Kingston HyperX Predator USB3.0 1TB Flash Drive Review

Every now and again I get the chance to have a product a little ahead of every other reviewer in the world and in some cases, I’ve been able to claim the world’s first review as well. There is however one drive that I’m sure many reviewers are waiting to get their hands on, and thanks to Kingston I’ve been able to get a hands-on world-exclusive look at the HyperX Predator 1TB USB3.0 flash drive.

A few months ago I had a look at the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 64GB flash drive which features a build and design that is fairly similar to that of the 1TB drive that I have to play with today. However, this is of course a little more special with its HyperX branding and of course the mammoth 1TB capacity.

As opposed to most flash drives that we’ve seen from Kingston, the HyperX Predator 1TB is far more worthy othan the typical plastic packaging that is pretty much the standard these days. Instead, this drive comes in a rather sleek looking metal tin, with a fitted foam interior, that holds both the drive and the accessories that come with it. Alongside the mammoth 1TB USB drive, we find a keyring for attaching the drive to a set of keys or hand-cuffs; as after all you really don’t want to be letting this drive out of your sight too soon – or at least this is how I felt whilst I had it in my possession. The other accessory we get is a short USB extension cable which for many users will be a well used accessory due to the fact that the drive is a little wider than a typical USB drive meaning it may have compatibility issues with some USB ports.

Looking closer at the drive the sheer physical dimensions are staggering. Granted it is a rather chunky looking drive and it is 7.2cm long x 2.6cm x 2.1cm. Of course we do have to remember that there are a whole heap of flash ICs packed into a comparatively small space. The brushed metal surface is finished off with the Kingston and HyperX Predator branding and on the end is a loop for attaching the drive to the included keyring.

The need for the USB cable in some cases becomes more apparent when we look at the drive from the end, you can see it will easily interfere with other devices that are close-by in adjacent USB slots. Just above the drive there is a small hole through which the blue status/activity LED can be seen.

Test system:

Asus Maximus VI Formula

Intel Core i7 4770k

Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866MHz 16GB

Asus GTX 780 – DC2OC

Corsair H100i

Corsair HX1050W

Corsair Force LS 120GB SSD

Asus MX229Q

We would like to thank Asus for allowing us to use their demonstration system at i49 for the testing of this drive

It’s safe to say that the Kingston Predator 1TB USB flash drive looks the part, but this is not really going to be worth much if the drive doesn’t deliver the performance as well. Kingston have rated this drive with a read speed of 240MB/s and a write speed of 160MB/s – which for any HyperX USB drive is top level performance. This is part of the reason why this drive has had so much exposure because it has been reported to have not only the capacity but also the performance to go alongside that.

To test this drive, I first of all want to see what the underlying performance is through ATTO – just to see how well the drive can deliver behind the scenes.

Looking at the 1024k test, the 1TB drive appears to give virtually the rated performance on the read front that Kingston claim however the write performance does appear to be down. What we have to take into account though is that ATTO works with compressible data which does not favour this drive very well at all.

Next up is CrystalDiskMark, and immediately we can see a huge boost in both the read and write speeds of the HyperX Predator. Topping out during the 4MB sequential read test at 298.4MB/s and 109.5MB/s, we can see that the drive clearly can deliver top level performance when pulling data from the drive. The 512k test is also impressive with speeds topping out at 225.1MB/s read and 112.8MB/s write.

Anvil’s Storage Utility is the last of the tests that this drive is going through and as a final push, the HyperX Predator manages to kick the read speed up to 278.15MB/s and write to 169.17MB/s both passing the rated speeds that Kingston give on the tin.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjWqZ8p6i9g[/youtube]

When it comes to top end flash drives, there are many on the market, but there is now one that reigns above them all. Kingston’s HyperX Predator 1TB is not only a feat of technical engineering, but it is also something to marvel over. With solid build quality and construction, the drive feels like it’s worth a £1000 and that is exactly its price point. There have been many rumours and speculations floating about since the drive was first announced earlier in the year about its price, with some thinking it will sell for as much as £4000. However, with a price point of around £1/GB its price is astonishing for what it is.

The performance is also remarkable, granted ATTO doesn’t show great results, but drives of this nature are going to perform better with incompressible data and this is clear with the results from Anvil’s Storage Utilities.

Availability of the drive is something that a lot of people are going to question and at this moment in time, there are only seven working units in the world, of which this one that I’ve looked at is the only one in the UK. Pre-orders are being taken through etailers such as Overclockers UK and Dabs.com, but do expect a some waiting time when you order as these units have only just had their first batch shipped out. Many more units are currently in the manufacturing and testing stages.

All in all though I’m more than astounded by this drive – after all how often are you going to say that you have 1TB of USB storage hanging from your keys? Granted the cost is not affordable for the large majority of people out there, but as a feat of engineering Kingston’s 1TB HyperX Predator USB3.0 flash drive is worthy of our eTeknix Innovation Award.

Pros:

Well known and established manufacturer

Solid build quality and metal construction

Whopping 1TB capacity

Top level performance

“Bling factor”

USB extension cable in the tin for hard to reach ports

Cons:

Can get a little warm during continuous use

Out of the price range for most users.

eTeknix Says: “Kingston have done it again with pushing next-generation storage to the max. The HyperX Predator 1TB USB drive has a crazy level of storage space, but also a top-level of performance to go with it. Did you once fancy 1TB of storage for on the go? Now your dreams have come true with this truly outstanding drive.”

Thanks to Kingston for providing this review sample.