As part of the Genomic Centers for Infectious Diseases (GCID) Technology Core Project (NIAID 2U19 AI110820-06), the iGenomeX Riptide high throughput rapid library prep kit for Illumina sequencing was evaluated as compared to KAPA Hyper and NEBNext Ultra kits. Read composition, reference-guided mapping, and de novo assemblies were assessed across diverse pathogens. The study samples include bacteria (Acinetobacter, Escherichia, Klebsiella, and Shigella), plasmid (pB171), filarial nematode (Brugia), apicomplexan parasites (Plasmodium, Cryptosporidium, Theileria), and fungus (Aspergillus) as well as metagenomic data.