Mach Xtreme MX-GX USB 3.0 16GB Flash Drive Review

USB 3.0 was released in the not so distant past and personally I feel that it never really took off at the pace that was hoped for. There is one reason why this happened, and one reason only. The interface was there, but the peripherals wasn’t and what good is a connection if you haven’t got the device to make full use of it?

Of course you could still use a USB 3.0 port to run slower USB 1.1/2.0 devices, but that defeats the whole object behind this new technology and its so-called blistering fast speed. Slowly over time though, manufacturers have caught up and started developing products to suit this newer, faster interface with the main one being USB flash drives.

USB flash drives is where USB 3.0 really has caught on and made a difference, as it relies on the speed of the interface to give the fastest read and write speeds possible for the drive itself.

You may remember the Sharkoon Flexi-Drive Extreme Duo that we looked at back in February which gave us some outstanding results and didn’t break the piggy bank to much either. Since then we were ever so keen on getting our hands on some more drives from different manufacturers to see exactly how they rate and if they live up to the hype behind the USB 3.0 marketing.

Today starts us off with a 16GB USB 3.0 flash drive from leading storage manufacturer; Mach Xtreme with their MX-GX which features quad-channel technology to give the highest transfer rate possible.

Specifications

[TABLE=class: grid, width: 100%]
[TR]
[TD]Model Name[/TD]
[TD]MXUB3MGX-16G[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Capacity[/TD]
[TD]16GB[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Interface Type[/TD]
[TD]USB 3.0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Dimension[/TD]
[TD]90.0 x 18.5 x 8.0mm (LxWxH)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Lightweight[/TD]
[TD]25g[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Max. Read Performance[/TD]
[TD]Up to 140MB/s* / [MX TurboFlash Mode][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Max. Write Performance[/TD]
[TD]Up to 30MB/s* / [MX TurboFlash Mode][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Hot Plug / Removal[/TD]
[TD]Support[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Low Power Consumption[/TD]
[TD]DC 5.5V / Idle: 1.2W Active: 3.3W[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Shock Resistant[/TD]
[TD]1,500G[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Vibration[/TD]
[TD]20G[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Altitude[/TD]
[TD]80,000ft[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Operating Temp.[/TD]
[TD]0℃ ~ +70℃[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]OS Support[/TD]
[TD]Windows 7 / Windows Vista / Windows XP / Windows 2000[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Certifications[/TD]
[TD]RoHS / FCC / CE / Windows 7[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Other features[/TD]
[TD]Supports MX TurboFlash utility / Compact Size[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Warranty[/TD]
[TD]2 Years[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]