2 slots, SATA ports, and USB 3

Samsung’s Portable SSD X5 reviewed

We may have published canada goose outlet nyc a review of an external SSD just a few short days ago, but when it rains, it pour tables. https://www.rheingoenheim-info.de Today, Samsung is unveiling a brand new external SSD. Feast your eyes on the pinnacle canadian goose jacket of lightning fast compact storage: the Samsung Portable SSD X5.

There are no existing Samsung canada goose outlet canada X drives, so why is a completely new product called the X5? Simply to bring the numbering in line with Samsung’s existing «T» line of portable SSDs, the latest of which earned our hearty endorsement when we reviewed it last year. The T5 already matched the performance of mainstream internal SATA drives, so the next summit for Samsung to crest was to build an external drive that rivaled internal PCIe storage. Of course, such a feat would be impossible under the 10 Gbpsconstraintimposed by USB 3.1 Gen 2, so Samsung has upped the ante by outfitting cheap canada goose the X5 with a Thunderbolt 3 interface.

We couldn’t pass up testing the Portable SSD X5 1 TB ahead of its launch, but it presented a bit of an awkward situation. My test motherboard has moreM.2 slots, SATA ports, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 capabilities than you can shake a stick at, but there’s not a single TB3 controller Canada Goose online to be found on it. With little time to spare before the X5’s announcement, we had Samsung send the drive directly to boss man canada goose outlet Jeff. With his inexhaustible supply of hardware, he was able to patch together a test setup identical to mine with the single substitution of a TB3 equipped motherboard. Once I’d sent him my test scripts and he’d put on his storage hat, he was easily canada goose outlet online able to benchmark the drive and relay the results to me.

At canada goose outlet jackets 4.7″ x 2.5″ x 0.8″ and 5.3 ounces, there’s more meat to the X5 than the other portables we’ve reviewed. Some of the heft can be attributed to the drive’s magnesium canada goose outlet uk body. Samsung claims the X5 can withstand drops of up to two meters. Samsung also says the drive’s design is «inspired by a canada goose outlet new york city supercar,» and that might not all be hyperbole. Jeff reports that the drive’s sparkly gray finish canada goose outlet black friday and metal clad exterior hasan almost automotive paint feel to it, reinforcing a perception of stiffness and durability.

We didn’t break this drive apart, but nonetheless we know exactly what’s inside. The NAND is Samsung’s64 layer TLC V NAND. canada goose black friday sale buy canada goose jacket The SSD controller is Samsung’s Phoenix. The X5, then, is simply a 970 EVO hiding in a metal shell. This is the cheap canada goose uk first external drive canada goose outlet we’ve reviewed with an NVMe over PCIe stick inside. But then again, it would make no sense topair a lesser drive withThunderbolt 3.

Speaking of which, the TB3 controller in the X5 is Intel’s Alpine RidgeDSL6340. Crucially, that means that this TB3 drive is only a TB3 drive. If Samsung had coughed upfor Intel’s newer Titan Ridgefamily of Thunderbolt controllers, the drive could have been made to work in USB 3.1 fallback modes, butolder controllers don’t have that capability enabled for sink devices. Samsung also cautions that Thunderbolt 2 equipped devices won’t work with this baby, either.

We repeat: don’t be fooled by the drive’s USB Type C connector. If you don’t have bona fide Thunderbolt 3 ports to work with, the X5 becomes an expensive paperweight. Jeff (madman that he is) forged ahead and plugged it into a non TB3 Type C port just to see what happens, and the answer is a whole lotta nothing. The drive’s LED emits nary a flicker of acknowledgement.

A heatsink that spans the entire length of the drive undoubtedly contributes a lot to the drive’s weight. Hopefully it allows the drive to operate at full bore for longer before Samsung’s Dynamic official canada goose outlet Thermal Guard (read: throttling) kicks in. Regardless of DTG, Jeff says the X5 emits substantial heat in operation enough that he was careful not the leave anything atop the drive.

Fancy paint and Alpine Ridge don’t come cheap. Samsung set the canada goose outlet store X5 1 TB’s launch price at a whopping $700. That’s about cheap Canada Goose two and a half times the current street prices for top tier drives like the T5 and SanDisk’s Extreme Portable. A 2 TB version canada goose clearance sale will be available for $1400, and a 500 GB version will be available for $400. Unfortunately, the warranty doesn’t scale with the asking price. The X5 isbacked by the canada goose uk black friday same canada goose factory sale three year warranty that Samsung extends to the T5. Samsung’s Portable SSD Software is also along for the ride, giving access to the X5’s AES 256 bit hardware encryption. It looks to be unchanged since we played with it for the T5.