Expert’s Rating
Pros
- 40Gbps USB4
- Decently priced
- Handsome, rugged design
Cons
- Slowest USB4 SSD thus far
- Sometimes linked at solely 10Gbps or 5Gbps
Our Verdict
We love the rugged, good-looking design and relative affordability. But connection points and comparably lackluster 40Gbps efficiency left us unamazed.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
$280 for 2TB, $430 for 4TB
The Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 is a good-looking, rugged, comparatively reasonably priced exterior SSD with 40Gbps aspirations. We say aspirations, as a number of occasions it linked at solely 10Gbps or 5Gbps on our check mattress. Even when linked at 40Gbps, it was slower than the competitors.
What are the Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD with USB4’s options?
The Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 is noticeably bigger than the older Extreme Pro SSDs, although it mimics them completely in form, fashion, and shade. The drive is a moderately hefty 5.4–inches lengthy, by 2.2–inches extensive, by 0.45-inches thick, and weighs round 5.4 ounces. Lest you mistake my intent, I like strong and hefty in an exterior SSD.
As you possibly can see beneath, it’s Sandisks favourite darkish grey with copper highlighting within the additional giant lanyard opening. It’s largely overlaying in textured siliconec which offers a pleasant, snug grip.
Obviously, the Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 makes use of the USB4 protocol and it’s of the high-end 40Gbps selection. USB4 does enable 20Gbps implementations although we haven’t seen any. USB4 v2 will implement 80Gbps like Thunderbolt 5, however SSDs characteristic which can be a methods off. Thunderbolt 5 SSDs might be counted with the fingers on one hand in the mean time.
Sandisk warranties the Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 for a full 5 years, although that’s mitigated by TBW. Sandisk didn’t say that, however we’re assuming that’s a situation, together with dropping it from a skyscraper, splitting it with an axe, and so forth. As the write pace solely dropped to 550MBps off secondary cache, we’re assuming TLC, which is generally rated at 600TBW per terabyte of capability.
How a lot is the Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD with USB4?
The Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 is accessible in a 2TB mannequin for $280 and a 4TB mannequin for $430. That’s consistent with the pre-populated competitors comparable to Adata’s SE920 and OWC 1M2, however not almost the cut price that’s the Corsair EX400U.
You may roll your personal for significantly much less with one thing just like the Ugreen CM642. But after all, you have got the trouble of opening and putting in the SSD. In complete, value just isn’t a problem with the Extreme SSD Pro SSD with USB4 (Geez, I’m getting uninterested in typing that!). But there have been points.
How quick is the Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD with USB4?
When it operated at full pace, the Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 drive was quick, albeit not as quick because the competitors — it positioned final amongst some very quick USB4 SSDs. In our actual world switch assessments, it additionally fell behind a few 20Gbps SSDs. Additionally, it had points connecting at full pace on our check mattress.
Using the provided cable (40Gbps brand’d) the Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 operated at solely 10Gbps on considered one of our check mattress’s Thunderbolt 4 ports, and 5Gbps on the opposite. Windows additionally warned that the drive won’t carry out as USB4 ought to. Using the identical cable on an M4 Mac Studio’s Thunderbolt 5 port gave the total 40Gbps.
Using a brilliant high-quality Thunderbolt 5 cable, the Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 was in a position to carry out and full testing at 40Gbps on the PCWorld check mattress. However, a second try with the identical Thunderbolt 5 cable produced the decreased speeds.
Note that USB4 (an marriage of Thunderbolt 4 and USB) remains to be in its infancy, so interoperability points aren’t startling, although these are the primary we’ve skilled. The drive may carry out considerably higher and join extra reliably on different techniques. It did on my Mac Studio.
It may be incompatibility with our check mattress’s Thunderbolt 4 implementation, however we’ve by no means seen this from every other USB4 product. It may be Sandisk’s hand-shaking or thermal administration that’s amiss. I requested each Sandisk and all of the Thunderbolt/USB4 people I do know in regards to the concern, however had not heard again as of this writing.
When linked on the full 40Gbps, you possibly can see that the Sandisk Extreme Pro with USB4 was largely in tune with, if not fairly as much as the competitors in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential assessments.
The main weak spot was in single queue/thread writing, which is the best way Windows operates, These weak spot confirmed up on different assessments.
In CrystalDiskMark 8’s random 4K assessments, the Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 was once more, largely as much as snuff with the competitors, apart from the very disappointing single thread write rating. There’s a theme right here.
We repeated the one queue, single thread check a number of occasions to verify it wasn’t an aberration. It may need one thing to do with secondary cache administration because the rating doubled after we ran it by itself,. However, 40MBps remains to be significantly slower than the competitors.
Again, Windows solely makes use of a single queue and thread (regardless of NVMe being a decade outdated now) for writing information so it’s not stunning that the Extreme Pro SSD with USB was off the tempo. It was really slower on this check than a number of 20Gbps USB 3.2×2 SSDs.
While not tragic, the Sandisk Extreme Pro with USB4’s 450GB write efficiency was middling at finest. Close to 3 minutes slower than the SE920 and once more, slower than a number of 20Gbps SSDs.
We have been a bit shocked that Sandisk didn’t pull extra pace out of this unit. But the corporate isn’t quite as good with external SSDs as it’s with inside ones. And that is not the first Sandisk SSD to have connection points.
Note that almost all SSDs are able to their marketed pace — on sure techniques. AMD’s Thunderbolt 4 implementation is quicker than Intel’s. Our check mattress is Intel, which we’ve saved static over greater than 100 exterior and inside SSD assessments. All the drives we’ve examined have had the identical “handicap”.
Should I purchase the Sandisk Extreme Pro with USB4?
The Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 is good-looking, rugged, feels nice in your mitts, is decently reasonably priced for USB4, and is quicker than the vast majority of USB 3.2×2 20Gbps SSDs.
That stated, the connection points are a crimson flag, and the 40Gbps competitors is quicker. Wait for the second revision on this one. We’ll revisit this evaluation if and when the problem is resolved, or Sandisk sends us a better-behaved alternative unit.
How we check
Our storage assessments presently make the most of Windows 11 (22H2) 64-bit working on a Z790 (PCIe 5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 modules (64GB of reminiscence complete). Intel built-in graphics are used. The 48GB switch assessments make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk taking over 58GB of the 64GB complete reminiscence. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, which additionally comprises the working system.
Each check is carried out on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Note that as any drive fills up, efficiency will lower attributable to much less NAND for secondary caching, and different components.
The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we have been shipped in addition to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can differ by capability attributable to extra or fewer chips to learn/write throughout and the quantity of NAND out there for secondary caching (writing TLC/QLC as SLC). Vendors additionally often swap elements. If you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report (techniques being roughly equal), by all means—tell us.