INTRODUCTION

   There used to be a time when the only ultra-portable storage needs most people had could be easily covered with just a mere 2-4GB USB Flash Drive but much like most things related to technology that changed and now most people carry at least 16GB capacity drives with them at all times. Personally ever since i can remember I’ve always carried a USB flash drive with my keychain and most of the times that used to be an rugged version to ensure i had the best possible data protection against harsh conditions. Unfortunately compared to roughly 3-4 years ago not many manufacturers make rugged USB 3.0 flash drives any more (not really durable ones anyway) and the ones that do only release slow models. Well Kingston takes a different approach and after their already perfect HyperX USB 3.0 flash drive (partially rugged) they have just now released the DT R3.0 USB 3.0 flash drive line (the initials stand for DataTraveler Rugged 3.0) from which we have the 64GB variant here with us.

   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.

   Overall the Kingston DataTraveler Rugged 3.0 USB Flash Drive is almost identical to the previously released R400/500 USB flash drives since it shares the same rugged (shock resistant) rubber casing (only in blue color). However unlike the R400/500 USB 2.0 models thanks to USB 3.0 the R3.0 is over two times as fast. Of course for people who are after the best possible read/write speeds available as we speak the HyperX line of USB 3.0 flash drives is a one way sincere there's really no competition between those and the R3.0 ones. My biggest concern however right from the moment Kingston announced the availability of the DT R3.0 was just how good it would do against the Supersonic Boost line by Patriot since both products offer a rugged casing, are USB 3.0 and are also similarly priced. Well since the DT R3.0 64GB is finally in our hands it's time to find out.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The drive arrived inside the same clear plastic clamshell package as pretty much every flash drive we've ever seen so as usual you can check the drive itself from the front along with its official performance numbers and capacity.

You can see the features list at the rear of the box in 12 languages.

Just the DT R3.0 USB Flash Drive itself and a small lanyard are included in the package.

THE DATATRAVELER RUGGED 3.0 64GB

The latest DT R3.0 stays loyal to the Kingston colors, has a rubber shock-resistant casing and measures 70mm in length, 22.68mm in width and is 12.40mm thick.

A fast size/quality comparison between the product in hand and a few other similar ones is never a bad thing to have.

The DT R3.0 logo and the capacity of the drive are placed at the top.

Turning the drive over we see the company name in the middle and at the far end we see a blue activity LED.

While using the drive you can place the cap at the rear end of the drive to avoid misplacing it.

Taking a closer look at the USB tip we see the product number, capacity, serial number and country of manufacture.

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 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 are main test rig running Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 complete with every system update up until October 10th 2012. As always for comparison purposes we also used some of the drives currently available to us such as right now (the ones we no longer have access to are not included in the charts since they were tested using different system configurations).

TEST RESULTS - AIDA 64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

CONCLUSION

   Numbers and charts have a way of speaking out for themselves and so our numbers clearly indicate that on one hand the Patriot Supersonic Boost is roughly 30% faster in read speeds while on the other the Kingston DataTraveler Rugged 3.0 is faster in write speeds by almost 25% so overall it's safe to say that the Supersonic Boost turned out to be slightly faster. However there are also other things to take into consideration when searching for a flash drive and so for me the rubber casing used with the DT R3.0 feels much better than the one of the Supersonic Boost while the cap is a lot harder to remove by mistake (something that happens a lot if you carry a flash drive with your keychain) compared to the cap of the Boost. Size is also something that matters a lot for many people and although the DT R3.0 is just a tad longer than the Supersonic Boost i really doubt that such a tiny difference can become the decisive factor for potential buyers.

   For mid-end products (flash drives included) price also plays a large part and with a current price tag set at USD69.99 inside the USA (Amazon) and at around 60Euros inside the EU the Kingston DataTraveler Rugged 3.0 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive offers even better performance that the Elite 64GB flash drive (again by Kingston) but in a more durable rubber casing. Unfortunately Patriot does not make a 64GB variant of their SuperSonic Boost and so we can't really compare prices with the DT R3.0 64GB (their 32GB variants however retail at similar prices). They do however make a 64GB variant of their Supersonic Rage XT but it has yet to reach our test bench so we can't really comment on its performance (according to its advertised speeds it's quite better than the DT R3.0 but worse than the HyperX drive). Bottom line if you want a low-cost yet fast USB 3.0 flash drive with a rugged casing the DataTraveler R3.0 64GB by Kingston is amongst your best choices right now and that's why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Quality
- Rugged Rubber Casing
- Design
- Overall Performance (Read/Write Speeds)
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Mid-End Performance