Mach Xtreme MX-ES Ultra SLC USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review (64GB)

 REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS

Traditionally, the common complaint many have had with flash drives was that they seemed to fail when needed most.  This his changed somewhat but the consumer should realize that those flash drives that accompany product packaging or are bought at little or no cost are just that; cheap flash drives using components that would never be used in a quality product.  You get what you pay for and, at least in the last few years, we are finding flash drives that cost a bit more but can be trusted to store information without fail; they contain quality parts.

Some of these drives even reach SATA 3 speeds of 400MB/s or faster, and the price that you will pay for these high-speed flash drives is commensurate with the need.  The unfortunate reality of flash technology, however, is that the consumer has been sold on purchasing products of the highest performance, although they either cannot, or will not reach those advertised speeds.  This is always seen within SSDs where those phenomenal advertised 550MB/s are ever really reached by the consumer less than 1% of the time.  Don’t get us wrong; speed is an important factor when you understand your own data transfer needs and the 210MB/s speeds of the MX-ES Ultra will suffice perfectly for 99% of all user scenarios.

Our next question is whether there is a market need for a SLC flash drive and we believe there definitely is. This flash drive is the ideal flash drive for the industry professional who needs that confidence that there will be as little chance as possible of a failure and trusting SLC, rather than MLC or TLC does just that.  SLC is simply the most reliable and high endurance memory money can by, and that why it is ‘typically’ so expensive.  We would expect nothing less than the included 5 year warranty from this flash drive, although we are absolutely certain this will last much longer and the life span of any other flash drive on the market will pale in comparison.

Last but not least, pricing will always be an important factor in product success, and this drive is making its appearance at $2/GB.  Quite frankly this isn’t bad considering the cost of manufacturing leans heavily on SLC memory for that improved reliability and endurance.  At just over $100 for the largest 64GB capacity, we are certain that there are many in the industry that will happily grab one of these for their most valuable data.  After all, Mach Xtreme has gone that extra length with the solid metal case, making this drive impact resistant, and also able to weather extreme low and high temperature fluctuations.

Check Out Mach Xtreme SLC Flash Drive Pricing at Amazon