Concluding thoughts and rating
The Patriot Xporter Magnum 128GB pen-drive is the largest we've tested, and it represents cutting-edge capacity for Q3 2009, although Kingston is already etailing a 256GB drive, the DT300, for a whopping £599.Encased in a durable aluminium shell and larger-than-normal due to the internal flash capacity, performance is decent on most fronts - averaging 30MB/s read and 15MB/s write on large-file transfers. Even with such speed, filling the drive takes over two hours. The next real evolution will occur when these huge pen-drives are outfitted with a USB 3.0 or eSATA connection that will eradicate the interface as the bottleneck.
The 128GB model is a harbinger of things to come, we think, as NAND memories - the storage inside the drive - become denser and cheaper. As such, the current etail price of almost £300 puts in firmly in the ostentatious bracket, and we'd advise most readers to opt for multiple 32GB sticks if the price-to-capacity metric is important. Patriot, too, doesn't bundle in any extra features with the drive, which is kind of disappointing.
Most of us don't need a 128GB USB pen-drive and there are cheaper and much, much faster methods of moving data on to (not-quite-so) portable storage - (e)SATA-connected SSDs or mechanical drives, for example, as shown by our benchmarks. We'd recommend that all but the most well-heeled of readers to wait until USB 3.0- or eSATA-equipped large-capacity USB drives are available, most likely when the asking price of a 128GB stick will be less than half of the current £300.
Still, there's something intrinsically geeky about having 128GB of storage neatly stowed away in your pocket, and whipping out your big stick is always fun.
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the pen-drive is evaluated with respect to our 'extreme components' criteria where value plays a small part of the overall score.
Patriot Xporter Magnum 128GB USB pen-drive
HEXUS Where2Buy
TBC
for the UK. It's
currently
available for $399.99
at Newegg.com.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
