Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Fastest exterior storage we’ve examined (at 40Gbps)
- Affordable for the ilk
- Stylish enclosure
- Available as much as 4TB
- Also quick on the Mac
Cons
- Pricier than USB 3.2×2 (20Gbps)
Our Verdict
Adata’s good-looking and distinctive USB 4 SSD is the quickest we’ve examined at 40Gbps, and can be comparatively inexpensive. Recommended.
Price When Reviewed
1TB: $140 I 2TB: $200 I 4TB: $380
Best Prices Today: Adata SE920 EX USB4 SSD
The Adata SE920 is our second have a look at a 40Gbps USB 4 SSD and to be blunt, we like what we see. It’s good-looking, stunningly quick, and has a intelligent enclosure that includes a micro-fan you’ll be able to activate and off based on want. Cool stuff.
What are the Adata SE920’s options?
I’ll get to the specs in a second, however the SE920 has one of many extra distinctive options I’ve run throughout — half of the latched, spring-loaded outer shell slides out about half an inch to activate an inner fan. Said fan was very quiet, so I opted to go away the drive within the open place the vast majority of the time. You can see it within the open place within the photograph up high and closed within the picture beneath.
Beyond that, the SE920 is a USB 4 (40Gbps) exterior SSD that weighs about 7 ounces and measures 4.13-inches lengthy by 2.52-inches huge by 0.62-inches thick — closed. Sliding the case/change open ups the size to 4.82-inches. Either approach, it’s fairly a bit thinner than the finned OWC 1M2 — one other very quick USB 4 SSD.
Further studying: See our roundup of the best external drives to study competing merchandise.
Judging from the large fins on the 1M2, and the micro-fan contained in the SE920 — USB 4 generates nearly as a lot warmth as Thunderbolt. At least on the full 40Gbps. As , warmth is unavoidable with electronics, however eliminating it’s important to stability and longevity.
Adata supplies a five-year guarantee for the SE920. It’s a restricted guarantee, which suggests it’s mitigated by the quantity of information written to the drive in addition to bodily abuse. The quantity of information written can’t exceed an inexpensive quantity, which is probably going 600TBW per 1TB of NAND if Adata follows the business normal.
How a lot is the Adata SE920?
According to Adata, the 1TB SE920 will value $140, the 2TB mannequin will run $200, and the high-capacity 4TB is $380. More than 20Gbps USB SSDs, however not considerably, and miles cheaper than the OWC 1M2 — the one different exterior USB 4 SSD we’re conscious of.
One factor I ought to level out is that being USB 4, relatively than USB 3.2×2, you’ll get glorious efficiency on a Mac as effectively. Apple, for some unknown purpose helps solely 10Gbps with USB 3.2, which means 3.2×2 20Gbps SSDS are constrained to half their potential. Nice one, Apple.
Not to let the USB Forum off the hook — there’s truly a 20Gbps mode for USB 4 along with the one for USB 3.2×2, and apparently the twain shall by no means meet in Apple land. Sigh.
How quick is the Adata SE920?
It wasn’t a blow out, however the Adata SE920 took the title of “Fastest external drive we’ve tested” from the OWC 1M2. At least at 40Gbps in artificial benchmarks. At 20Gbps (utilizing USB 3.2×2), beneath the synthetics, the alternative proved true — by about an equal margin.
As you purchase USB 4 for the 40Gbps (or ought to), we weighted our judgement accordingly. Note you could see the charts in bigger format by right-clicking over them and choosing “View in new tab.”
The Adata SE920 affords probably the most pace in your cash in an exterior drive, plus a nifty built-in fan.
In the tip, nevertheless, the efficiency variations between the 2 USB 4 drives aren’t actually price worrying about. Subjectively, you’d by no means discover in 1,000,000 years. This is demonstrated once more beneath.
The SE920 once more fell behind the 1M2 within the 48GB transfers at 40Gbps, however solely simply, and effectively inside the margin of error for this specific take a look at. The 1M2 once more pulled away considerably at 20Gbps.
Where the SE920 actually got here into its personal was within the lengthy 450GB write. Speed after secondary cache ran out was fairly good as effectively — round 850MBps. It took writing one other 900GB of information instantly following the 450GB to disclose this.
Note that the 1M2 was a 1TB drive with much less secondary cache, although it didn’t exhaust what it had on this take a look at.
All in all, it’s a toss up between the 1M2 and the SE920 by way of 40Gbps efficiency. And, for those who’re questioning in regards to the effectiveness of the fan… It helps — the SE920 didn’t run as sizzling throughout testing with the outer shell within the open place and mentioned fan engaged.
Note that I needed to activate Better efficiency (caching) beneath Drive Management for the SE920 or writes had been about ten occasions slower. Yup, 300MBps.
Should you purchase the SE920?
If you need an uber-fast exterior SSD, then the SE920 is probably going what you need. The OWC 1M2 was sooner in some checks and considerably so on the 20Gbps bus, however the SE920 is an entire lot cheaper and simpler to hold round. Good job, Adata.
How we take a look at
Drive checks at the moment make the most of Windows 11, 64-bit working on an X790 (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of reminiscence whole). Both 20Gbps USB/Thunderbolt 4 are built-in to the again panel and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. The 48GB switch checks make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk taking on 58GB of the 64GB of whole reminiscence. The 450GB file is transferred from a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro which additionally runs the OS.
Each take a look at is carried out on a newly NTFS-formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Note that in regular use, as a drive fills up, efficiency might lower on account of much less NAND for secondary caching, in addition to different components. This is much less of an element with the present crop of SSDs with their far sooner NAND.
Caveat: The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we had been shipped and to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can and can range by capability on account of extra or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes throughout and the quantity of NAND out there for secondary caching. Vendors additionally sometimes swap elements. If you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report, by all means, tell us.