One of the handiest things about today’s tech devices is mobility. We like to take everything with us every where which means everything needs to be smaller and lighter. The same is especially true for devices that need to store data whether it be an MP3 player or hard drive. Unfortunately, hard drives and the external storage cases they require aren’t very small. They weigh a lot for their size and are cumbersome to transport. This is where micro USB storage device technology can come in very handy.
USB pen drives are super small and recently broke the 128GB barrier and can be used for everything including backing up extremely large amounts of data at home or at the office. You no longer need to tote around that external hard drive enclosure or laptop to get to the data. Today we’ll be checking Check out Patriot Memory’s largest capacity 128GB XPorter Magnum USB Pen Drive.
Features and Specifications
Just from the photo, you can tell the Magnum is about the size of a pack of gum. In this case, it’s an aluminum pack of gum you don’t want to chew. It’s that same casing that makes it super sturdy which will take a serious beating if you’re rough on pen drives.
Measuring 2.5″ x 1″, this thing is tiny compared to any of the USB hard drive units commonly seen on the market. It’s also pretty impressive that it offers a 128GB of storage, yet doesn’t need you to plug int a USB cable to plug it in like most hard drive based units.
If you’re looking for loads of mind boggling technical speak and specs, you’re not going to find any here. This 128GB XPorter Magnum USB pen drive is standard USB 2.0 and 1.1 compatible. It’s Microsoft certified and tuned specifically for Vista. If you plug it in, it should work right from the start once your operating system registers it. However, any OS will recognize this standard USB device.
One of the features is listed on the package as Ultra High 210X Head Speed. What does this mean for performance? The internal memory is probably tuned for faster transfer speeds should future USB performance improve in the future.
What’s in the Package?
The bundle is yet again pretty simple. Aside from the XPorter Magnum, you get a handy rope lanyard and USB extension cord. The rope will come in handy for carrying around the Magnum your neck so you won’t forget that 128GB of data somewhere stupid. The data you carry on this size USB pen drive is most likely going to be super valuable. The last thing you want to do is lose it.
A USB extension cord might seem useless. Chances are that you’ve needed one before and just never got around to getting one. “Out of sight, out of mind..” is synonymous with pen drives. It’s easy to forget you have the pen drive plugged in to the back of a system. Using that handy little cord brings the pen drive back in to view.
Installation and Setup
Normally, we’d have a whole section dedicated to installation of tested hardware. But, working with any pen drive should be as simple as plugging it in to your motherboard or front panel USB port. If a pen drive fails to be auto detected by your system, it could be a malfunctioning USB port or operating system. It’s also possible that the front USB ports on yoru case may not be fully USB 2.0 compliant for file large file transfers. It happens.
Using a different port and/or updating the OS driver are the quickest ways to figure it out. As such, a few system specs for you to ponder…
- Intel Core 2 E6760 & Zotac 790i Supreme
- Intel Core i7 975 & ASRock X58 Extreme
- AMD AM2 5200 & ECS A780GM-A
- All current Vista 32 and 64-bit installations had no problem detecting the XPorter Magnum during testing.
The purpose for the three test systems was to remove any possible variances that might affect the performance of the XPorter Magnum. Keeping USB 2.0 drivers up to date is pretty much left to the operating system itself so there isn’t much we can do about that and Patriot Memory doesn’t offer some souped up driver that we can install for extra performance with their drives.
Testing all 128GB’s of Flash Memory Goodness
QuickBench and CrystalDiskMark were both used to test the capacity and USB performance of the Magnum. Between these two benchmarks, we feel you’ll get the information you need without taking up too much of your precious time. And, no, we can’t overclock USB drives, although, we wished we could. On with the benchmarks!
QuickBench
Here we see what kind of transfer rates you can expect connected to the common garden variety desktop system. QuickBench is perfect for sniffing out weaknesses in a drives ability to handle from smaller 4 KB file sizes all the way up to moderate 1024 KB (1 MB) file sizes. Naturally, some data block sizes work with flash drives better than others. Of course, this reveals why we find ourselves waiting much longer when copying something to a USB pen drive.
CrystalDiskMark
Here are some real world average transfer rates that further validate the QuickBench findings. Again, it’s not uncommon to see USB performance around 29 MB/s given the limits of the USB 2.0 interface. Too bad we can’t overclock USB pen drives.
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
Making sense of USB performance can be frustrating unless you know the basics. USB 2.0 is the fastest current standard supported by motherboards, controller cards, and operating systems. The theoretical maximum throughput of USB 2.0 is 480Mbps, or 40 MB/s. However, performance grade USB 2.0 Flash Drives have been pushing around 29 to 33 MB/s depending on the motherboard (or controller card). The ideal test for the 128GB XPorter Magnum would be connecting the drive to a system, or motherboard, that supports the next generation USB 3.0 standard. Though this would more fully test the capabilities of the Magnum, there are currently no USB 3.0 adapters or motherboards available on the market, but they are coming.
That leaves us with what we can say conclusively about the Patriot Memory 128GB XPorter Magnum based on current standards. It works as well as it can on current supporting platforms. If nothing else, the 128GB capacity now makes it far easier to transport huge amounts of data safely without the bulk of a conventional external USB hard drive.
However, this little marvel is going to cost you. Around $350 to $375 US to be exact. If you’ve got money to burn, definitely go for it and declare yourself the winner in any current USB flash drive showdown. However, for the rest of us, we’ll have to brand this with the Ultra Blingy Award for a little too rich for our blood.
Pros
- Largest storage capacity pen drive available
- Uses the latest flash drive memory
- Rigid, attractive casing
- Works on all Windows OS
- Beneficial in some professional environments
- Makes you want a 128GB TorqX SSD & Convoy XL
Cons
- Currently costs $350-375
- Not cost effective for regular users
- No USB 3.0 options available
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10.0
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Patriot Memory 128GB Xporter Magnum USB Flash Drive Photo Gallery
