Sabrent Rocket XTRM Portable Thunderbolt 3 SSD Review

Sabrent offers a high capacity external SSD option with the Rocket XTRM for those that take their portable storage seriously.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: Sabrent (SB-XTRM-4TB)
2 minutes & 37 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 90%
TweakTown award

The Bottom Line

If 4TB of Thunderbolt 3 storage is what you need and you have the bank, the XTRM from Sabrent is a legit solution built for you!
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Sabrent has quietly released some of the best Gen3 and 4 NVMe SSDs available today, and looking through their portfolio, they too have a large array of portable solutions that we had yet to get our hands-on. So, after a quick chat, Sabrent was kind enough to send over the 2TB and 4TB capacities of their top tier XTRM Thunderbolt 3 solution, and entry-level Nano, which we will review soon.

As for the Rocket XTRM, Sabrent has designed an all-aluminum small form factor drive that takes advantage of the 40Gb/s capabilities of Thunderbolt 3. Capacity options range from 500GB on the lowest end to 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB solutions at the top. With the use of Thunderbolt 3, marketing can go wild with 2400 MB/s read and 1800 MB/s writes for the 4TB model, while the other three get a bump to 2400/2400.

Compatibility includes both Windows 10 and macOS Sierra+ machines. The MSRP of the XTRM ranges from $249.99 and $399.99 for the 500GB and 1TB solutions, while you will find the 2TB model at $649.99 and $1299.99 for the 4TB model. Warranty is set at one-year but can be bumped to two-years if you register your product within 90 days of purchase.

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The packaging is equally impressive as each drive comes in a metal container with a sleeve over it.

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On the backside, you will find the capacity at the lower right and features listed to the left.

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Unboxing, the drive is placed in dense foam. Accessories boxed up to the left.

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The drive itself offers a small form factor design, all-aluminum with subtle branding along the bottom.

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Standing the drive, you can see the Thunderbolt logo at the top and Sabrent branding at the bottom. Dimensions come in at 4.1" tall by 1.8" wide and 0.6" thick.

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The bottom houses rubber pads to keep the drive from scratching your desk.

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Testing for the Rocket XTRM begins with CDM. Sequential performance starts with 2848 MB/s read followed by 2664 MB/s write.

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ATTO shows the consistency of the drive's performance over different file sizes. As seen above, we reach peak read performance around 64K with slight variance moving up higher towards 64M.

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Another test we have added to our arsenal is a 200GB file transfer to the drive. The Rocket XTRM comes in at 5.8 minutes to transfer 200GB.

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Price vs. Performance puts the 4TB XTRM at 100% top in our current charts

As it sits build quality is simply amazing. The full aluminum enclosure really secures the drive and even in my attempts to open it up all were thwarted by what I assume is some legit double-sided tape.

The Thunderbolt 3 interface has enabled pretty solid performance for the XTRM and in my testing was able to hit 2848 MB/s read by 2664 MB/s write. ATTO showed stable read performance 64K through 64M with write hesitating only once around 1M. In our real-world testing, the XTRM was flawless moving 200GB of data in 5.8 minutes the quickest to date.

Pricing is quite extravagant and what's expected at this capacity. There aren't many 4TB portable SSDs running around at this point and with this form factor. For those curious, the only other option I could find was the Thunderblade from OWC that's now reached 8TB of capacity with the 4TB model coming in at $1379.99, $150 more expensive than the Rocket XTRM 4TB.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

Photo of product for sale

Performance

95%

Quality

90%

Features

90%

Value

85%

Overall

90%

The Bottom Line

If 4TB of Thunderbolt 3 storage is what you need and you have the bank, the XTRM from Sabrent is a legit solution built for you!

TweakTown award

Tyler joined the TweakTown team in 2013 and has since reviewed 100s of new techy items. Growing up in a small farm town, tech wasn't around, unless it was in a tractor. At an early age, Tyler's parents brought home their first PC. Tyler was hooked and learned what it meant to format a HDD, spending many nights reinstalling Windows 95. Tyler's love and enthusiast nature always kept his PC nearby. Eager to get deeper into tech, he started reviewing.

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