Test Rig Configuration

That's all about the USB flash drive from an hardware and design point of view. Leaving you with all with this impression on the Patriot Xporter Magnum 64GB memory stick we are going to move to the performance you can expect from this removable storage. The system used to compile and analyze the performance figures is constructed around the high-end Intel Core 2 Duo technology, which will provide extensive central processing power. We are using our high performing system based around the Intel 975X Express chipset powering our mainboard. Yeah we do know it isn't the latest and greatest but so far it can just handle anything you throw at it. So, let's go through the system specifications...

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 3.00GHz Dual Core Processor
• ASUS P5W Digital Home Deluxe (i975X) Mainboard
• Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB PC2-6400 Dual Memory
• Gainward GeForce GTX 260 868MB Graphics Card
• Western Digital 320GB Caviar SE 8MB Cache Hard Disk
• PC Power & Cooling 610W (SLI Ready) Power Supply
• Cooler Master Stacker 832 (RC-832) Tower Case
• Arctic Cooling MX-2 Performance Thermal Compound
• Patriot Xporter Magnum 64GB USB Flash Storage
• Dell UltraSharp 30" 3007WFP (Black) LCD Flat Display
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional incl. SP2 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate incl. SP1 Edition

As you can clearly see we have used some high performance components, and we would like to express our thanks to Crucial, PC Power & Cooling and most of all Gainward for their utmost generosity on supplying us with some excellent hardware. The ASUS mainboard is based around the great Intel 975X chipset supporting the Intel Core 2 Duo processor and DDR2 memory. We will be using our modest Core 2 Duo E6700 but running at 3.00GHz to support the high-end graphics cards. So both the mainboard and CPU are fine tuned to support this overclocking, and to provide the maximum compatible but stable clock speeds. Currently the Core i7 processors are the top of the market, starting to make their way into the standard system configuration with AMD trailing behind.

Synthetic Benchmarks

We will be using just two software suites to checkout the performance of the Xporter Magnum removable storage and each will have its strengths. First we will make use of a free program which is developed by SteelBytes and released as HD Speed. This is not the only program created by these developers but it is one that is able to give us a good view on the read and write performance of our USB flash drive. Next we will use Sandra SiSoftware and that will certainly ring a bell to most of you. This software suite comes with multiple benchmarks and some are dedicated to the file system and storage performance. As such we will focus especially on the removable storage performance.

SteelBytes HD Speed v1.5.4.72

What we found really excellent about this first program that we will be using for checking the performance of the Xporter Magnum flash drive is that it is freeware in a pure form. That means that anyone who wants to try out HD Speed can do so as it is available as a full package and totally free of charge. Now we all know that free is not always the best solution, but in case of HD Speed we really need to contradict this as this program does do what it says and is able to measure both sustained and burst data transfer rates of various storage devices such as hard disks, removable storage but also flash memory sticks. And as such we are using this piece of software to look at the transfer speeds delivered by the Patriot Xporter Magnum flash drive.

Now we started first with checking the read speed, where we actually did focus on the average read speed which shows a very nice 32.8MB/s transfer. When we compare that to other current flash media we do find it at the higher range which is exactly what Patriot is targeting this Xporter Magnum towards. As already mentioned Patriot is advertising it as an extreme performance flash drive which is truly what it is. In fact the Xporter Magnum is the ideal blend of speed, durability and reliability. All these feature make it an outstanding solution for who is looking for a speedy memory stick but also requires excellent storage safety. Of course the read speed is important, as reading from this USB media will certainly be one of the main activities that one will do, but also the writing towards the memory stick is an important factor to consider.

When looking at the write speed we can't complain much either since the Xporter Magnum is able to boost a healthy 23.5MB/s transfer speed on average. Again looking at the competition it is performing in the higher range and able to match the performance of several other high performance flash drives. As such we can clearly see that the transfer rate is outstanding, following also what Patriot is advertising on their package. So the combination of both huge storage with high performance can certainly move us, and especially since this Patriot version is constructed with a durable water and shock resistant housing and backed by a lifetime warranty.