INTRODUCTION

   Over the recent months many of you have reached out and asked my opinion on CHIA, not only on whether or not it's worth investing into but also in regards to what solid state drives to get for plotting. By now pretty everyone knows that manufacturers have begun to roll-out test/engineering samples of their CHIA targeted drives (for example Sabrent has their PlotRippers) but for now there aren't that many valid solutions around in the market, not when even some of the most durable TLC models in the market don't surpass 3600TBW in terms of write endurance (and even that is something you don't see much). So, after going around searching for the best possible choices i came across the Rocket M.2 NVMe Gen3x4 line and more specifically the 4TB variant released by Sabrent in late 2019 that features impressive endurance of 6070TBW.

   Sabrent is a leading American manufacturer of computer peripherals and accessories, bringing uniquely styled quality products to consumers worldwide. Sabrent’s commitment is to offer the latest technology and the highest quality consumer electronic products at an affordable cost to everyone. Since its founding, Sabrent has consistently delivered to market a full line of computer peripherals and accessories that incorporate style, quality and the latest technologies available.

   The Rocket line of M.2 NVMe SSDs by Sabrent is currently available in 256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB/4TB capacities and is based on the Phison E12S controller paired with Western Digital BiCS4 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash and 8GB of DRAM. The Phison PS5012-E12S controller features a total of eight NAND channels with 32 CE targets, supports up to 8TB of NAND, is Toggle 3.0 & ONFi 4.0 compliant and packs several technologies aimed at both high performance and reliability including StrongECC, SmartRefresh, SmartFlush, end-to-end data protection, thermal monitoring, AES-256 encryption, SLC caching and TCG Pyrite/OPAL support. As for endurance Sabrent reports an MTBF (mean time between failures) of 1.8 million hours and as expected covers the entire Rocket line with a limited 5-year warranty (after online registration).

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Sabrent ships the Rocket inside a small black box the front of which has their logo, product picture, drive capacity and a sticker regarding the Acronis True Image software provided for free.

The serial number and barcode of the product are placed at the rear along with yet another product picture.

Removing the exterior reveals a grey aluminum box the inside of which is filled with black foam.

Once again along with the drive itself Sabrent only packs the installation guide (you can download the Acronis True Image software from the company website).

THE ROCKET 4TB

The Rocket 4TB is a dual-side NVMe v1.3 M.2 NVMe Gen 3x4 SSD which typically follows the typical 2280 factor (22mm in width and 80mm in length).

Just like the Rocket 4 Plus and Q4 models the Rocket also features a thin copper heatspreader as the top sticker.

On the top side of the PCB, we see the PHISON PS5012-E12S NAND flash controller, 4GB DDR4 SDRAM 1600MHz module by Nanya and 4 WD BiCS4 96-layer TLC NAND flash modules.

Turning the drive over we see yet another 4GB DDR4 SDRAM 1600MHz module (again by Nanya) and 4 more WD BiCS4 96-layer TLC NAND flash modules.

ROCKET CONTROL PANEL

The rocket control panel software (which you can download from the Sabrent support page) allows you to check the status of your SSD, see its SMART page, download the Acronis cloning software directly from Sabrent, perform a speed test (partitions are required for this) and of course check online for new firmware updates (none found at the time of this review).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   After almost 13 years of testing solid state drives, I’ve concluded that it's almost impossible for any single benchmark suite to accurately measure their performance and that's why in certain benchmark suites we see amazing read/write performance numbers with some drives while in others things are quite different. The reason behind this is that some benchmarking suites are configured to read and write random chunks of data while others read and write constant (sequential) ones. So that's why i always use a very wide selection of benchmarking suites including AIDA64, HD Tach RW, HD Tune Pro, Crystal Disk Mark, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, AS SSD, IOmeter and ATTO. To get the most accurate results each test gets repeated a total of 6 times with the average performance numbers recorded into our charts*. Also, as of February 25th 2015 our results will also include the Storage Networking Industry Association’s (SNIA) IOMeter tests. These tests include a 12 Hour write test used to “simulate” performance degradation over time and a mixed workload test which basically shows what you can expect when using an SSD continuously for roughly two hours. Unfortunately, due to the time required for these tests we repeat them a total of 3 times and not 6 as the above.

  Many people have made inquiries about our charts in the past so once again please do keep in mind that the Charts have the average performance numbers of each drive recorded and not the peak (highest) ones. Also, although every single one of these programs can help potential buyers choose the right drive for their needs you should also remember that from any kind of benchmark up to real world usage the gap is not small (and usually most differences will go unnoticed by most people). All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 10 Pro x64 installation complete with every update up to the date of this review.

* Since November 2018 the SSD comparison charts have been divided to 2.5” and M.2 models to reduce their growing size.
** Unless stated otherwise the Ryzen 9 3950x based Test Rig used for M.2 Gen 4 SSD reviews is not located in the lab.
*** As of January 2021, for Gen 3x4 models I’ll be using the Core i9-7980XE test rig (after numerous tests the up to 6% difference in read & write performance compared to the i7-6700 system simply wasn’t enough to justify having an extra test rig around).

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

TEST RESULTS - AS SSD / IOMETER

TEST RESULTS – IOMETER SNIA

CONCLUSION

   Even though the Rocket line of Gen3x4 SSDs by Sabrent has been around since late 2018 (the 4TB variant was launched in late 2019 however) I never had the chance to check it out so I was quite impressed to see that at least the 4TB variant proved to be amongst the fastest Gen3x4 models in the charts. That’s not its strongest selling point however, endurance is and with 6070TBW it’s almost twice as durable as many of the top Gen3x4 and Gen4x4 models in the market currently. This of course may not have much to do with regular everyday users but for professionals and even people looking for a good plot drive for CHIA this is very good news. Of course, CHIA specific drives are advertised with endurance numbers that surpass 50.000TBW but for one they are not available yet and let’s not forget that we have no clue about cost (and they should cost quite a bit). Unfortunately, thermal throttling was once again a thing during the mixed and 12 hour SNIA tests so I truly suggest pairing the Rocket with a good heatsink like the one offered by Sabrent (If you’ll be using it for heavy workloads that is).

   Retailing for USD799.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 749.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Sabrent Rocket 4TB Gen 3x4 M.2 NVMe SSD may be priced a bit higher than similar capacity drives but thanks to both its performance and impressive endurance it’s certainly worth it. At the end of the day I have only good things to say about the Rocket 4TB Gen 3x4 SSD by Sabrent, performance, endurance and plenty of storage capacity make it one of the best drives, not only for regular users but even for CHIA and for that it definitely deserves the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Performance (3450MB/s Read & 3000MB/s Write)
- 1.8 Million Hours MTBF
- High Endurance (6070TBW)
- 5 Years Limited Warranty (After Registration)
- Acronis True Image Software
- High Efficiency Heatsink Available (Sold Extra)
- Rocket Control Panel Software

CONS

- Thermal Throttling (During SNIA Tests)
- Price (For Some)