MyDigitalSSD tried to start the new year off right by revealing Boost, which it claims is the world's fastest portable SSD, at CES 2017.
Just two months ago we tested the MyDigitalSSD BPX. It's one of our favorite M.2 NVMe SSDs because it delivers exceptional performance at a low price. Boost goes a different direction. It's an external, flash-based, portable SSD. We've seen a strong uptick in this type of product due to excess TLC NAND available (prior to the shortage) but what makes Boost different is that it uses two Samsung TLC SSDs in RAID 0 to deliver very high performance. The drives are from Samsung's OEM division and a very good fit in this type of product.
An ASMedia ASM1352R USB to dual SATA RAID controller sits in the middle of the device. USB 3.1 SuperSpeed Plus (10Gbps) is the preferred connection method. With this type of USAP connection, performance is said to be as high as 830 MBps sequential read and 730 MBps sequential write. MyDigitalSSD says this is the fastest USB-connected portable SSD available today, but the SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD claims even better performance.
Boost is available in two forms from MyDigitalSSD at Amazon. The first is a loaded model with two 512GB Samsung SSDs, effectively 1TB, for $280. You can choose either black or (our favorite) red. You can also purchase just the enclosure for $50, also in black or red.
Both options ship with two 18-inch USB cables, one with a USB Type-C connection and the other with USB Type-A. The portable drive uses a Type-B connector, so every letter in the USB alphabet is represented. Boost is also backwards compatible with older USB standards including 3.0, 2.0, and even 1.0.
Boost is larger than the Samsung Portable SSD T3 but smaller than the SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD. It delivers higher performance than the Samsung and sells for $100 less; the SanDisk sells for nearly $200 more and uses the same internal RAID 0 configuration to deliver high speeds. The Boost sits in between the two.
Which is why we'll have fun putting all three drives head-to-head along with three new Adata portable SSD products from another recent review. We were also given some other exciting new portable SSD products, so look forward to a number of reviews in the next few months.
