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USB Review: Kingston DTX/64GB

November 13, 2022 — ~rawktucc

I recently purchased some new USB drives as my existing ones are USB 2.0 only.
Here’s some testing I did for the other one of them, the Kingston Exodia USB 3.2 (DTX), 64GB model.

Specifications

  • Part Number: DTX/64GB
  • Dimensions (L x W x H): 67.3mm x 21.04mm x 10.14mm
  • Weight: 11g
  • Interface: USB 3.2 Gen 1
  • Performance: Not listed on the product page
  • Warranty: 5-year limited
  • Local purchase price: $5.99 or $12.99 CDN (+13% HST tax)

Testing Configuration

  • Test System: Sony Vaio Laptop - Windows 7 SP1 x64
  • USB Driver: Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller/Root Hub
  • Driver Date: 23/04/2010
  • Driver Version: 2.0.4.0
  • Drive Advertised Space: 64GB
  • Drive Real Space: 58GiB free (FAT32 default Win 7 allocation)

Reliability Test

Tested using h2testw v1.4.

image of h2testw results

  • PASSED. Device is the full 64GB capacity as advertised.
  • WARNING: Only 59002 of 59003 MByte tested. Test finished without errors.
  • Writing speed: 11.8 MByte/s
  • Reading speed: 57.2 MByte/s

Speed Test

Tested using CrystalDiskMark 8.0.1 x64 as an admin

CrystalDiskMark results txt

crystaldiskmark results

  • Test run was 5 passes of 1GiB
  • SEQ1M/Q8T1 > Read: 76.556MB/s | Write: 36.910MB/s
  • SEQ1M/Q1T1 > Read: 75.703MB/s | Write: 36.704MB/s
  • RND4K/Q32T1 > Read: 10.418MB/s | Write: 0.044MB/s
  • RND4K/Q1T1 > Read: 8.719MB/s | Write: 0.018MB/s
Wait.. WHAT? Those 4K results can't be accurate. I know USBs are slow for that kind of thing, but this is rough. Let's rerun this...

CrystalDiskMark test 2, results txt

crystaldiskmark results

  • Test run was 5 passes of 1GiB
  • SEQ1M/Q8T1 > Read: 77.184MB/s | Write: 36.912MB/s
  • SEQ1M/Q1T1 > Read: 76.343MB/s | Write: 36.703MB/s
  • RND4K/Q32T1 > Read: 10.544MB/s | Write: 0.041MB/s
  • RND4K/Q1T1 > Read: 8.700MB/s | Write: 0.018MB/s

Final Opinions

This is a very poor USB drive. This drive functions best as a Write-Once, Read Many drive. It is PAINFUL trying to write data, especially lots of tiny random files. This drive also gets really hot, and has poor cooling capabilities since it's mainly plastic. I'm sure this doesn't help with performance overall.
That all said, it IS a cheap drive. So if you need a bunch of portable storage to shuttle data around, or bring to a friends house, this is a good option. Not reliable or fast though.

And reposting what I mentioned in my ADATA review:
It’s mainly disappointing though that write speeds for portable USBs continue to be so poor. Realistically, for fast writes, you’re best off with a dedicated NVME or SSD external. Heck, a portable NVME unit can not only be thin and portable, but insanely fast if connected to proper interfaces.

All in all, I cannot recommend this drive. :-1:

tags: usb-review, kingston, windows