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PCIe 4.0 is gaining more traction, and there are now more than just a handful of SSDs to choose from. Sabrent now has not one, but two Gen4 SSDs under its belt. With the Q4 being the company’s second Gen4 SSD, it's got a winning combination of Gen3-breaking speed, affordable pricing, great looks, and potentially high capacity if there’s room in your budget.
Samsung’s 980 PRO is up to twice as fast in some cases, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider the Rocket Q4. The large dynamic SLC cache often offsets the poor native performance of the QLC flash. The drive only suffers when the cache is full, or when the controller flushes the cache. In most cases, the Q4 performs very well, surpassing most Gen3 alternatives.
The Rocket Q4 delivered 5.0 / 3.6 GBps read/write speeds and very responsive random performance during synthetic testing, both of which helped it excel throughout both PCMark 10 and SPECworkstation 3’s various loads. Most gamers will be well-equipped for next-gen games with Sabrent’s Rocket Q4, but so will those looking to throw more demanding workloads at the drive.
Even at its high-capacity, there are some trade-offs to consider, though. The inherent drawbacks of the Rocket Q4’s QLC flash leads to low endurance ratings. Still, we feel this isn’t too much of a disadvantage because most consumers won’t write nearly enough data to wear out the drive during the five-year warranty period. However, the endurance is overshadowed more by the Q4’s sub-par warranty coverage: You have to register the drive to unlock the five-year warranty, and without registration, a one-year warranty is simply abysmal. A three or five-year warranty should be standard, and it should come without a registration requirement.
With warranty complaints aside, we still think Sabrent’s Rocket Q4 is a good pick if you’re considering the highest capacity 4TB model, especially since it matches the pricing of the slower Rocket Q. Thus, upgrading to the Rocket Q4 a no-brainer if you’re looking for fast flash storage for and AMD PCIe Gen4-supporting system, or merely futureproofing for when Intel finally supports the faster standard. Aesthetically, the Rocket Q4 is a nice-looking drive that would complement near any white-themed build, too.
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