Kingston HyperX Max 3.0 External USB Drive taps USB 3.0

By Geoff Duncan Published November 22, 2010

Memory and storage developer Kingston is getting into the market for USB 3.0 SSD drives, announcing its new HyperX Max 3.0 External USB 3.0 drive. Although compatible with everyday USB 2.0 (and even USB 1.1) devices, the SSD drive really shines when connected to a USB 3-capable computer: Kingston claims in its testing the drive transfered 10 GB of data in 72 seconds, compared to 352 seconds (almost six minutes) using USB 2.0 on the same test system.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

“The HyperX Max 3.0 External USB 3.0 Drive follows the tradition of Kingston’s HyperX enthusiast DRAM family providing users with premium quality and extreme performance,” said Kingston USB product manager Andrew Ewing, in a statement. “In addition to portability and speed, users will be pleased with the durability of this drive.”

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Kingston says the drives can manage up to 195 MB/sec reading and up to 160 MB/sec writing. Kingston is touting the HyperX Max 3.0 drives as good solutions for folks who need to transfer and back up oodles of HD video, RAW high-resolution photographs, and large creative projects. Since SSD drives have no moving parts, they’re particularly suited to portable use and being carted around. They also consume comparatively little power—4.5 watts in operation—and feature a convenient color-coded LED indicator: green means a pokey USB 2.0 connection, while blue means USB 3.0.

Kingston hasn’t announced pricing on the drives—leaving that up to retail partners, presumably—but says they’ll be available in 64, 128, and 256 GB capacities this December. The drives are compatible with Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista Vista, and Windows 7.

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