My favorite SSD stick, SK hynix's speedy 2TB Tube T31, is down to $118, an all-time low price

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

My personal favorite flash drive, and the best flash drive we've tested, SK hynix's Tube T31, is down to a new low price of $118 at Amazon. It's one of the fastest USB-A flash drives we've ever tested and a great choice for people looking for a convenient storage solution that is compact and plugs right into any USB Type-A port, while delivering great performance. It's technically a tiny external SSD, but the Tube T31 keeps the familiar (and handily cable-free) USB flash drive form factor.

The Tube T31 2TB flash drive is 26% off, taking it down to a new low price of $118. And if you want to spend less and don't need 2TB, the 1TB Tube T31 is also down to $59, although that's not a new low price.

While some will prefer USB-C, the Tube T31's ultra-prevalent USB Type-A connector makes it easy to use with a host of everyday computing devices, as well as consoles, and it's a great backup or offline data transfer tool.

I reviewed the 1TB Tube T31 in 2024 and gave it an Editor's Choice award for its performance. It's a little bulky for a flash drive, and could block neighboring USB ports, particularly on a desktop. But most laptops should have adjacent USB-C ports spaced far enough apart. And the Tube T31 did deliver class-leading performance compared to its peers and, turning in some of the fastest transfer speeds available for a 10 Gbps USB-A drive.

The SK hynix Tube T31 is a bit bulky compared to competing drives from Kingston and Teamgroup. — (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The SK hynix Tube T31 2TB uses its impressive performance to blur the lines between external SSDs and flash drives in terms of both speed and capacity. It uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A connector, making it compatible with basically any recent device with a USB-A port, and utilizes the full 10 Gbps data bandwidth available, providing speeds of up to 1,000MB/s when transferring your data.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

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After a rough start with the Mattel Aquarius as a child, Matt built his first PC in the late 1990s and ventured into mild PC modding in the early 2000s. He’s spent the last 15 years covering emerging technology for Smithsonian, Popular Science, and Consumer Reports, while testing components and PCs for Computer Shopper, PCMag and Digital Trends.

With contributions from

Stewart BendleDeals Writer

5 Comments Comment from the forums

bit_user

IMO, what's most intriguing about this product is how it's basically a M.2 2242 NVMe drive attached via USB adapter.

Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/usb-flash-drives/my-favorite-ssd-stick-sk-hynixs-speedy-2tb-tube-t31-is-down-to-usd118-an-all-time-low-price#xenforo-comments-3886483
That M.2 drive seems to be a very decent SSD. AFAICT, it's basically an OEM version of SK Hynix's P31 Gold, which uses TLC. That said, I wouldn't be too surprised if the manufacturer changed the precise model of M.2 drive they're now putting in these tubes, though I hope it's at least still a TLC model.
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Li Ken-un

bit_user said:
IMO, what's most intriguing about this product is how it's basically a M.2 2230 NVMe drive attached via USB adapter.
bit_user said:
That said, I wouldn't be too surprised if the manufacturer changed the precise model of M.2 drive they're now putting in these tubes
If they haven’t changed the internal design (🤞), I believe these USB drives contain one of the very few small form factor M.2 SSDs which have embedded DRAM instead of using HMB. I’ve done a very exhaustive search (including industrial SSDs) and SKHynix is the only SSD manufacturer that makes any M.2 2230 SSD this small with DRAM. The one inside of these USB drives are 2242 as shown in Tom’s Hardware’s tear-down, but they come in 2230 form factor as well (used in other OEM devices). All are part of the SK Hynix BC711 series. If this 2 TB model continues the same design from the 1 TB whether it is the same or new M.2 series, I’m holding out hope that the M.2 2230 versions are also floating out there somewhere. Folks have confirmed that the 1 TB ones have DRAM in a few places.
Reply
bit_user

Li Ken-un said:
If they haven’t changed the internal design (🤞), I believe these USB drives contain one of the very few small form factor M.2 SSDs which have embedded DRAM instead of using HMB.
I got one for my Raspberry Pi 5. It ticked all the boxes: low cost, low power, decent performance (plenty for the Pi 5, at least), and not QLC.

Li Ken-un said:
The one inside of these USB drives are 2242 as shown in Tom’s Hardware’s tear-down, but they come in 2230 form factor as well
Thanks! Fixed.

Li Ken-un said:
I’m holding out hope that the M.2 2230 versions are also floating out there somewhere.
The one I got for my Pi is a 128 GB 2230 form factor. It's not retail-packaged, obviously.
Reply
spoidz

Hmm, I'm currently using Sabrent NVME Enclosures with DIY cooling holes drilled into them (really dropped sustained Temps - holes are above the Controller area where there is no heat-sink contact) and various 2-4TB NVME drives for relatives Macrium backups (5 PC + 3 Laptops).

Was going to update all my enclosures to the same 4 TB NVME Drives with hopefully Black Friday Sales (Tariffs Willing) but I wonder if these could handle the Macrium Backups heat wise instead?

Talking about up to 1TB sustained backup writes.
Reply
bit_user

spoidz said:
Hmm, I'm currently using Sabrent NVME Enclosures with DIY cooling holes drilled into them (really dropped sustained Temps - holes are above the Controller area where there is no heat-sink contact)
Oooh! Speed holes!
: D
I like drilling holes in stuff, too. Added some "speed holes" to a passively-cooled multi-gig switch, recently.
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