Teamgroup's X2 Max is easily the fastest thumb drive I've tested

Price When Reviewed

1TB: $70 I 2TB: $130

Best Prices Today: Teamgroup X2 Max

$69.99

$69.99

The Teamgroup X2 Max took me abruptly. I used to be anticipating a slowish commodity drive, because it’s as small as any thumb drive in my assortment.

However, when push got here to shove, the X2 Max delivered superlative 10Gbps USB efficiency throughout almost all of our exams — rivaling that of many considerably bigger 10Gbps SSDs. In quick, it’s a gem.

Read on to be taught extra, then see our roundup of the best external drives for comparability.

What are the X2 Max SSD’s options?

At slightly below 3-inches lengthy, by 0.75-inches vast, by 0.25-inches thick — and together with each a captive Type-C port and Type-A port — the X2 Max is outstandingly demure, even for a thumb drive. It’s so svelte it makes most of its ilk look chunky compared.

The twin port sorts, proven under, additionally make it straightforward to make use of with just about any USB-enabled machine on the planet. Lightning connector Apple stuff after all excepted.

The drive makes use of NVMe internals to function at 10Gbps USB 3.2 speeds, with sustained transfers maxing out at slightly below 1.1GBps. Teamgroup wasn’t inclined to debate the controller or particular sort of NAND concerned.

However, given the wonderful efficiency and skill to maintain cheap switch speeds over the lengthy haul, I’m pondering state-of-the-art on each counts.

There’s not particular sturdiness (TBW) score, however Teamgroup warranties the drive for a full 5 years, a munificent rarity for any exterior SSD.

How a lot is the X2 Max?

While it isn’t gradual like a commodity USB stick, the X2 Max isn’t low cost like one both. 1TB prices $70, and the 2TB model we examined is $130. But you get what you pay for. This isn’t your father’s USB stick — it’s a full-on 10Gbps SSD in a tiny kind issue. For, that, the value is correct on.

How quick is the X2 Max?

The X2 Max benchmarked extraordinarily effectively for a 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD in CrystalDiskMark 8, ATTO 4, and AS SSD 2. It additionally carried out effectively in our most important real-world transfers — most impressively, by not tanking as many SSDs do throughout super-long writes.

In level of truth, the X2 Max is definitely the quickest thumb drive I’ve examined, and sooner than a lot of its bigger 10Gbps brethren.

While not mild years higher in CrystalDiskMark 8 than the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD and SK Hynix Tube T31, the X2 Max did finest them general in sequential transfers.

The one space the place the X2 Max lagged behind its opponents was in random efficiency underneath CrystalDiskMark 8. Not disastrously so, however actually noticeably — particularly within the 32-queue write. Of course, I’m not conscious of any real-world software program that makes use of greater than 4 queues.

The X2 Max was again to shining in our 48GB transfers.

Note that there have been adjustments in the best way I’m testing storage. Xcopy and our new favourite utility FastCopy at the moment are used to show more of the true potential of the drives, and I’ve changed the RAM disk with a 25GBps twin RAID 0 SSD array because the second drive in switch exams. Read the “How we test” part on the finish of the article for more information.

Where the X2 Max actually impressed me was with its sustained write efficiency. During the 450GB write (utilizing Windows Explorer), the X2 Max did decelerate, however not by that a lot — dropping from round 850MBps to between 500MBps and 650MBps.

The similar factor occurred once I wrote 950GB on prime of that. Because of this, I’m not lifeless set on recommending the 2TB drive because the 1TB model (if it behaves equally) doubtless gained’t gradual tragically both. Whatever you’re doing, Teamgroup… Keep on doing it.

Below is visible affirmation that the X2 Max doesn’t gradual to an absurdly low tempo throughout lengthy writes as some SSDs do.

As you may see above, the place the X2 Max actually separated itself from the pack was within the super-long writes — lengthy a bugaboo of thumb drives and cheaper SSDs. The upshot being that this drive is nice for prosumers and common customers alike.

Should you purchase the X2 Max?

Absolutely. If you need small and quick — it’s virtually unimaginable to beat. Even forgetting the small, the X2 Max is greater than aggressive speed-wise with far bigger 10Gbps SSDs. It ain’t low cost, however one of the best hardly ever is. Good on ya’, Teamgroup.

How we check

Drive exams at the moment make the most of Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit operating off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of reminiscence whole). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are built-in and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. SSDs concerned within the check are mounted in a HighPoint 7604A 16x PCIe 5.0 adapter card.

We run the CrystalDiskMark 8, AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 artificial benchmarks (to maintain article size down, we solely report one) to search out the storage machine’s potential efficiency, then a collection of 48GB and 450GB transfers exams utilizing Windows Explorer drag and drop to indicate what you’ll see underneath Window, in addition to the far sooner Xcopy to indicate what’s potential.

The 48GB and 450GB write exams are written to/from a 25GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Highpoint 7604A. Formerly the 48GB exams have been carried out with a RAM disk.

Each check 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 as a consequence of much less NAND for secondary caching, in addition to different components. This will be much less of an element with the present crop of SSDs with far sooner late-generation NAND.

Caveat: The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we have been shipped and to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can and can differ by capability as a consequence of extra or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes throughout and the quantity of NAND accessible 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.