 259.6MB/s the Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB was actually faster than the claimed 225MB/s. The same goes for the sequential write performance which reached 161.4MB/s, smashing the claimed 135MB/s. Although the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 was much faster than the Patriot Supersonic Magnum 128GB in these synthetic sequential tests, we found that in real-world situations this is not the case.

When measuring the random 512K performance we found that the read speed of the Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB was exceptional. However the write performance on the other hand was quite weak, though this appears typical for flash based thumb drives.

Finally the random 4K-QD32 test and here we find that the read performance of the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 is again very good. However the write performance was very poor as the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 was much slower than the old DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0.

Devices such as the Patriot Supersonic and the Supersonic Magnum have been at the top of the food chain for some time. So does the new DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 do anything to change this? Starting at $125 for the 64GB model it is already more expensive than the Supersonic Magnum which costs just $100 for the 64GB model.

Based on our finding the Supersonic Magnum is a faster device and although we compared the 128GB version to Kingston’s 64GB DataTraveler HyperX 3.0, we still believe Patriot has created the faster product. In almost every test the Supersonic Magnum was faster, making it the better value option of the two.

In terms of the physical design both drives are similar in size. The Supersonic Magnum is thinner but longer and wider. It is fair to say that both would fit comfortably in your pants pocket, so size isn’t really an issue.

Forgetting about the Supersonic Magnum for the moment, the Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 faces no other real competition as it is much faster than other USB 3.0 flash drives that we know of. Drives such as the Corsair Flash Voyager GT, ADATA N005 Pro, Team X101, Mushkin Enhanced Ventura Pro and the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go.

Kingston also provides a 5 year warranty and given their reputation for making quality products we feel the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 to be a safe investment. Although we have had our Supersonic Magnum for a year now and use it heavily there are many reports online complaining about reliability and compatibility problems.

Again we have experienced no such issues, but the feedback from the community regarding the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 is more positive. Overall the Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB looks to be a solid product, we just wish it was a little more competitively priced.