Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0:
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Our sample unit of Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 was bulk packaged, meaning we only recieved the memorystick without a retail packaging. Kingston memory stick looks like any ordinary USB stick available on market. It is colored in typical black & blue HyperX coloring scheme. The module is made from a rubber like material which gives you a nice and firm touch when holding the module. It is not the largest module we’ve encountered, but its not the smallest either. DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 follows the USB 3.0 standard and is specified to 225MB/s read speeds and up to 135MB/s write speeds while using USB 3.0 slot. The module is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0 slots, however read and write speeds are considerably slower (30MB/s read/write). Unfortunately, the pricing of DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 is a bit expensive. The unit we have here costs about 130€ which is considerably more than older USB2.0 disks.
Testing:
We used following systems during our tests:
Asus P8P67 rev 3
Intel I5-2500K
AMD Radeon 6850
8GB DDR3 1600MHz
Verbatim SATA3 120GB SSD
Antec Solo II case
Dell U2412M display
Lenovo Thinkpad T61
Intel Core 2 Duo T7700
2x2GB DDR2 800MHz
500GB Seagate 7200rpm HDD
Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M
We used Atto DiskBenchMark to test our USB stick using three different USB3 controllers (Buffalo USB 3.0 PCI-E / ExpressCard + Asus P8P67 integrated.
Kingston HyperX manages to push quite a good results in Atto test. With Asus P8P67 and the Buffalo PCIE-card it manages to push over 230MB/s read speeds and over 130MB/s write speeds. That’s about twice as fast as with a traditional 3.5″ hard disk in read speeds and about the same with write speeds. Very nice results indeed! As expected from the specifications of the ExpressCard Adapter, the results were a lot lower. This is most likely a result of a limited bandwidth of the expresscard bus. However, even with the ExpressCard the results were many times higher than with the reference USB2.0 test.
Conclusion:
It appears USB3.0 has arrived to stay for good. Performance is superior against USB2.0 devices and more and more devices follow the USB3 standard. Almost every new motherboard has an integrated USB3 slot and adding such to a bit older computer isn’t mind blowingly expensive. Performance with external PCI-E cards seems to be very much in line with integrated solutions. Buffalo ExpressCard USB3.0 adapter wasn’t as fast as the PCI-E version, but nontheless it managed to beat the old USB2.0 with quite a huge margin.
Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 3.0 managed to push quite a good results in our tests. Unfortunately, we did not have other USB3.0 devices to compare it with. Considering what USB sticks are mainly used for, the performance was more than enough. I can recommend all these three products seen in the review to anyone who either wants to add USB3 ports to their desktop/laptop or who wants an USB stick with absolutely astonishing speed. As usual we recommend Newegg and Amazon.
Buffalo PCI-E USB 3.0 Adapter:
Pros:
+ Easy to add
+ Speed
+ Compatible with all PCI-E slots
Cons:
- None
Buffalo ExpressCard USB3.0 Adapter:
Pros:
+ USB3 slots for older laptop
+ Price
Cons:
- Speed
Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 3.0:
Pros:
+ Speed
+ Capacity
Cons:
- Price
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