Yesterday, Sabrent gave the world a sneak peek of the world's first Thunderbolt 5 external SSD, using and benchmarking a prototype unit to establish baseline expectations for the next generation of external storage. The reveal from Sabrent comes just under a year after the official Thunderbolt 5 debut, which provided specs of a maximum 80 Gigabits bidirectional throughput (roughly 10 GB/s read/write theoretical maximum). Meanwhile, a TB5 Bandwidth Boost mode intended for displays reduces receive speeds to 40 Gigabits per second to boost transmit speeds to 120 Gigabits per second. However, this wouldn't be suited for external storage.
The sneak peek from Sabrent includes a brief peek at CrystalDiskMark benchmarking scores, which currently place the drive at around the speed level of an internal NVMe Gen 4 drive. 6 GB/s read and 5 GB/s write is nothing to scoff at— though, as one who has observed the original Intel presentation of the Thunderbolt 5 standard, it seems clear that there is still room for improvement. The Sabrent spokesperson in the video even says as much, saying, "There are still a few little tweaks we still have to do because we want to make the most out of this technology."
Sabrent Thunderbolt 5 Prototype SSD Specifications
- Drive Type: Thunderbolt 5 External SSD
- Compatible Connectors: Thunderbolt 5 (recommended), Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.2 (Type-C Required)
- Estimated Read Speed: Up to 6071 MB/s in CrystalDiskMark
- Estimated Write Speed: Up to 5126 MB/s in CrystalDiskMark
While it's unclear how much improvements can be made to throughput this early on in the lifecycle of Thunderbolt 5 SSDs, it's clear that Sabrent isn't focused on just throughput— the video also spends time on the device's size and apparent cool thermals. Those who remember the launch cycle of NVMe Gen 4 on desktop may also recognize it as the generation where NVMe heatsinks became commonplace due to concerns of the far-faster drives overheating— a concern that was slightly overblown in Gen 4 but became a real problem in Gen 5.
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So, there's a fair chance that the apparent gap between the current maximum throughput of this debut Thunderbolt 5 SSD isn't due to fundamental bandwidth— it shouldn't be since up to 10 GB/s should be possible over read and write over Thunderbolt 5— but instead, achieving those speeds while maintaining low temperatures in a portable form factor may be a challenging feat of engineering.
In any case, the world's first Thunderbolt 5 SSD, managing speeds on par with mid-tier NVMe Gen 4 drives with no apparent thermal or portability issues, is still quite impressive. It should also bode well for the future of gaming and productivity tasks off external storage.
