INTRODUCTION

   With storage capacity needs increasing all the time it's somewhat expected for people to be on the lookout for higher capacity portable storage media such as USB Flash Drives and Portable Hard Drives. Portable Hard Drives are of course the obvious choice for most consumers not only because in the market one can currently find up to 2TB capacity 2.5" models but also because of the quite low price tags that accompany them. USB Flash drives on the other hand may be a lot smaller and faster (most of the times) compared to PHDs but they do cost much more and are nowhere close to reaching the same capacities. The HyperX PREDATOR 1TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive by Kingston offers the highest available capacity currently at very high read/write speeds and although we had the 512GB model on our test bench when it got launched a while ago we decided to also take a closer look at its larger brother.

   Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s independent memory leader. Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2009, the company's sales reached $4.1 billion. With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success. Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

   When we tested the 512GB variant roughly 11 months ago we found eight 64GB 19nm Toshiba toggle NAND flash modules (the 1TB model should have eight 128GB ones) paired with a Phison PS2251 USB to Flash controller under the hood however according to Kingston they’ve also used Micron NAND modules and Skymedi USB to Flash controllers for the HyperX Predator line of USB 3.0 Flash Drives so it goes without saying that performance will slightly vary according to the "marriage" of components. What we don't know and hope to find out at the end of this review is whether or not the larger capacity NAND Flash Modules will perform faster or slower than the smaller ones found in the 512GB model. Of course there's also the issue of the flash controller used in our sample (could be a Skymedi and not a Phison like the one in our 512GB model) so we can't be certain that our results will be 100% accurate when comparing both the 512GB and the 1TB models but there's not much we can do about that (we couldn’t risk damaging this sample to find out).

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The HyperX PREDATOR 1TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive arrived in the same aluminum box as it's smaller capacity brother with the Kingston logo at the front, the advertised speeds and of course its capacity.

At the rear of the aluminum box we find the OS compatibility list, specifications and the 5 years warranty logo.

The entire bundle is nicely placed inside a piece of foam so you don't have to worry about damaging the drive.

Leaving out the PREDATOR 1TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive you are also getting a flashy keychain and a USB 3.0 extension cable (the device is quite thick so you may need to use this in order to avoid clearance issues with other USB ports).

THE HYPERX PREDATOR 1TB

Just like its brother the 72mm long, 26.94mm wide and 21mm thick chassis of the PREDATOR 1TB is made by zinc alloy and plastic.

Although not as long as other USB 3.0 flash drives the PREDATOR is quite thick (also mentioned in the previous page).

A nice blue activity LED is placed right next to the company name at the top of the drive.

The model name and its capacity are placed on the other end.

A nice keyring with the company name on it is placed at the rear of the drive.

Once again the device features a nice retractable design so you won't have to worry about losing the protection cap.

As always the serial number engraved on the top of the USB plug ensures that you own a genuine Kingston USB Flash Drive.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY 

   Since flash drives are basically plain storage media devices just like solid state drives and hard disk drives we are using almost the same testing methodology to successfully record the achieved performance numbers. The benchmark suites used are HD Tach RW (Read Speeds / Long Bench 32mb Zone Testing), HD Tune Pro (Read speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read / Write speeds), AIDA 64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear Read / Random Read speeds), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB-1000MB Read / Write speeds) and finally ATTO (Max Read / Max Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into our charts.

   All tests are performed with our main rig running Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 complete with every update until December 18th 2013. As always for comparison purposes in the charts you will also find many other flash drivers which have been tested using the same exact test bench as the one in this review (we really can't keep every flash drive we get forever and also even if we could testing them all again and again would simply not be possible).

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

CONCLUSION

   As I’m sure all of you can clearly see from our charts the HyperX PREDATOR 1TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive did actually perform on par with its smaller capacity brother in most tests and although in others this wasn't the case we can't really tell the why. However whether the issue lays with the NAND Flash modules or the NAND Flash Controller the difference in performance is very small so i wouldn't pay much attention on that. That being said the only problem some people may have with the PREDATOR itself is it's thickness which makes it almost impossible to use normally like a regular flash drive (especially with a rear USB port) and although Kingston does bundle an USB 3.0 extension cable with it for that exact reason i doubt many will carry it around with them as well. Personally I’d also like it a lot had Kingston placed the PREDATOR inside a weatherproof chassis since we are not talking about a regular USB flash drive so i can just hope that they will do so with a future product release.

   The main problem with the PREDATOR line of USB 3.0 Flash Drives is their enormous price tags since in both cases you are required to spend more or less what you would for a good laptop or a good desktop system. To be more specific currently the 512GB model will set you back USD571.64 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 615Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) while the 1TB model will USD1306.63 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 1150Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Leaving out the price tag however the PREDATOR Line of Flash Drives offers professionals and enthusiasts the easiest and smallest way for them to carry around up to 1TB of data in their pockets while at the same time they offer twice the speed of USB 3.0 compatible portable hard drives and for those two reasons alone we are once again awarding them our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Zinc Metal Alloy Casing)
- Blazing Fast Read/Write Speeds
- Massive Storage Space (1TB)
- SSD Type USB Flash Drive
- USB 3.0 Extension Cable 

CONS

- Price (For Most People)
- Drive Thickness (For Some)