Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G 4TB SSD Review - High-Capacity Futureproofing

TweakTown's Rating: 96%

The Bottom Line

It's 4TB of gaming focused awesome!

Pros

• + Gaming PC or console performance
• + Sustained reads
• + High endurance

Cons

• - None

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Amazon

Introduction & Drive Details

Last month we had the pleasure of reviewing Sabrent's Rocket 4 Plus-G 2TB DirectStorage focused SSD. This SSD demonstrated that it is the King of sustained high queue depth read streaming by putting to shame every competing SSD we ran against Phison's in-house 20-hour-long DirectStorage texture streaming simulation.

To our amazement, it even out streamed the world's most powerful SSD, the Optane P5800X. Enabling this apparently best-in-the-world texture streaming is the Rocket 4 Plus-G's exclusive Direct Storage focused firmware codeveloped by Sabrent and Phison. Sabrent's state-of-the-art O₂ GO firmware enables not only incredible throughput but also virtually eliminates read-disturb performance hits, which are indicated by dips on the following graph:

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Sabrent's newest suffers from exactly zero read disturbs, which could translate to in-game stuttering or textures popping in at the wrong time. So not only does Sabrent's Rocket 4 Plus Gaming SSD deliver up to 3x the sustained read throughput of competing SSDs, but it does so without a single hiccup for 20 hours straight. Amazing, really, and as we see it, further testament to our assertion that Sabrent is the most forward-thinking SSD company on the planet. If you are a forward thinker as it relates to hardware, then Sabrent's newest SSD is absolutely worth taking a close look at, especially the vastly capacious model we have on the bench today.

As we see it, futureproofing, as it relates to non-volatile storage, is more than just performance related. It is inextricably linked to capacity as well. As we see it, ideally, we want to be able to have our entire gaming library at our fingertips. This is where the subject of today's review really shines. With a massive 4TB of raw storage capacity, and additionally being what it is as described above, we are of the opinion that Sabrent's Rocket 4 Plus-G 4TB SSD is the most desirable gaming SSD currently available, bar none.

Drive Details

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Please note these performance specs are based on our results while benching the Rocket 4 Plus-G and are not official Sabrent performance numbers. Additionally, TBW is estimated and not an official Sabrent specification.

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The Rocket 4 Plus-G looks similar to the standard Rocket 4 Plus, but the G series is visually distinctive with its reflective iridescent anodized copper label.

All Sabrent SSDs come with valuable complimentary software, including a copy of Acronis for Sabrent and Sabrent's award-winning Rocket Control Panel SSD management software. You can get Sabrent's Rocket Control Panel here.

Use Rocket Control Panel to download Acronis and other Sabrent complimentary SSD management software. Register your Sabrent SSD via the Rocket Control Panel to activate a limited 5-year warranty, the limitation being TBW (Total Bytes Written). Without registration, Sabrent warrants its SSDs for 1-year, so be sure and register your Sabrent SSD.

Jon's Test System Specifications

Intel Test System

• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Z690 HERO
• CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: Sabrent Rocket DDR5 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI SUPRIM X RTX 3080 12GB - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Buy from Amazon

AMD Test System

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE X670E AORUS Master
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: Sabrent Rocket DDR5 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI SUPRIM X RTX 3080 12GB - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Buy from Amazon

Because we at TweakTown like to be first at everything whenever we can, we are going to present our storage performance results for the test subject on both 13th Gen Intel and 7000 Series AMD platforms going forward for the foreseeable future. Because Intel still delivers the best real-world storage performance, (Look Here), our running chart will continue to be Intel-based until AMD can deliver better real-world storage performance than its rival.

Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G 4TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$499.99	$499.99	-	$499.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 4/24/2024 at 3:34 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Sony PlayStation 5 - M.2 Storage Expansion

PS5 Read Performance

With Sony's wildly popular PlayStation 5 console now enabled for M.2 NVMe SSDs to be used as fast storage expansion, we include results for PS5 compatible SSDs we test as a part of our reviews going forward.

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For 5,500 MB/s plus capable SSDs that don't have an adequately sized PS5 compatible heatsink or other SSDs where the heatsink provided doesn't fit right and can be removed, we both use and recommend Sabrents unparalleled PS5 heatsink available here.

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We only chart SSDs that can deliver a minimum of 5,500 MB/s read, which is Sony's original recommendation.

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At 6,500 MB/s read performance as measured by our PS5, our 4TB test subject just might be the ultimate console gaming SSD as well. Impressive.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Anvil, ATTO

CrystalDiskMark

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AMD continues to deliver the highest sequential throughput, so it's no surprise to see the lone AMD result at the top of our Intel-based chart. We used our AMD result here to establish our own up to sequential read throughput specs, as we find Sabrent's to be overly conservative.

On the write throughput front, we find our test subject serving up throughput that is exclusive to Phison E18-controlled SSDs. We, of course, are referring to the fact that only E18-controlled SSDs have reached the milestone mark of 7,000 MB/s sequential write throughput. Finally, and most importantly, our test subject is dishing out a stout 98 MB/s 4K Q1T1 random reads. Outstanding.

Anvil's Storage Utilities

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We are looking for 11K here, and we get it from our test subject on both our AMD and Intel platforms. Excellent. Read performance is performance that matters.

ATTO

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More than anything else, ATTO gives us a clear picture of what transfer sizes a particular SSD favors in terms of sequential throughput. As it is with all Phison Controlled SSDs, our test subject delivers its maximum throughput at 128K transfers. Exactly what we want to see.

Real-World Testing: Transfers, 3DMark SSD Gaming Test, PCM10 Storage

Transfer Rates

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Our 100GB data transfer test is not your ordinary 100GB of data. Ours is a crushing mix composed of more than 62K files. Write performance random or sequential, is an infrequent operation, and as such, we do not consider it to be an important performance metric in the consumer space. An example being how many times is a game installed vs. how many times it's played.

On the Intel side of things, we typically see better results when programming data than we get from AMD, which is exactly what the above chart demonstrates. While virtually meaningless in terms of performance that matters, we still can't help but be impressed with 1,703 MB/s here.

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Exactly what we want to see when it comes to an all-important performance metric like serving data to the host. It's what consumer SSDs are doing 80% of the time on average. Here, AMD has the advantage for whatever reason and, as expected, lands on top of our Intel-based chart. As we see it, 4,500 MB/s here is a milestone of sorts, and we are delighted to see our test subject capable of delivering the goods. Impressive.

3DMark SSD Gaming Test

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. We consider it superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs on the actual game itself. This test is in fact the same as running the actual game, just without the inconsistencies inherent to application testing.

In short, we believe that this is the world's best way to test an SSDs gaming prowess and accurately compare it against competing SSDs. The 3DMark SSD Gaming Test measures and scores the following:

• Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Call of Duty Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Overwatch from launch to the main menu.
• Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
• Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
• Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.
• Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.

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Gaming is a performance metric that matters to the majority of DIY consumers, especially to the enthusiast crowd that TweakTown caters to. We want to see a score of 4,500 here. Our 4TB test subject delivers with room to spare. This is real performance, performance that matters.

PCM10 Storage Tests

PCMark 10 Storage Test is the most advanced and most accurate real-world consumer storage test ever made. There are four different tests you can choose from; we run two of them.

The Full System Drive Benchmark and the Quick System Drive Benchmark. The Full System Drive Benchmark writes 204 GB of data over the duration of the test. The Quick System Drive Benchmark writes 23 GB of data over the duration of the test. These tests directly correlate with mainstream user experience.

PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark

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This particular test writes 204GB data and covers a broad range of common consumer tasks, including booting Windows 10, file transfers, Adobe and Office applications, and startup times for games, including Battlefield V, COD Black Ops 4, and Overwatch. Unlike synthetic numbers, this is comprehensive real-world data which is why we use it to rank SSDs in terms of user experience.

Our test subject returns a score that lands it right at the middle of our chart. Middle of the chart performance here still translates to an exceptional user experience.

PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark

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E18-controlled SSDs have traditionally choked hard on this test for whatever reason, and Sabrent's newest is no exception.

Final Thoughts

DirectStorage is set to take the gaming world by storm in the near future. Microsoft's DirectStorage API (Application Programming Interface) is set to enrich your gaming experience by introducing a new era of fast load times and detailed worlds in PC games by allowing developers to more fully utilize the speed of the latest storage devices.

Sabrent knows this and has preemptively responded with its state-of-the-art O₂ GO sustained texture streaming focused firmware, enabling unprecedented sustained high queue depth read throughput with simultaneously the lowest read disturb interference possible. This is futureproofing at its finest.

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We rank SSDs in terms of overall user experience (performance where it matters most) as expressed by PCMark 10 storage and 3DMark gaming storage tests. We consider a user experience score of 12K or more to verify an SSD as a TweakTown Elite performer. The Rocket 4 Plus-G places very well on our chart, but not 12K well.

This is as expected, as no E18-controlled SSD running in our test configuration has been able to do so. However, we should keep in mind that this particular SSD can deliver the goods better than the rest in ways that will come into play sometime in the near future.

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As it relates to gaming overall, present, and just over the horizon, we are compelled to conclude that as it stands right now, Sabrent's 4TB Rocket 4 Plus-G is the most desirable SSD we've ever tested. Expensive but worth every penny. Editor's Choice.