INTRODUCTION

   Storage capacity needs increase on a daily basis and with them so does demand and thus in the end those two result in more competition between companies and lower prices (at least most of the time). Think about it, just two years ago i was running around carrying an 16GB USB flash drive with my keychain while now i have attached a permanent 32GB one which i sometimes replace with an 128GB one if i need to carry way too much data with me. The good news is that unlike a year ago today there are plenty of USB 3.0 compatible 128GB flash drives for one to choose from in the market and so we took it upon ourselves to get our hands on as many as we can to check and see what you can expect in terms of read & write performance. Today on our test bench we actually have a familiar drive and more specifically the highest capacity model from the SuperSonic Rage XT line by Patriot Memory.

   Established in 1985, Patriot Memory builds a full range of memory module and flash memory products, offering a perfect blend of quality and value. Patriot products include Extreme Performance (EP), Signature Lines (SL) and Flash Memory solutions (FM). Commitment, focus on innovation in technology, product quality, and customer satisfaction are the key enablers of our future success. Patriot's development and manufacturing facility are located in Fremont, California USA and Taipei, Taiwan. Our manufacturing segment is composed of a highly skilled production staff and multiple production lines optimized for modules, giving Patriot the ability and resources necessary to provide a full line of memory module solutions. We understand the value of designing and responding quickly and intelligently to the rapid changes inherent in the memory module industry. This commitment to R&D enables us to deliver the best quality memory modules powered by the latest innovative technology.

   As many of you know the SuperSonic Rage XT line is not the highest performance one in the Patriot Memory arsenal (that's the role of the SuperSonic Magnum line) but still it boasts very respectable speeds of 180MB/s read and 50MB/s write (as advertised by Patriot Memory). Of course 50MB/s write may not seem high enough compared with many other models in the market currently but the SuperSonic Rage XT is very compact and features a nice rubber coated enclosure which adds extra protection. What I’m mostly interested however is to see whether or not the SuperSonic Rage XT 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive can reach (and why not even surpass) its advertised performance levels so the time has come for us to check exactly that.