Sabrent Crushes Samsung At Their Own Game: Builds World's Fastest M.2 SSD

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By Niels Broekhuijsen
last updated

Sabrent gave Samsung two days of glory, and crushed them

(Image credit: Sabrent)

Samsung might just have revealed the long-awaited 980 Pro SSD and thereby, at last, delivering a PCI-Express 4.0 SSD, and while its specs don't disappoint, it seems like the folks from Sabrent had a secret in their drawer: the Rocket 4 Plus. That definitely sets the stage for a pitched battle for the fastest SSD on our list of Best SSDs. 

Indeed, the ever-so-popular Rocket NVMe 4.0 SSD is getting an update to the Rocket 4 Plus, which offers significantly higher read and write speeds. To be exact, it boasts sequential read speeds of up to 7000 MB/s and can write at up to 6850 MB/s, making this the fastest M.2 SSD on the planet by a significant margin.

The drive is based on the new Phison E18 controller, and it uses TLC NAND for storage. The drive also comes with a huge chunky cooler that uses tons of aluminum and three thick copper heat coils. 

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Row 0 - Cell 0 Sabrent Rocket 4 PlusSabrent RocketSamsung 980 Pro
NAND TypeTLCTLCTLC
ControllerPhison E18Phison E16Samsung Elpis
Sequential Read7000 MB/s5000 MB/s7000 MB/s
Sequential Write6850 MB/s4400 MB/s5000 MB/s
Capacities500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB

Of course, it's obvious what happened here: Sabrent was waiting for Samsung to come out with their long-awaited 980 Pro, and once it landed, Sabrent gave Samsung just a few days of glory before unveiling the real winner -- a technique known as sandbagging. It also looks like Sabrent is on a roll, because not long ago, it also unveiled the world's largest M.2 SSD, as well as the world's largest PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD. 

No word on pricing yet on these new drives, but if Sabrent's history tells us anything, they shouldn't break the bank. The Rocket 4 Plus will come in 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB flavors, and we're hoping it'll also come without the heatsink so it can be installed in motherboards with tighter spaces.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

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17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Makaveli
    Sweet now just need a Corsair MP700 that will be based on this controller :p

    And they need to list the TBW because the 600 on the Samsung drive is terrible.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    Makaveli said:
    And they need to list the TBW because the 600 on the Samsung drive is terrible.
    Is it? 600TB comes out to about 330GB a day, 365 days a year for 5 years. For a 1 TB drive, that would be overwriting the entire capacity of the drive every 3 days for 5 years. What on earth are you doing with your computer that necessitates writing that much data?
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    spongiemaster said:
    Is it? 600TB comes out to about 330GB a day, 365 days a year for 5 years. For a 1 TB drive, that would be overwriting the entire capacity of the drive every 3 days for 5 years. What on earth are you doing with your computer that necessitates writing that much data?



    My Corsair MP600 1TB drive has 1,800 TBW with TLC memory. My last Desktop computer which was a i7-970 lasted me 10 years! The MLC intel SSD's in that system still work 10 years later. When I build machines they tend to last quite awhile.

    This Samsung drive has 1/3 the endurance yet has a Pro tag in the label. They better price this right as its inferior to their own 970 Pro drive minus the PCIe interface.

    When you switch from MLC to TLC you take a hit in sustained write performance after you run out of the SLC cache on the TLC drives.

    Any pro's that were buying 970 Pro drives with MLC and picking up a 980 Pro drive without knowing Samsung made changes will be surprised at the hit when writing for a Newer drive.
    Reply
  • AnarchoPrimitiv
    Makaveli said:
    Sweet now just need a Corsair MP700 that will be based on this controller :p

    And they need to list the TBW because the 600 on the Samsung drive is terrible.

    Why? Because even though it'll be the same TLC NAND and the same Phison controller, you just have to have a corsair label on it? Corsair is for noobs, those who needlessly want to pay more for a brand name, and anyone that doesn't mind have the same exact stuff as 95% of everyone else.
    Reply
  • mdd1963
    spongiemaster said:
    Is it? 600TB comes out to about 330GB a day, 365 days a year for 5 years. For a 1 TB drive, that would be overwriting the entire capacity of the drive every 3 days for 5 years. What on earth are you doing with your computer that necessitates writing that much data?

    As a random comparison point of what I consider 'typical desktop usage' with my 960 EVO (4-5 hours per day surfing?), I'm now at about 30 TBW...in 3.3 years'of usage... (At that linear progression of writes/month, it would take me ~60 years to get to 600 TBW!)
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    AnarchoPrimitiv said:
    Why? Because even though it'll be the same TLC NAND and the same Phison controller, you just have to have a corsair label on it? Corsair is for noobs, those who needlessly want to pay more for a brand name, and anyone that doesn't mind have the same exact stuff as 95% of everyone else.

    lmao

    I actually own a corsair drive and the reason I choose it is because of the Heatsink I don't have any thermal throttling when pushing the drive. My drive doesn't break 63c when pushed compared to some other drives that hit 80c+


    Want to comeback when you actually have an adult response and not brand bashing? or to actually add to the topic of this thread?
    Reply
  • nofanneeded
    The world fastest ? not until we see the IOPS Performance.

    Also , I am waiting for Intel ... no Optane on Gen 4 M2?
    Reply
  • escksu
    I have to say sequential read/writes are rather meaningless,.

    The main reason for this is nature of I/O. I/O is mostly mixed of read/write or numerous small files sequentially (1 file at a time) at very low queue depths.

    For the writes, its also not sustainable due to heat.
    Reply
  • escksu
    Makaveli said:
    Sweet now just need a Corsair MP700 that will be based on this controller :p

    And they need to list the TBW because the 600 on the Samsung drive is terrible.

    Its more than enough for end-users though. IF you need to keep erasing your drive and rewrite data to it, you will need a bigger drive instead. These aren't enterprise drives and not meant for servers where data will keep updating.
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    escksu said:
    Its more than enough for end-users though. IF you need to keep erasing your drive and rewrite data to it, you will need a bigger drive instead. These aren't enterprise drives and not meant for servers where data will keep updating.

    Of course if you like the drive and it meets your needs buy it.

    However I'm not the only person pointing out it has half the endurance of the drive it suppose to replace.

    I'm not telling people not to buy it just pointing out a fact.
    Reply