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Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB) review: Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB)

All flash drives are not created equal, something proven by the Magnum. If you want capacity and performance in a USB stick, this one's a very good choice indeed.

Craig Simms Special to CNET News
Craig was sucked into the endless vortex of tech at an early age, only to be spat back out babbling things like "phase-locked-loop crystal oscillators!". Mostly this receives a pat on the head from the listener, followed closely by a question about what laptop they should buy.
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Craig Simms
2 min read

It's about one and a half times the width of a standard USB stick, so it might block ports. And it costs around AU$129 in its 64GB incarnation — but boy, is this thing fast.

9.0

Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB)

The Good

Great read and write speeds for a USB stick. Still manages to be slim vertically.

The Bad

About one and a half times wider than a typical stick, so may block ports when plugged in. Expect to pay for the privilege.

The Bottom Line

All flash drives are not created equal, something proven by the Magnum. If you want capacity and performance in a USB stick, this one's a very good choice indeed.

It's hard for a certain generation to hear the word "Magnum" without thinking of Dirty Harry, and we may have had to stop ourselves appropriating quotes from said movie once we saw the benchmark scores.

Sequential Reads (in MBps)

  • 293.3
    Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB)
  • 250.2
    Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 3.0 (64GB)
  • 129.0
    Patriot Supersonic (32GB)
  • 89.26
    Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB)

(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Sequential Writes (in MBps)

  • 173.8
    Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB)
  • 77
    Patriot Supersonic (32GB)
  • 57.76
    Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 3.0 (64GB)
  • 31
    Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB)

(Longer bars indicate better performance)

4K Random Reads (in MBps)

  • 8.08
    Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB)
  • 7.50
    Patriot Supersonic (32GB)
  • 6.33
    Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 3.0 (64GB)
  • 3.48
    Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB)

(Longer bars indicate better performance)

4K Random Writes (in MBps)

  • 0.31
    Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB)
  • 0.30
    Patriot Supersonic (32GB)
  • 0.11
    Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 3.0 (64GB)
  • 0.02
    Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB)

(Longer bars indicate better performance)


Obliteration. Of course, it's nowhere near the theoretical maximum of USB 3.0, but we never expect that to happen. The similarly priced Kingston HyperX DataTraveler looks like it's about to put in a fight for the sequential read speeds, but then loses faith after that.

All flash drives are not created equal, something proven by the Magnum. If you want capacity and performance in a USB stick, this one's a very good choice indeed.