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INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

supersonic rage 2 256gba

   It's no secret that as time goes by digital storage needs only grow and that goes double for professionals and consumers who'd like access to their work and/or media collections even when not at home or office. Personally whenever i go on a trip i always like to take with me several movies and series in digital format and with 4k content finally making its way to consumers (in numbers that is) i doubt that even the 128GB flash drive i have attached on my keychain will be sufficient (that will depend on the decided compression of course). Thanks to several price drops in the flash industry most storage media manufacturers now offer high capacity USB flash drives with blazing fast read & write speeds at relatively affordable prices and after the impressive SuperSonic Magnum 2 256GB USB 3.1 Gen 1 Flash Drive by Patriot today with us we have their SuperSonic Rage 2 256GB model.


   Patriot designs, manufactures and markets high performance, enthusiast memory modules, flash memory, and mobile accessory products. Patriot products have become world renown for their extreme performance, reliability and innovation. Patriot sells its products through original equipment manufacturers, retailers, e-tailers and distributors throughout the world with operations in North America, Asia and Europe. Patriot Memory LLC was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Fremont, California, USA. All company and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice. All company and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice.


   How many of you remember the SuperSonic Magnum 2 which we tested roughly three weeks ago? It was quite large for a USB flash drive right? Well although the SuperSonic Rage 2 is roughly half the size of the SuperSonic Magnum 2 Patriot was still able to squeeze inside it the same Phison PS2251-08(PS2308) dual-channel ultra-high-speed USB 3.0-to-Flash micro-controller chip (again it supports wear-leveling for increased durability) and the same Toshiba MLC NAND flash. I do believe that the larger aluminum enclosure of the Magnum 2 should keep the components inside cooler compared to the plastic enclosure of the Rage 2 (and it's of higher quality obviously) but still the difference in size more than makes up for that. Once again this is a USB 3.1 Gen 1 flash drive (USB 3.0) and not a Gen 2 but with advertised read & write speeds of 400MB/s and 300MB/s (again just like the Magnum 2) that shouldn't matter to most people.

 



 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

featspecs



 

THE SUPERSONIC RAGE 2 256GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The drive arrived inside plain package with a clear plastic section at the front.

 

 

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All the drive features are printed at the rear in three languages right over contact information about Patriot.

 

 

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Just like with the SuperSonic Magnum 2 the SuperSonic Rage 2 is alone in the package. Size-wise the 8g heavy plastic rubber coated enclosure measures 53mm in length, 21mm in width and 9.9mm in height.

 

 

supersonic rage 2 256gb 04tsupersonic rage 2 256gb 05tAs always to showcase the size of the USB flash drive in our hands we placed it right next to several others that we have here.

 

 

supersonic rage 2 256gb 06t

Patriot has printed the capacity of the drive at the lower right section of the front.

 

 

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The company logo is printed at the rear of the drive.

 

 

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The SuperSonic Rage 2 features a retractable design which although convenient it does leave the front of the USB plug exposed.

 



 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cpuz3930ksystem

 

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 (0 = we were unable to complete that test).


   All tests are performed with our main rig running Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 complete with every update until May 25th 2016 (UASP compatible models are tested using a fresh Windows 8.1 installation on a Plextor m6e). 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

aida64atto

 



 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hdtachrwhdtunepro

 



 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sandraprocrystal



 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

supersonic rage 2 256gbb

   Having the same read & write performance levels as the SuperSonic Magnum 2 but with a flash drive half its size is not something I was expecting when we got the SuperSonic Rage 2. Well after wrapping up all our tests the SuperSonic Rage 2 was not just as fast as the Magnum 2 but even faster in some of them (since both drives use the same components that shouldn’t come as a surprise). So do we prefer the SuperSonic Rage 2 or the SuperSonic Magnum 2? Well personally I like the aluminum enclosure of the Magnum 2 more compared to the plastic/rubber enclosure of the Rage 2 but that’s just me I guess (others like the one of the Rage 2 more).


   It seems that size and performance are not the only two strong points of the Patriot SuperSonic Rage 2 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Flash Drive since it’s also priced very competitively. To be more precise it currently retails for just USD89.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 94Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag which is roughly identical to that of the Magnum 2 model. At the end of the day it’s up to you to decide which design, size and material you’d prefer for a USB flash drive but since the SuperSonic Rage 2 offers impressive read & write performance and is priced right it gets our Platinum Award.

platinum

PROS


- Build Quality (Rubber Coated Enclosure)
- Top Of the Charts Performance
- Size
- 256GB
- 5 Year Warranty

 

CONS


- Retractable Design (Exposed USB Plug)