INTRODUCTION

   Believe it or not once upon a time the fastest portable drives consumers could get their hands on were USB 2.0 flash drives so that alone shows just how much technology has evolved in the past 2 decades. Today well there are many fast portable storage devices consumers have access to with portable SSDs featuring Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.2 Gen1/2 and connectivity sitting at the top of that list (still too soon for USB4/TB4). However, with so many portable SSDs currently in the market it's far from easy for consumers to find the right model for the job and so just like with internal SSDs I’m doing my best to give you an insight on what you can expect from some of the models in the market today. The X6 and X8 portable SSDs by Crucial are two of the most popular models in the market and today with me i have the 2TB variants.

   Crucial is a global brand of Micron Technology, Inc. Crucial solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory (DRAM) upgrades are compatible with over 100,000 new and old desktops, laptops, workstations and servers. Crucial Ballistix memory delivers a performance edge to gamers, enthusiasts and power users. Available worldwide at leading retail and e-tail stores, commercial resellers and system integrators, Crucial products enhance system performance and user productivity. Learn more at crucial.com.

   Both the X6 and X8 portable SSDs are currently available in 1/2TB capacities and feature compact enclosures (the X8 one is made out of anodized aluminum which helps with heat dissipation - the X6 has a plastic one) that have rubber pads on both sides. Of course, these enclosures are also temperature-proof, vibration-proof and shock-proof up to 6.5 feet for the X6 and 7.5 feet for the X8. Under the hood of the X6 2TB Crucial has placed a 1.5" PCB which contains the Silicon Motion SM2259XT NAND flash controller, 96-layer 3D QLC NAND flash (Micron) and the ASMedia ASM235CM SATA to USB host interface bridge chip. On the other hand, under the hood of the X8 we once again find the P1 M.2 PCIe SSD with the Silicon Motion SM2263 NAND flash controller, 96-layer 3D QLC NAND flash (Micron - the 1TB version came with 64 layer NAND flash) and the ASMedia ASM2362 PCIe host interface bridge chip. These hardware combinations allow the X6 models to hit read and write performance speeds of up to 540MB/s and the X8 models to go all the way up to 1050MB/s. Both drives support TRIM and SMART, are compatible with PCs, Macs, PS4s, XBOX Ones, iPad Pros, Chromebooks and select Android devices and are covered by a 3 year limited warranty.