Sabrent EC-T3DN Thunderbolt 3 Dual-Drive Enclosure Review

TweakTown's Rating: 89%

The Bottom Line

For consumers that want the performance of Thunderbolt 3 in a dual-drive DIY enclosure, the T3DN from Sabrent is a fantastic solution!

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Coming off the review of the EC-SSD2, we switch gears to our second dual-drive enclosure from Sabrents recent releases. This enclosure, the EC-T3DN, requires us to power up our Thunderbolt 3 test machine, so let's get to it!

The EC-T3DN is the second dual-drive enclosure from Sabrent. This platform supports M.2 2242, 2260, and 2280 form factor drives, pushing it through certified Intel Thunderbolt 3 using the Type-C connection.

Marketing shows a single disk speed cap at 1500 MB/s; due to the way the lanes are split for Thunderbolt 3, two drives in software RAID can reach up to 2500MB/s. Compatibility includes NVMe drives only and supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. MSRP for the Sabrent EC-T3DN comes in at $249.99 with a one-year warranty. The current market price can be found below.

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Like most Sabrent products before it, the packaging is the white box colorway with Sabrent branding. We do have an image of the enclosure below that with information to the right.

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On the backside, you will find a features list with requirements and package contents to the right.

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Unboxing, we have the enclosure, Thunderbolt 3 cable, and reading materials. The packaging does include a power adapter as well, not pictured.

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Removing the silicone sleeve, the enclosure is full aluminum, activity indicators for each drive to the left followed by the Thunderbolt 3 connection and power input.

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Internally, the T3DN has two tool-free slots that are secured with rubber.

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We loaded up the EC-SSD2 with Rocket4 Plus drives for testing.

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Our first test shown above is the T3DN in JBOD or single disk mode. In this mode, we reached 1644 MB/s read, and 899 MB/s write.

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Setting up Windows stripe, we go back to CDM to see 2730 MB/s read and 2440 MB/s write.

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As a third test, we ran the enclosure through our sustained performance within both single a dual-drive stripe mode. As a single drive, the T3DN managed a sustained speed of just over 1000 MB/s writes. Moving to Windows Stripe, I reached a sustained speed of just over 1700 MB/s write.

The EC-T3DN is yet another unique dual-drive platform for consumers that want increased performance with the flexibility of deploying a single or multiple drive. Build quality is up there with the XTRM Portable SSDs, with the enclosure being built of the same aluminum material and finish.

The enclosure's performance was quite good; we could reach past marketing indicators, single drive at 1644 MB/s and dual-drive at 2700 MB/s read. Our sustained performance test showed the enclosure can easily handle the performance of Gen4 NVMe solutions but isn't necessary to reach the peaks of Thunderbolt 3.

Pricing puts the Sabrent EC-T3DN at $249.99 MSRP. It's certainly a pricey enclosure, but again, this is to be expected with Thunderbolt 3 enabled platforms. For those interested, please do check the latest market price with the link a the beginning of the review!!

TweakTown External Storage Test System

• System: XPG Xenia Xe