Introduction
Fast and small is good, right? At least that’s how it works in the computer world. And USB flash drives are no different; we like them fast for data transfer, but also come in a small package. Indeed, the best of both worlds. But the typical USB 2.0 speeds have proven woefully inadequate to address increasingly large files and storage capacities, as we seem to have less and less time to wait for something as simple as a file transfer.
This is where USB 3.0 comes into play. Replacing the glacially slow USB 2.0 as the go-to standard of choice for those who want speed, USB 3.0 boasts huge speed increases that can allow us those faster transfer speeds we want, while still maintaining large capacity and highly portable nature of those ubiquitous flash drives.

And this brings us to today’s topic of discussion: the Patriot Supersonic Rage XT and Boost XT USB 3.0 flash drives. Sporting a USB 3.0 interface to improve performance, these little drives pack 32GB of capacity onto a form factor that can fit onto your key ring.
But what about performance? Around here, we think Performance is King, and we’ve heard people complain these large capacity flash drives are slow as molasses in a Canadian winter. Just how fast is USB 3.0? Well, we put these Patriot drives to the test to find out.