Mach Xtreme Barium 64GB USB-C Flash Drive Review

TweakTown's Rating: 89%

The Bottom Line

MX Technology's Barium is a solid value USB drive for consumers offering high performance over two connections with plenty of capacity options, even for enthusiasts.

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It's been a couple of months since I had the time to check out a new flash drive in the lab, especially with all the new HDD launches that have been swamping me among other things. Today, I have the latest offering from Mach Xtreme (MX Technology). I last tested a drive from them way back in September of 2014, so it's been awhile.

The drive is called the Barium. It's a dual-port solution, housing a USB 3.0 port on one end while the opposite has a USB-C connector. I don't have to tell you that a product like this is pushing technology forward without forgetting about legacy devices still using USB Type-A. Capacity options are rather modest for this solution having 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB options, while performance is said to top out at 200 MB/s read and 70 MB/s write.

Compatibility extends to Windows 7, 8 and 10 along with Linux kernel 2.6.3 and newer. MSRP of the MX Technology Barium in the 64GB capacity comes in at $29.99 with a two-year warranty.

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Packaging is quite colorful and includes an image of the drive centered. Capacity is listed at the bottom right next to marketing performance.

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On the back side, we find more information about the drive including its technical specifications.

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The drive itself isn't much longer than a standard flash drive. Both ends are capped to protect the ports, and the center of the drive is a where we find capacity and branding.

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Moving over, we have the Type-A port ready to go.

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The opposite end houses the Type-C port.

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To start off testing, I ran this drive through a quick file test. As you can see, this drive does quite well starting off at 190 MB/s and carrying through our 4MB test. Write speeds hover around 75 MB/s and end up peaking at 108 MB/s around 4MB.

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I had to change the chart type with all of the drives I had in it. With this new chart, we read the write performance in from the right side and the read performance from the left side. With that said, the Barium performed quite well topping out at 197 MB/s read and 107 MB/s write.

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The Patriot drives at the top of the chart have put a damper on the whole price/performance chart. As you can see, things are stacked up from the 32 to 65% range and the Barium fits right in at the top of this.

I have had the Barium now for about three weeks and in my everyday transferring of files between my PCs and MacBook, this drive is a life saver, especially with the MacBook only having one port. On the durability, anyone that has had an MX drive before will know these drives are tough. The outer shell is metal either aluminum or steel and being a capped solution, on both ends, you will most likely lose them as there is no place to store them on the drive.

The performance was as advertised. I reached very close to 200 MB/s at 197 MB/s read and write surpassed the 70 MB/s marketing number to reach a top mark of 107 MB/s. Price/Performance was good for the Barium, and while I mentioned the Patriot drives have really messed up my chart, I find any drive that stays above 55% to be a solid overall solution. In the end, I am pleased with the Barium, but it's a hard to find flash drive, and many consumers aren't going to go searching to find a drive like this especially when there are so many drives on the market. As of this writing, I was only able to find this drive at Newegg, where it was sticking tight to the $29.99 MSRP, and that's a solid price for a 64GB solution and one you certainly won't be disappointed by in this device.