Sabrent's Plotripper Chia Plotting SSD Will Outlive Many of Us

By Zhiye Liu
last updated

Ripping through plots like no tomorrow

Sabrent Plotripper Pro
Sabrent Plotripper Pro (Image credit: Sabrent)

Sabrent has prepared a new line of SSDs designed for hardcore Chia coin (XCH) plotting. The details are still pretty slim, but the Plotripper SSDs should make any Chia farmer very happy.

Plotting Chia can kill even the best SSDs in a matter of weeks, depending on how serious you take your Chia farming business. That's where the Plotripper and Plotripper Pro SSDs come in. Sabrent is keeping a tight lip on the recipe that it uses for the SSDs, though. We suspect that the vendor may use the Phison E18 controller.

One thing's for sure, though — the Plotripper and Plotripper Pro drives boast phenomenal endurance. Sabrent rates the Plotripper and Plotripper Pro 2TB SSDs for 10,000 TBW (terabytes written) and 54,000 TBW, respectively. Those figures would put the drives in the same endurance ballpark as enterprise and Intel Optane SSDs.

For comparison, a typical 2TB consumer TLC drive is good for around 3,000 TBW. That means the Plotripper has ~2.3 times more endurance than a normal consumer SSD, while the Plotripper Pro has 18 times more endurance.

Sabrent Plotripper, Plotripper Pro Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally
SSDCapacityTBW
Plotripper Pro 2TB2TB54,000
Plotripper Pro 1TB1TB27,000
Plotripper 2TB2TB10,000

When it comes to plotting Chia, write performance is just as important as endurance. However, Sabrent hasn't shared the complete specs for the Plotripper or Plotripper Pro SSDs yet, so performance measurements are the wild card for now. 

If the drives do end up using the Phison E18 controller, we could expect PCIe 4.0-grade speeds. Sadly, that means you'll need a Rocket Lake or Ryzen 3000 platform to fully exploit the Plotripper and Plotripper Pro SSDs without crossing over to the enterprise side.

With enterprise-level endurance, we don't expect the Plotripper or Plotripper Pro to cost anything less than an arm and a leg. Sabrent, however, claims that its latest product line offers the "best unit cost for plotting." Unfortunately, you'll have to take Sabrent's word on the matter while we wait for further details about the SSD's pricing and availability.

Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • USAFRet
    54,000 TBW.

    Before long, someone is going to want that for his gaming system.
    And someone else will recommend it.
    Reply
  • helper800
    Admin said:
    For comparison, a typical 2TB consumer TLC drive is good for around 3,000 TBW.
    What drive is this referring too? Is this article trying to say the average 2tb drive has 3000 TBW endurance because I do not see how that is the case... Most good 1-2tb NVMe SSDs are 600-1800 TBW not 3k. Please correct me if I am wrong...
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    helper800 said:
    What drive is this referring too? Is this article trying to say the average 2tb drive has 3000 TBW endurance because I do not see how that is the case... Most good 1-2tb NVMe SSDs are 600-1800 TBW not 3k. Please correct me if I am wrong...
    Samsungs can go up to 4,800, depending on size. And thats just for SATA III.
    https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/support/warranty/
    But also, warranty vs actual operation.
    Any good drive will long outlast the warranty period. Age or TBW.
    Reply
  • D_2_P_L_J_C
    Before long, someone is going to want that for his gaming system.

    Lol, Well obviously that was the first thought that crosses our minds when we read the article. Thankfully though, im sure almost all of us realise how stupid that would be :)
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    D_2_P_L_J_C said:
    Lol, Well obviously that was the first thought that crosses our minds when we read the article. Thankfully though, im sure almost all of us realise how stupid that would be :)
    Key word, almost.

    We see people here all the time, wanting to merge an ancient system with no M.2/NVMe capability, with a 980 Pro, because - FASTER!
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    USAFRet said:
    Samsungs can go up to 4,800, depending on size. And thats just for SATA III.
    The article implies that a typical 2TB consumer SSD is rated for 3000 TBW. The reality is that typical consumer SSDs like Samsung's 970 EVO line are only rated for 600 total drive writes, which would be 1200 TBW for a 2TB SSD. You have to upgrade to Pro-line SSDs for a good chunk of extra change to double the endurance and still only get 2400 TBW of rated endurance out of a 2TB SSD, still 600 TBW short.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    InvalidError said:
    The article implies that a typical 2TB consumer SSD is rated for 3000 TBW. The reality is that typical consumer SSDs like Samsung's 970 EVO line are only rated for 600 total drive writes, which would be 1200 TBW for a 2TB SSD. You have to upgrade to Pro-line SSDs for a good chunk of extra change to double the endurance and still only get 2400 TBW of rated endurance out of a 2TB SSD, still 600 TBW short.
    Oh yeah, the article seems to be very incorrect as to "typical".

    But the 8TB 860 Pro warranties at 4,800, the 8TB 870 QVO at 2,880.
    Reply
  • Maxxify
    USAFRet said:
    54,000 TBW.

    27K P/E - and I suspect this is their Rocket Q in static SLC mode. Would be happy to be wrong...

    The FuzeDrive uses the same flash, and it rates the SLC portion for 30K+ P/E.
    Reply
  • PapaCrazy
    InvalidError said:
    The article implies that a typical 2TB consumer SSD is rated for 3000 TBW. The reality is that typical consumer SSDs like Samsung's 970 EVO line are only rated for 600 total drive writes, which would be 1200 TBW for a 2TB SSD. You have to upgrade to Pro-line SSDs for a good chunk of extra change to double the endurance and still only get 2400 TBW of rated endurance out of a 2TB SSD, still 600 TBW short.

    If you go for a 980 Pro w/ TLC you get stuck with 600TBW for each 1TB - same as the Evo. Maybe 54,000TBW is overkill, but longevity should be a bigger deal in the market than it is. Samsung was too quick to sacrifice it.
    Reply
  • herrwizo
    *Sigh...*

    Why don't they all start optimizing hardware purely for all kinds of mining since other acticities are virtualy useless, or at least so it seems. Sad times.
    Reply