Kingston Launches HyperX External USB 3.0 SSDs

If you're packing a USB 3.0 PC, then you likely have the need for speed. SSDs are clearly on our list of things that make our computers go faster, but those are already sitting happily in our internal SATA interfaces.

Kingston has a solution for those wanting to make their USB 3.0 fly, and that is with the just-made-official HyperX MAX external SSD. We first laid eyes on this product in its early stages back in June of this year during our tour of the Kingston factory, but now the product is finished and ready to ship in December.

The HyperX MAX 3.0 has a read speed of up to 195MB/sec., and a write speed of up to 160MB/sec., when paired with a USB 3.0 compatible device. It is also fully compatible with USB 2.0 devices, but the speed defaults back to USB 2.0 capability.

During Kingston's internal testing, a 10GB movie file was transferred in 1 minute, 12 seconds to the HyperX MAX 3.0 from a USB 3.0 system. On a USB 2.0 port on the same system, however, the transfer time increased to 5 minutes, 52 seconds.

HyperX MAX 3.0 is available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities at $222, $365, and $743, respectively.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • amk09
    why so expensive :(
    Reply
  • why so expensive
    Why so serious?
    Reply
  • apache_lives
    hyper(e)X(pensive) is true, for a device you can just loose or drop, not at that price no thankyou
    Reply
  • kscr7
    omg
    Reply
  • Ragnar-Kon
    $600 for the top end model I can see. I can even see sort-of-kind-of see $650 since it is one of the first USB 3.0 SSD external-only drives, and you gotta add on the Kingston HyperX tax anyway. But $743? Really?

    I think I'll just stick with my old-fashion spinning hard disks for now.
    Reply
  • dEAne
    not bad but expensive though
    Reply
  • beans4you
    SICK! lets take advantage of this 3.0 already!
    Reply
  • amstech
    Why so expensive?
    Cause they are FAST. Real fast.
    I have an OCZ Agility 2 and it was worth every penny.

    WoW loads in seconds.
    Reply
  • lotri
    They're also brand-new. Price will drop over time, of course.
    Reply
  • rohitbaran
    lotriThey're also brand-new. Price will drop over time, of course.As if it has dropped on other SSDs.
    Reply