INTRODUCTION

   Ever since the very first consumer oriented solid state drives (SSDs) made their public debut in 2007 they changed pretty much everything we knew up and until that time about storage media. This of course didn't have to do just with internal drives but external as well and for some people (primarily professionals) the latter had a far stronger impact than the former. A few years back we "jumped" from the much slower SATA II/III and mSATA interface to the M.2 PCIe interface which currently thanks to the introduction of the NVMe specification (and of course PCIe 4.0) offers speeds we didn't actually thought possible when all this started. This is also why M.2 NVMe portable SSDs are enjoying such high popularity levels lately and one of the most talked about lines is no other than the Rocket Pro by Sabrent the 2TB variant of which i have here with me today.

   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.

   For their Rock Pro line of USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable SSDs (currently available in 256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB/4TB capacities) Sabrent used a thick yet compact aluminum enclosure (build quality aside this also helps with heat dissipation) inside which they placed their award winning Rocket M.2 NVMe PCIe 3x4 SSD line (Phison E12S controller paired with Toshiba BiCS 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash and 4GB of DRAM for the 2TB variant) and the JMicron JMS583 USB 3.1 Gen 2 to PCIe Gen3x2 bridge controller (supports TCG pass-through, TRIM and UASP). Now even though the Rocket M.2 NVMe PCIe 3x4 SSDs can reach data speeds of up to 3400-2700MB/s in read-write since this is a USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable model (and not a Thunderbolt 3 one - even though it's also compatible with TB3 connectivity and above) its performance should be limited at 1000MB/s (10Gb/s). Also, as with other products by Sabrent the entire Rocket Pro line is covered by a 5-year limited warranty (as long as you register the product with them - 1 year if you do not).

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The Rocket Pro portable SSD by Sabrent gets shipped inside an aluminum box that has a paper cover at the front of which we find a large product picture whereas at the rear we see the product features and specifications next to a second product picture.

Once you remove the paper cover, you'll find a sticker with the exact same things on it.

Sabrent has used a formed piece of cardboard to keep the entire bundle safe.

Along with the Sabrent Rock Pro portable SSD inside the bundle you'll also find an 69cm long USB-A to USB-C cable and a 45cm long USB-C to USB-C cable.

THE ROCKET PRO 2TB

Measuring just 105mm in length, 45mm in width and 17mm in height/thickness the aluminum body of the Rocket Pro is quite compact.

As usual to showcase the size of the drive I’m testing i placed the Sabrent Rock Pro right next to the ADATA SE760, Yottamaster TB2-T3, Netac Z7S, Silicon Power PC60 and the Samsung T3 and T1 models.

The USB-C connector is located at the front of the enclosure right next to an activity LED.

Sabrent has equipped the aluminum enclosure of the Rocket Pro with two long rubber feet.

Here you can see the interior and the Rocket M.2 NVMe SSD used (marketing material).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

    Solid state drives are basically the same as USB flash drives and so we’re using almost the same testing methodology to successfully record achieved read & write performance numbers in our charts*. The benchmark suites used are HD Tach RW (Read Speeds / Long Bench 32mb Zone Testing), HD Tune Pro (Read / Write speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Titanium 2020 (Read / Write speeds), AIDA64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear / Random Read & Write speeds), Crystal Disk Mark 6.0.2 (2GB Read / Write speeds) and finally ATTO 4.00.0F2 (Max Read / Max Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into our charts (0 = we were unable to complete that test).

    All tests are performed with our main rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a CORSAIR MP510 960GB NVME SSD* with all updates installed up to the day we started tests.

* Since August 2019 for portable SSD tests I started using the primary test rig.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA TITANIUM / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

..........

CONCLUSION

   As you can all easily tell from the charts the Rocket Pro 2TB is currently the fastest USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable SSD to pass from the lab, to date at least. Performance numbers got closer to 1000MB/s than any other model something which i think says a lot about this particular drive. Also, since I’m a rather curious person i ran some benchmarks with the drive connected using Thunderbolt 3. However, since this drive uses a 10Gb/s controller the highest numbers i recorded was 1060MB/s for reads and 1055MB/s for writes (less than 10% difference compared to what i got using USB 3.2 Gen 2). Of course, Sabrent has Thunderbolt 3 portable SSDs in their product lines so i will try to get one of those to see just how it performs. Other than performance well there's not much to say, the aluminum enclosure is of high quality and not even once did it get warm (sole exception was when connected with the CORSAIR TBT100 for my next review) and needless to say the drive never had any issues during all my tests.

   Sabrent recently cut the price of their entire Rocket Pro line of USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable SSDs so the 2TB variant currently retails for just USD249.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 249.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). This of course is an extremely balanced price tag, especially if you take into account that equivalent models like the Samsung T7 cost more (even some slower models cost more). So, at the end of the day the Sabrent Rocket Pro delivers on everything from speed and build quality to price and warranty so the Platinum Award is the obvious choice here.

PROS

- Build Quality (Thick Anodized Aluminum Enclosure)
- Top of The Charts Performance (USB 3.2 Gen 2)
- Temperature, Vibration and Shock Proof
- 5 Year Limited Warranty (Registration Required)
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- None