Review: Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 - Just fast!
Category : Storage
Published by Marc Büchel on 23.11.11
At the beginning of the week Kingston introduced a USB3.0 stick that should be fast. In fact it should be really fast: SSD like fast! This was reason enough for us to order a sample and we even got it fast. Press release on monday and sample on wendsday: that's also fast. 
With the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 Kingston announced a USB3.0 memory stick which basically is an SSD with USB3.0 interface. Therefore it is able to perform way better then most of the other USB sticks out there in the market. The secret behind this device is an eight channel controller.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 3 - Testsystem / Testresultate |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 4 - Conclusion |
Discuss this review in the forums. [pagebreak]
Preview
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 3 - Testsystem / Testresultate |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 4 - Conclusion |
Discuss this review in the forums. [pagebreak]
Test system / Test results
| Motherboar | ASUS Sabertooth X79 |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-3930K |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX H2O 2133 MHz 2 Gigabyte, Single Channel |
| Graphics Card | ASUS ENGTX 580 |
| SSD | Corsair Force 3 120 Gigabyte |
| Power Supply | Enermax Revolution 85+ |
| OS | Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit |
| Software | ATTO v2.34 |
Testrsults ATTO
| Block size | Write | Read |
| 0.5 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 6'463 | 8'512 |
| 0.5 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 215 | 9'576 |
| 1.0 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 16'047 | 16'087 |
| 1.0 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 451 | 17'445 |
| 2.0 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 1'926 | 3'479 |
| 2.0 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 908 | 30'846 |
| 4.0 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 12'047 | 54'001 |
| 4.0 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 1'820 | 49'679 |
| 8.0 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 12'136 | 11'400 |
| 8.0 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 3'698 | 72'348 |
| 16 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 21'942 | 71'375 |
| 16 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 7'585 | 95'304 |
| 32 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 17'906 | 56'082 |
| 32 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 15'678 | 121'122 |
| 64 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 21'072 | 64'887 |
| 64 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 107'648 | 230'068 |
| 128 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 19'592 | 55'072 |
| 128 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 114'103 | 217'762 |
| 256 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 20'480 | 54'161 |
| 256 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 87'844 | 216'083 |
| 512 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 21'304 | 55'120 |
| 512 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 114'471 | 230'912 |
| 1024 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 22'350 | 71'678 |
| 1024 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 114'716 | 230'912 |
| 2048 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 20'792 | 71'678 |
| 2048 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 114'716 | 230'912 |
| 4096 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 20'428 | 68'565 |
| 4096 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 114'716 | 230'912 |
| 8192 kB - Transcend USB 3.0 | 22'406 | 71'582 |
| 8192 kB - Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 142'280 | 248'551 |
Windows File Copy
| 1.31 Gigabyte 1'009 small Files | Write | Read |
| Transcend USB 3.0 | 3.26 MB/s | 63.56 MB/s |
| Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 15.03 MB/s | 117.75 MB/s |
| 690 Megabyte MP3 | Write | Read |
| Transcend USB 3.0 | 6.69 MB/s | 63.71 MB/s |
| Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 | 53.08 MB/s | 134.77 MB/s |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 3 - Testsystem / Testresultate |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 4 - Conclusion |
Discuss this review in the forums. [pagebreak]
Conclusion
With the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0, Kingston has a really fast - SSD like - USB stick in its portfolio. In relation to the memory capacity it even comes with an attractive price tag. Many other USB stick with this amount of memory cost more and do offer less performance. Compared to a standard USB stick it delivers quite a lot more throughput. Especially with it comes to write speeds, then the eight channel controller scores very well. In certain tests you can see almost a tenfold increase in write performance. Copying MP3 files to the stick is quite a lot faster to the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 than to a standard USB stick. Especially when reading or writing small files it's also faster than an external hard drive.Nevertheless under ATTO one can see that the stick also has a weakness. When it has to write very small block (0.5 to 4.0 kB) it performs worse than a standard USB Stick. Under Windows we didn't see this happen too. The numbers we measured for the Kingston stick were substantially higher in any real world test.
The Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 gets good four out of five stars.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 3 - Testsystem / Testresultate |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 4 - Conclusion |
Discuss this review in the forums.