Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Top 10Gbps performer
- Compact, rounded design
Cons
- Available solely in pale gold
- Pricier than the competitors
Our Verdict
Slightly sooner, and barely costlier than the competitors on the time of this writing, SK Hynix’s first foray into USB SSDs, the Beetle X31 is an certified success.
Price When Reviewed
512GB/$71.06 I ITB/$92.69
Best Prices Today:
$71.06
Evocative designs, catchy names, and enticing packaging all assist to promote a product. Witness Seagate and WD’s observe of selling principally the identical storage units at each mainstream customers and players. Not to say Apple, which has raked in trillions off of its famend consideration to product presentation and intelligent advertising terminology.
SK Hynix has adopted go well with to an extent with its excellent-performing Beetle X31 exterior SSD. The identify and packaging are suggestive (The Mummy?), as is the design… considerably. I really want they’d gone to city theme-wise with the drive’s precise look, however given the chart-topping efficiency, I’ll let that slide.
Further studying: See our roundup of the best external drives to study competing merchandise.
SK Hynix Beetle X31 design and worth
With a vivid sufficient creativeness (and the suggestion of the image on the packaging proven beneath), the X31 does have considerably the looks of a beetle. Without the appendages or division of the elytra and thorax, that’s.
SK Hynix might need finished higher calling it “Scarab” and utilizing colours extra evocative than the pale gold it ships in. But that’s a matter for advertising professionals.
The Beetle X31 is in regards to the measurement of a scarab beetle at round 1.8-inches huge, 2.9-inches lengthy, and 0.57-inches thick. It weighs lower than two ounces and the steel shell appears very rugged. There are non-skid pads on the underside, and a Type-C port and exercise mild on one finish.
As of this writing, the X31 Beetle is accessible on Amazon in 512GB/$71.06 and 1TB/$92.69 flavors. That’s above common for a 1TB, 10Gbps USB SSD and is perhaps a troublesome promote when well-known Samsung’s 1TB T7 Portable is $10 cheaper.
The innards of the X31 have to be NVMe from the 1GBps efficiency we noticed. SATA tops out at round 550MBps, ruling that out. The inner design little doubt leverages certainly one of SK Hynix’s personal SSDs. TLC NAND is probably going employed, judging from its efficiency when secondary cache runs out. More on that beneath.
The SK Hynix Beetle X31 turned in a sooner combination time than the 10Gbps competitors in our 48GB switch assessments.
How does the SK Hynix Beetle X31 carry out?
The Beetle X31 proved barely sooner than the competitors general, although the margin can be largely unnoticeable to the bare eye. Still, sooner is quicker, and SK Hynix can grasp its hat on the Beetle’s success.
The sequential single-queue, single-thread learn is the place the X31 made hay in CrystalDiskMark 8. Otherwise, it was only a hair slower than the SanDisk Pro-G40.
The SK Hynix Beetle X31 turned in a sooner combination time than the 10Gbps competitors in our 48GB switch assessments.
Though the Beetle X31 turned in an excellent 450GB write time, it went about attaining it in odd vogue. It began out at round 450MBps for the primary 50GB or so, jumped to round 850MBps for almost all of the write, then when it ran out of secondary cache close to the tip (treating the TLC as SLC, writing one bit/stage as an alternative of three bits/eight voltage ranges), it dropped to round 250MBps.
It’s the primary stint that’s uncommon, not the center or finish. This was replicated over all of the preliminary runs, in addition to the additional runs we ran to verify of what we have been seeing.
Note that the time proven beneath occurred when the drive was squeaky new. It turned in considerably slower occasions (about 100 seconds longer) writing 450GB after our 48GB assessments have been run. In different phrases, anticipate considerably slower giant file writes from the 1TB drive throughout on a regular basis use.
The Beetle X31 took the number-one spot amongst 10Gbps SSDs in artificial benchmarks and our 48GB switch assessments. It may also have taken the highest spot from the OWC Envoy Pro FX within the 450GB write if it have been out there as a 2TB mannequin, although it’d nonetheless have been shut given the X31’s propensity for sluggish begins.
Should you purchase the SK Hynix Beetle X31?
The X31 is presently our high 10Gbps performer, however being barely sooner doesn’t offset its steeper price ticket. Regardless, it’s a cushty design with an amusing and entertaining moniker. Performance throughout the competitors being so shut, store this class on worth.
How we take a look at
External drive assessments presently make the most of Windows 11, 64-bit operating 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 and Thunderbolt 4 are built-in to the again panel and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. The 48GB switch assessments make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk taking on 58GB of the 64GB of whole reminiscence. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB which additionally runs the OS.
Each take a look at is carried out on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Note that in regular use, as a drive fills up, efficiency will lower attributable to much less NAND for secondary caching, in addition to different components.
Caveat: The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we have been shipped and to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can and can range by capability attributable to extra or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes throughout and the quantity of NAND out there for secondary caching. Vendors additionally often swap elements. If you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report, by all means, tell us.