Page 2 - A Closer Look, Test System
As we saw with the Patriot Supersonic Rage XT, the Supersonic Rage 2 holds a similar cap less design. The body slides back to reveal the USB plug. As for aesthetics, Patriot has stuck with a blue and black coloring scheme. This again does not stray far from the Supersonic Rage XT, or even a few of Patriot's other USB 3.0 offerings. All of the black parts of the Rage 2 are coated with a soft-touch rubber-like finish, which really stands out compared to similar products. This is a similar trend we have seen in other products, such as the Func MS-2. As both of these products are felt primarily by the hand, I am glad Patriot added this coating. The sliding part is a smooth, while the back-end is textured for a better tactile feel. A blue plastic portion is revealed when the USB end is hidden, and this part is the same hard plastic without any rubber coat. With this design, users will never lose their cap, since there is no cap to lose. However a side effect of this is displayed when plugging it in. When a user pushes the flash storage into the port, they will need push from the back-end, rather than the sliding portion, or else the plug will close on itself. Otherwise, looking around, one side shows the model name and the capacity of the drive, while the other displays the company's name. The back-end has a small hole, presumably for a lanyard, but the Rage 2 does not come with one. It would be nice to see, as this product is so small, but it is not a big deal either.
The above picture shows the Patriot Supersonic Rage 2 retracted and viewed from the other side. As for dimensions, it seems Patriot took the original Rage XT and put it on a Jenny Craig diet. The result is a physically smaller drive with significantly larger internal storage capacity. Measuring at 53mm in length, 21mm in width, and almost 10mm in thickness, this drive is quite compact. It is not as small as some of the OTG drives we have seen, like the Patriot Stellar, but this is understandable, since the Rage 2 is made for performance and capacity. Otherwise, the only other thing to note is something you cannot observe until the Rage 2 is plugged in. There is a small red LED indicator light hidden near the back of the drive, which lights up to show read and write activity. I am glad Patriot has kept this feedback light from the Rage XT, as some of our recent drives seem to omit this.
As we have seen, the Patriot Supersonic Rage 2 is an excellent display of design. The cap less feature is implemented well for the most part, and the smooth rubber is something I will not stop talking about. On an aside, if any manufacturer adds a soft-rubber touch to any of their products, I will give you fifty respect points, haha. However, this is all just one side of the Rage 2, with the performance being the other. What happens when we run the Supersonic Rage 2 256GB through our suite of speed tests? I sure hope Patriot can deliver on both the looks and the substance. Let us find out if it performs as well as its packaging suggest.
Our test configuration is as follows:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K (Stock settings)
CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-U9S
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87X-D3H
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury HX318C10FK2/16 2x8GB
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB
Chassis: Fractal Design Core 3300
Power: Cooler Master V1000 1000W
Optical Drive: LiteOn iHAS124-04 24X DVD Writer
Hard Drive: Patriot Blaze 240GB, Patriot Ignite 480GB, Western Digital Blue EZEX 1TB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional x64
Compared Hardware:
- Patriot Supersonic Rage 2 256GB (USB 3.0)
- ADATA DashDrive Durable HD650 500GB (USB 3.0)
- ADATA DashDrive Elite UE700 64GB (USB 3.0)
- ADATA DashDrive HV620 1TB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G2 32GB (USB 2.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 32GB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 32GB (USB 2.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G2 32GB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 32GB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy 3.0 32GB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston HyperX Fury 64GB (USB 3.0)
- OCZ Rally2 Turbo 4GB (USB 2.0)
- Patriot Supersonic Magnum 64GB (USB 3.0)
- Patriot Supersonic Rage XT 32GB (USB 3.0)
- Patriot Stellar 64GB (USB 3.0)
- Silicon Power Armor A30 1TB (USB 3.0)
- Silicon Power Blaze B05 64GB (USB 3.0)
- Silicon Power Diamond D06 1TB (USB 3.0)
- Silicon Power Jewel J80 32GB (USB 3.0)
- Silicon Power Marvel M70 64GB (USB 3.0)
- Silicon Power Mobile X31 32GB (USB 3.0)
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 4.60
8. Conclusion
