Is This The Fastest USB Flash Drive? - SSK SD300

In this video we cover one of the fastest USB flash drives that you can buy right now. If you are looking for a USB Flash drive that is built much better and is much faster than your standard cheap flash drives this might be for you. In this video we look at the SSK SD300 USB Flash Drive (with both USB-A and USB-C connectors). So speed up your storage in this tiny external hard drive and get things done faster with consistent write and read speeds.
In this video we cover the following SSK Storage products:
SSD SD300 USB Flash Drive (USB-A and USB-C) - amzn.to/3sn8U1r
SSD SD500 External SSD Drive - amzn.to/3qMzCQB
Thanks for watching and please subscribe for more videos like this on all types of technology including SSD drives, Flash drives, enclosures, keyboards, Mac and Win, and more.
Please note that if you use a link above to purchase a product it's possible a very small percentage could go the the channel to help us create content. Thank you.

[@bryans8656]

I checked my flash drive speeds after watching this and the speeds were pathetic, so I just purchased the 512GB SSK SD300 using your link. Thanks for the "product showcase" 🙂

[@craigneidel]

They are much faster than most flash drives for sure. As you know I only do product showcases as I don't test these long term, but as far as speed goes they are quite different than a normal flash drive that costs like $10.

[@tfr]

Hi Craig, Just found your channel today through youtube recommendations. Right off the bat, really impressed with your commentary and review of this USB. Very unbiased and reliable. The editing of this video is also really great and in a style I personally appreciate Thanks for making great content, keep it up. I’ll be back for more!!

[@craigneidel]

Thank you and I appreciate the feedback. I have about 560 videos now if you wanted to check out the previous content and cover an entire range of stuff. I just like to try and cover topics or items that the larger players don't cover and it's fun and interesting to do that. Thanks again.

[@francescofarina5331]

Wow, this video couldn't have come at a better time. I was just about to purchase a USB pen drive at the same price, and I've already placed an order for one. Thank you!

[@craigneidel]

I only do product showcases as I don't test these long term but they are fast for sure when compared to the very cheap flash drives. Good luck with everything.

[@avgytenjoyer91]

As a DJ who relies. on small flash drives with my entire library of music in. alive music setting this could be a game changer

[@craigneidel]

They are cheap so give it a try and see if it works well.

[@theruckusdj]

Did you reformat it to Fat 32 to work with rekordbox? Did you find any speed reduction when you formatted it?

[@katokatokato4354]

You helped people with your expertise. Thank you.

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for the feedback and nice words.

[@hidefsteve]

Perfect timing, I just purchased a new phone and was looking for a type A flash drive. They all seem to run slow and bog down. This might fit the bill of what I'm looking for. Thanks! And thanks for the links.

[@craigneidel]

Thanks, I only do initial product showcases but so far this has worked good and is an option for much faster flash type storage. Thanks for watching.

[@eduardowatkinz]

Thanks --- Exceptional video.

[@craigneidel]

Thanks Eduardo. Appreciate it

[@TheProductCritiques]

Hey there, Thanks for sharing this detailed review of the SSK SD300 USB Flash Drive. It's great to see that you're showcasing products that don't always get the attention they deserve. The SD300 indeed seems like a remarkable device, especially considering its compact size and impressive performance. I have a few questions about it: 1. You mentioned that it's made of bulletproof metal and is quite heavy. How durable does it feel, and have you tested its resistance to physical damage? 2. The speed tests you conducted are promising, with consistent transfer rates. Have you had a chance to use it for larger data transfers, and did it maintain its speed over extended periods? 3. You mentioned that it can be used with different operating systems. Have you personally tested it with all of them, and did it work seamlessly? I appreciate your effort in highlighting lesser-known products, and I'm looking forward to any updates or further insights you might have on the SD300. Keep up the great work!

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't done any drop tests but its full thick metal which you can't bend at all. With larger transfers up to 50 GB (all I tested) it didn't drop in speed. With the OS it's from the website and I'm only using it on a Mac. I do product showcases not full reviews to show people what is out there but don't do all the tests on all systems. Thanks again for watching.

[@amangrayfilms1538]

Wow, thank you!

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for watching the channel.

[@BilatSlayer]

Im gonna buy that 1tb just for my rescue and ventoy 😂😂😂😂. Thanks for the vid man.

[@craigneidel]

Good luck. I always tell people I only do showcase videos as I don't test long term but from initial testing it has worked great and is fairly fast as you can see in the video. So far so good.

[@ignaciogranadosr6658]

HI, interesting video. I´m just wondering what format it comes in by default and if you would recommend formatting it to APFS for optimal performance on macs?

[@craigneidel]

It comes in exfat pre-formatted. I tried in APFS and close to same speeds. Thanks.

[@TheRealPots]

Finally a real person and not some AI generated robot voice talking to me.😅

[@craigneidel]

Thanks, yes I'm worried about all the AI videos people are making. Hopefully KZbin let's real people show up before AI stuff but we will see. Thanks for watching the channel.

[@YannMetalhead]

Good video!

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for watching the channel.

[@thomas1699]

Looks good. How does the SSK external NVME compare with the SK Hynix Beetle?

[@craigneidel]

@@thomas1699 I have never tried beetle before so I can't comment but thatnks for watching the channel.

[@Mr.WS6]

When your formatted the drive, what allocation unit size did you use?

[@craigneidel]

I use largest like 256 or 512 etc

[@jamesmcrae9238]

Like a lot of people we have a couple of Macbook Pros that we now find have too small of ssd disk drives. At what speed would these thumb drives have to be to be a viable alternative to having a larger disk drive installed?

[@craigneidel]

It all depends. I mean anything over about around 600 to 800 MB/s is fast enough for most things and even some light video editing. They make other enclosures much faster like 3,300 MB/s to match the speed of the Mac's internal drives but those are more expensive. I have a video on those on my channel too.

[@LordAlucar01]

that sounds good, how does it compare to external ssd/nvme speed? i may pick one up if it is also full metal, i own two sticks right now but basically i stoped using them since i use external nvme, but i still use it for backup in case i lose nvme drive since it runs 24/7.

[@craigneidel]

I had the speed in there so you can compare to external ssds. They are faster than normal $10 flash drives for sure and yes are full metal.

[@ticrene2059]

I got the SSK SD300, when I see the flashID information, I see that it is of the "QLC" type, which makes me doubt its consistency. I want to know your opinion about it, how reliable are these devices with this QLC architecture/technology?

[@craigneidel]

So far mine has been solid. Let me know if you run into any issues.

[@KingKasanova]

would this be better or an external SSD to edit videos off, install Mac apps etc

[@craigneidel]

Most likely a thunderbolt enclosure would be better for that.

[@backfilms1953]

Hi Craig.. I own this ssk sd300 and i also own a corsair voyager gtx. Please try and buy it and do a review between both. Both are very similar. Both made from metal. Both very fast

[@craigneidel]

I can check the other one out. Thanks.

[@dwarvenaled]

I'm running a sandisk 130mb/s but its blazing fast cause I run tiny 10 windows so I can play games or whatever without almost no lag. A few extra registry tweaks and its golden. I like that faster one though I might check it out.

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for the info and for watching the video.

[@a2amali]

Excellent Channel, could not find the link to 1TB drive

[@craigneidel]

It's possible the 1 tb is sold out but I'll let you know if I can find anything.

[@id104335409]

I was wondering whats going on with flash drives? Are they disappearing? Is anyone making new better flash druves? With the coming of m.2 ssds it lookes like people started using them instead of flash drives and external ssds and hdds. So, is the flash drive dead? Are we going to be using cheap usb2 flash drives to copy files from one pc to another or a printer or a different devise? Because you dont need an m.2 ssd to copy a file to show in class or to bring to to your laptop or to print something real quick. But we dont seem to get any development for flash storage. Or nobody is talking about it atleast.

[@craigneidel]

Most flash storage is about 20 MB/s and pretty cheap. Those are fine for non-critical data and fast movements of data from time to time. This drive is much faster but still not as fast as an external M.2 in most cases. This is still a great option for quick transfers of maybe larger files but maybe not the best choice for long-term large storage of files. But worlds better than the standard cheap $10 flash drives you can buy.

[@JamesBond-cj5qj]

I noticed they had another version of the usb flash drive that seems faster. SSK Extreme 500GB SSD USB C Stick up to 1000MB/s,Fast Thumb Drive. Would you suggest this one more.?

[@craigneidel]

I haven't tested that one so can't say for sure. I would say you can try it and return if it doesn't work for you. Most of there other drives have been fairly good.

[@ArmanOssiLoko]

Any idea (since about a year has passed) on how long lasting it is?

[@craigneidel]

Still working fine for me. I don't use it all the time and just to transfer files on and off when I work remotely but so far it's working good.

[@theruckusdj]

Would the speed slow if I reformatted to Fat 32?

[@craigneidel]

Should be very close

[@NoEgg4u]

That SD300 drive appears to have very good performance. However, 5GB might not be enough to determine if the drive will maintain its fast speed. Nearly all (probably all) consumer level SSDs are built with two different types of NAND cells. From fastest to slowest (also corresponds from most expensive to least expensive): SLC, MLC, TLC, and QLC NAND cells. Manufacturers often include between 2% to 10% of the drive's capacity with a faster verity of NAND cells, and then the remaining portion of the drive will almost always be QLC. That allows the manufacturer to claim high speeds. But the manufacturer does not state that their SSDs turn into a slug when the fast NAND cells are full. When the SSD is not busy (which is most of the time), its controller transfers the data from the fast NAND cells to the slow NAND cells. So the customer nearly never sees slow performance. But if you write enough data to the SSD, without rest, you will eventually fill up the fast NAND cells (akin to filling up the the SSD's cache), and the SSD will be forced to write directly to the slow NAND cells, and that is when we see the performance drop off a cliff. Eventually, the fast NAND cells will become free, and the fast performance will return. I am looking for a fast USB flash drive that will not empty my wallet. I do not need warp speed; just reasonably fast speed, such as sustained 100 MB/s write speed, which the SD300 far exceeded. But for how long? There are times when I will write 35 GB, or more, and do not want the drive to slow down -- or at least not have it slow down by too much. The read speed should remain fast, even for the QLC section of the drive (read operations tend to always be fast for SSDs). It is the write speed that suffers when the QLC section is being written to. Would you be able to test the write speed with 25 GB, or more, to see if the SD300 slows down -- and if it does slow down, then to what speed does it slow down to? Thank you.

[@craigneidel]

For sure. I did test it up to about 20 GB so far without slowdowns but hasn't had a need much larger than that yet. If I do I'll post it and let you know. Thanks for watching and for the post.

[@CorradoGiannone]

Ho comprato una di queste da 1tb gran bella chiavetta. Dopo un anno ha smesso di funzionare con 600gb di dati dentro senza dare avvisaglie, dati irrecuperabili (me ne servirebbe una piccola parte). La parte usb funziona ma la parte sata ssd no. Ho chiesto supporto alla SSK, non mi hanno mai risposto. Comprate altro più affidabile tipo Adata o Kingstone almeno si faranno vivi col supporto. Secondo consiglio, comprate un disco affidabile e una enclosure con adattatore, almeno dovreste riuscire ad avere meno possibilità di rotture e più possibilità di riparazione non essendoci componenti saldate.

[@TeArepaAbraham]

Great find and Awesome video! 'But' At the end of the day, you're comparing an external sata ssd to a usb thumb drive. Clearly two different pieces of technology.. When it comes to a thumb drive, I wouldn't be too picky with what I put on it, how I use it and it wouldn't bother me so much if I had to replace it. The portable ssd on the other hand, I'd treat with a bit more care, put a little more thought into how I use it and would be a bit upset if I lost it or had to buy another. I mean, you wouldn't constantly use a portable ssd as a bootable usb drive for loading Operating Systems right?

[@craigneidel]

It's less than $20 and flash drive size so I'm qualifying it as a flash drive etc. Yes, the tech is slightly different but for the cost (so cheap) I think this is the way to go for sure. Thanks for watching and the nice words.

[@TheFandangovideoguy]

hi there....fabulous...have you tried the SK 512GB Dual USB C Flash Drive, 2-in-1 External USB 3.2 Gen2? It's a USB drive and it has USB C on one end and regular USB A at the other...I wonder if it is really fast for video recording with my new iphone 15 pro max...easier to carry thanmy Samsung T7 SSD. Also I want to keep the weight to a minimum so that I can use the drive attached to the phone while on a small gimbal like the DJI Mobile 6 which can only carry 290grams. Thanks

[@craigneidel]

The drive in video has a small connector to change from USBC or USBA. I think it would work good for what you described.

[@TheFandangovideoguy]

Hi there...well....on paper it looks good for sure-not as fast as the SSD but more compact and easier to attach. I have a Samsung SSD and I have glued a magnetic ring on the back to make it stick magnetically to the case I use with my iphone 15 promax but a small flash drive would be nice...The only way to know for sure is to get it, run black magic speed test and see what it can do. Numbers don't lie! I think I will try it and report.@@craigneidel

[@craigneidel]

Yes, you can always return it if it doesn't work well for you. Remember though they are not expensive drives but just much better than a standard Flash drive.

[@TheFandangovideoguy]

@@craigneidel I will get it this week and I will try it. Might just be fast enough for my uses. But I see that Samsung has released a T9 SSD which is twice as fast as the t7! I will replace all my lacie hard drives with SSDs ...one day!

[@craigneidel]

Yes, this is a different thing then the T9. This is basically an advanced flash drive and the size is what you are getting this for. The T9 is a full sized external SSD.

[@Cville2347]

I use small cheap 32 G USB drives in my Honda to listen to music. They work just fine but I wonder if this drive would work as well?

[@jorianburssens]

why wouldn't it work? You wouldn't gain much since music doesn't really care about speed. Putting new songs on it would be fast tho haha.

[@Cville2347]

@@jorianburssens Speed is not an issue. My older Honda is very picky about what is compatible and will properly play in the car. Some drives work well but others not so much. I guess it is the age of technology that is in the car.

[@xm09bit]

not have reason for use that in old car, old car have USB 2.0 or 3.0 often that USB 3.2 Gen2, flash not will faster on USB 2.0 or 3.0.

[@jorianburssens]

@@Cville2347 i would think it's more related to the partition table, like MBR or GPT?

[@jorianburssens]

@@xm09bit usb 3.0 already does 5gig, 3.2 doesn't really help much...

[@asan1050]

Craig!, ThanksMuch! ,どうもありがとうございます。

[@craigneidel]

Thanks - now in two languages.

[@SirDadbod]

Why not just use a nvme with enclosure at 7400mb read 6400 write speed for less than 90 bucks and 500gb storage?

[@craigneidel]

You can't get anywhere close to those speeds even with 120 dollar thunderbolt 4 enclosure. Maybe 2700 MB/s at best but both are at least 150 dollars. This isn't in same price point

[@mohdsaadrosbandiroslan8372]

Good product sir...otg pendrive

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for watching.

[@Robin_0011]

I want to store photos and videos. Will the SKK last me for years?

[@craigneidel]

I have only had it six months. No way to know

[@HydroTech23]

Is there USB Flash drive with Speeds of 2000 MB/s Or suggest a Fastest USB Flash Drive with Type C

[@craigneidel]

This is the fastest flash drive I have tested. Of course I have tested Thunderbolt 4 enclosures that go to 2,900 MB/s so check those out on my channel.

[@user-le5tl8wf2e]

have you ever heard about transcend esd310c or esd310s it has almost 970 MB/s read, and 900 MB/s write speed.

[@craigneidel]

I will need to check those out in the future.

[@backfilms1953]

No one is interested in transgender usb drives. They confused with speeds

[@kyledupont7711]

I can't even believe those speeds are possible wow

[@craigneidel]

It's pretty fast for a little flash sized drive.

[@TA-op3vn]

You should have tried Kingston DataTraveler Max 1TB USB-C Flash Drive with USB 3.2 Gen It supports to blow away any competition and it came out long tae ago

[@craigneidel]

I can't make a video on everything. I just do product showcases to show what's out there but can take a look. There are so many options in this space.

[@backfilms1953]

Me and a few friend had that product from Kingston. It struggled with speeds. It's not even fast at all. Lol. There is a reason Kingston is 7th on the fastest external harddrive rankings. SSK blows it out the water easy work 😂

[@65typthomastay]

Notice the review on Amazon on this SSK brand is not reliable after months of usage. Perhaps due to heat?

[@craigneidel]

I have been using it and still works great. Much better than 95 percent of other flash drives which is what I'm comparing it to. So far no issues.

[@UmitSeyhan75]

@@craigneidel Please make a new video like "6 months of experience" with it, so we can see whether it lives up to the claims in the long term.

[@craigneidel]

I'll see what I can do.

[@unknownuser-fy5gy]

yeah, the problem is that most of these USBs heat up to 70 degrees somehow, that can't last long 😬

[@craigneidel]

So far so good but I'll keep you updated.

[@OlajubuOlatubosun]

6 months later, any update?

[@craigneidel]

Still working good for me.

[@igortube]

Don't want to sound bad, but the box of this product says this is an ssd drive (albeit small) and not a "flash drive". From my experience they're not exactly the same. motherboards don't like installing windows from external ssd's and are real stubborn about it (I've tried using guides and so on formatting a partition to fat32 etc installing the iso), which is why people install windows from flash drives/flash cards (which goes smoothly). Another thing is devices like 3D printers will only read flash drives not external ssd's even with correct formatting, sometimes only usb 2 rated ones. Raspberry pi's will also treat them differently unless it's only for reading data. Labelling this as a "flash drive" is kinda misleading as real world use-cases will be very different.

[@craigneidel]

I would read the Amazon page to see if it will do what you need it to do. I was just saying this is much better than a flash drive and not much more money - plus way faster if you need the smaller size.

[@erickperdomo277]

Has anyone tried this for video with an iphone 15 pro max recording pro res HQ in log? That will be the ultimate test

[@craigneidel]

I have not tried that but if I get time will let you know. If anybody else did this please post here.

[@erickperdomo277]

@@craigneidelthanks again. I will be waiting for it

[@craigneidel]

Woops I though you said you were waiting for the drive to come in. Funny, I didn't mean good luck with my response. Funny. Anyhow yes if I find it I'll let you know.

[@Gaara7809]

Macbook Pro mid 2014 : Write 370mb/s Read 386mb/s . I`ve read that it has USB ports that handle 5gbit/s. Did I miss something.? Still Im happy about the purchase. Speeds are stable through whole proces. 5 Gb in less than 45 seconds.

[@craigneidel]

Bits and bits my fried.. 5 Gbps divide by 8 = 500 MB/s. That is as fast as possible on 5 Gbps speed. But with overhead of connections and silicon the 370 is about right.

[@Gaara7809]

@@craigneidel maybe on new Mac I could get 500 mb 🥹

[@craigneidel]

Maybe but most are in the 400s

[@Gaara7809]

@@craigneidel but on new Mac u got USB-c ports

[@craigneidel]

I think that is a common speed for the 2014s. I would not expect too much more from those ports.

[@Mr.SharkTooth-zc8rm]

👍

[@craigneidel]

Thanks

[@Mr.SharkTooth-zc8rm]

@@craigneidel 🖖

[@atlantic_love]

@@craigneidel Don't pick him up. All of my thumb drives are gone now.

[@captaincavemonkey]

Good luck getting a hold of support for when this short lived QLC drive dies. Might be good short term, but this this is not safe to store data on long term, especially if you write to it a bunch.

[@craigneidel]

I have a Samsung QLC that I boot off of on my 2017 iMac and have created 550 4K videos on that (hundreds of TB of data or more). Still perfect. Yes, in this video I'm talking about a Flash drive and one for less than like $20 bucks. I'm comparing this to the garbage flash drives most people get and this is 100 times better then those. Would I use it to store data for backups, maybe not, but it's use is moving files back and forth quickly is the best one. I hope that helps.

[@user-ty2uz4gb7v]

They should have made it double ended, USBC on one end and usbA on the other. Missed opportunity.

[@craigneidel]

That would be nice but at least they provided the dongle.

[@chrisy4011]

Otg drive. I neve a few and they're a godsend especially for drivers on the go, (see what I did there).

[@Mulagat-]

They have that model ... Try to check on that 2 in 1 usb C and usb A ...

[@colinbell7960]

They do an SSK SD301 model... USB A one side , USB C on the other side. Looks a bit bigger though.

[@ppSnow]

I call that the "dumb conversion" from A to C instead of make it c and give an c to a adapter. With everything going e type c, there is no much reason to still develop and ship USB A devices. Would've Been nice to see very small disk with only USB c, and I mean the size of your cable connector.

[@savedfaves]

All thumb drive shaped flash drives should be dual-USB.

[@craigneidel]

Yes, and one option is to just get a usb-A to Usb-C changer and you can use it on most any device. They are only a few bucks.

[@savedfaves]

@@craigneidel It would work but I hate product dongles and add-ons. I want the drive itself to do both.

[@craigneidel]

@@savedfaves yeah but few do so having connector is only option normally

[@fellow_lurker]

I think that is big enough😢

[@craigneidel]

Not sure what you are saying

[@fellow_lurker]

@@craigneidel you kept saying that the flash drive is small, but i think its big enough 😔

[@craigneidel]

Ok, it's basically the size of a stick of gum and not really a flash drive. It's really an SSD with the performance as it's more than 10 times as fast as flash drives.

[@atlantic_love]

That's what she said.

[@The_Supreme_Savage]

Now they have 2tb

[@craigneidel]

Yeah, but I like to get the smaller sizes for like $20 or $30 and use it as a flash drive. For the heavy lifting I like to use the Thunderbolt enclosures. Thanks for the tip and also for watching the channel. Appreciate it for sure.

[@commenter6441]

LA Galaxy 😂

[@craigneidel]

Ok.

[@dianagomez9952]

First

[@craigneidel]

You were