Conclusion
It can be clearly seen that Kingston HyperX MAX 3.0 External USB 3.0 (64GB) clearly outperforms the USB 2.0 bridging SSD. In our benchmarks, this device works well with both NEC and Etrontech controllers with Etrontech edging by up 7% ahead of the NEC controller.
If were to compare to the speeds obtained by a standalone Kingston Value series SSD drive 216MB/s (read), 177MB/s (write) using SATAII interface, the USB 3.0 speeds is still a bit behind due to bridging USB3<->SATA3 in the enclosure. The performance is also slightly behind the Sunbeamtech USB 3.0 docking station we reviewed sometime ago.
Nevertheless, we see an improvement over USB 2.0 enclosure. Although we like it as a portable device that speeds up data transfer, we would prefer to be able to remove the SSD inside as and when we like. As a USB 3.0 drive, it definitely speeds up file transfers and it is also backward compatible to USB 2.0.
We recommend it as it is portable and do not require additional power supply.
