Sabrent Rocket Nano V2 4TB SSD Review - Copious Amounts of Native USB Bliss

TweakTown's Rating: 96%

The Bottom Line

Universal portable compatibility at up to 1,700 MB/s and 4TB of it? This is as good as it gets.

Pros

• + Compatibility
• + Portability
• + Low power

Cons

• - None

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Amazon

Introduction & Drive Details

Having just recently gotten a taste of Sabrent's awesome native USB interfaced Nano V2 2TB, we have of course been hungering for more, as in twice as much. As the name implies, Sabrent's Nano is super compact, so fitting 4TB in its tiny enclosure is quite an accomplishment.

This ultra-compact, ultra-portable, ultra-compatible, and ultra-speedy SSD does everything right. It runs nice and cool; its elegant all-aluminum alloy enclosure exudes quality. We love this portable and would have to say, all things considered, it is our current favorite of its type.

Again, we feel the need to reiterate our assertion that in the world of portable storage, compatibility comes before anything else. Universal compatibility is what we want, backward compatible to USB 1.1 is what we want, and compatibility like that can only come from a native USB interfaced device such as the Nano V2. At its heart the Rocket Nano V2 is controlled by Phison's PS2251-18 U18 USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 controller:

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Native USB eliminates the need for a bridge chip to talk with the host. Supreme compatibility is furthered by ultra-low power requirements that can be supplied even by low-power USB 1.1 ports. On the performance front, this universally compatible portable is capable of up to 20Gbps throughput. Speedy, capacious, cool running, compact, and bulletproof, this is what we love about the Nano V2 and why it is currently our favorite portable SSD.

Enclosure Details

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Sabrent advertises its hynix TLC arrayed Nano V2 as capable of delivering transfers at over 1,500 MB/s and sustained performance capable of seamless 8K video recording. Sabrent informed us they went with hynix flash for the Nano V2 because it provides significantly better sustained write performance than Micron's B47R, which is critical for 8K video recording.

It's also a differentiator between the Nano V2 and other portables like Corsair's EX100U. This is why the Nano V2 is priced a little above its competitors, but in this case, you are getting what you pay for.

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CDI identifies our test subject as UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) interfaced.

Like its predecessor, the Nano V2 features a high-quality, heavy-duty aluminum enclosure. Additionally, the Nano V2 is well protected from drops and debris with an outer silicone sleeve (not pictured here). USB-A and USB-C cables are included.

Sabrent Rocket Nano V2 4TB SSD - Portable SSD

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$399.99	$399.99	$399.99	$449.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 4/15/2024 at 8:23 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, ATTO & Blackmagic

CrystalDiskMark

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Results here demonstrate outstanding and higher-than-advertised sequential throughput, whether serving data to the host or programming data to the device. Additionally, 4K Q1T1 random results are similarly impressive.

ATTO

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ATTO demonstrates our test subject hits full stride at 256KB transfers. We like the smooth pattern the drive is delivering. No hiccups along the way is always great to see.

Blackmagic

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Sabrent advertises its new Nano is ideally suited for 8K video applications, and here we get strong evidence supporting the validity of this assertion.

Real-World Testing: PCMark 10, 3DMark SSD Gaming & Transfer Rates

PCMark 10 Data Drive Benchmark

The Data Drive Benchmark is designed to test drives that are used for storing files rather than applications. You can also use this test with NAS drives, USB sticks, memory cards, and other external storage devices.

The Data Drive Benchmark uses 3 traces, running 3 passes with each trace as follows:

• Copying 339 JPEG files, 2.37 GB in total,?into?the target drive (write test).
• Making a copy of the JPEG files (read-write test).
• Copying the JPEG files to another drive (read test).

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As a dedicated data drive, there are better choices than the Nano. However, we won't knock the Nano V2 much for this as it is a very unlikely use-case scenario for this type of ultra-portable device.

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 are now including gaming performance as a part of our external SSD reviews, as using portable storage for gaming duties is very popular among avid gamers. We want to see a minimum score of 1,000 here, so we get what we are looking for as a minimum. It is important to keep in mind that we are getting more than acceptable performance here from a super-low power universally compatible device.

DiskBench - Transfer Rates

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We brutalize our test subjects with our extremely hard-to-swallow 100GB data block. This data block is the same one we use for our internal SSD testing and comprises more than 62K files. This is where the rubber meets the road for a portable SSD. Real-world transfer performance is good enough when programming data and excellent when serving data to the host.

Final Thoughts

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A new favorite, the same as the old favorite, only now there is twice as much to love about Sabrent's Nano V2. 4TB of universal compatibility is indeed glorious, as is its, as we measured it, more than 1,700 MB/s throughput over a USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 host port.

Editor's Choice.