This feels like a major cop-out in the conclusion to just recommend another drive which is known to have recent issues and then to just take the vendor's word for it that it's better now.
"we believe Western Digital has already addressed the problem if they are confident enough to continue selling it".Reply
A 'cop-out' would have been to not make any mention of the SanDisk external SSD problems at all while recommending it.
To be frank, we have put two different 4TB SanDisk Extreme PRO v2 samples through our test suite - both were from the initial batches. One was with a firmware version that had a bug when hardware encryption was enabled - that never made it to a public release. For normal benchmarking without password protection, both drives had excellent performance and thermal profiles - as shown in the results.
If you just take a look at the different metrics, the SanDisk Extreme PRO v2 comes up short against the T9 in two aspects:
(1) pseudo-SLC cache size : 60 GB for the SD EP v2, vs. 175 GB for the T9, but if you look at the graph for the sequential write performance consistency test, writing 3.6 TB continuously to the SD EP v2 takes around 2150s, while it takes around 3700s. So, one can't say the T9 is a clear winner here.
(2) Higher power consumption - peak of 7.2W vs. 6.7W, but I will give it to the T9 here - the use of a single PCB and a DRAM-less solution is indeed more power efficient even on an average power consumption basis. The SD EP v2 uses a real M.2 NVMe SSD with DRAM for FTL in a separate board, and it does have a penalty from the energy consumption viewpoint.
I hold no torch for either WD (SanDisk) or Samsung here. I can only present analysis based on experimental results here. Unless I am going to be using the drive mainly with battery powered systems, the SD EP v2 is a better choice even from the cost perspective.
Modern-day SSDs are complex systems, and even the best vendors have had trouble with the products in this domain. Unless one goes for enterprise-focused products (that have longer validation cycles, better components, and correspondingly higher cost), there is always a risk (Even Samsung has had issues with some of their recent internal SSDs, prompting a well-known computer system assembler to drop some of those capacity points from their builds).
From a consumer viewpoint, it is always useful to follow the 3-2-1 rule. 3 copies of data in 2 different media, with at least 1 copy off-site. If you are backing up data in the field (from photo or video shoots), never delete the original contents from the card until the photos / videos have at least two other copies.Reply
Prosumer - Thank goodness we have desperate marketing departments mashing words together to help customers feel bettwr about spending disposable income on largely frivilous electronics purchases. Sadly it works on nerd buyers quite well.Reply
as owner of 2 items from this line, 256GB with fingerprint and 2TB without, I can tell you guys, it's decent product. I even bought it as present recently as well. its not the best, but it's decent contender.Reply
Thank you for this article, it comes at a time when I'm thinking of replacing some external HDDs with SSDs. It's a shame that the direct predecessor, the T7, is missing from the benchmarks, would've been nice to compare. And what I'd like to know, does TRIM work with a current Mac?Reply
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James5mith - Tuesday, October 3, 2023 - link
Sorry, but when do these launch? Currently no product listings except for a few sites with preorder links. ReplyRyan Smith - Tuesday, October 3, 2023 - link
Technically it's available worldwide today. But at least in the US, you are correct. No one seems to be set to ship it before the 16th. ReplyHaninAT - Tuesday, October 3, 2023 - link
Samsung.com seems to have it and it claims to be shipping on Oct 6.https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storag... Reply
jhoff80 - Tuesday, October 3, 2023 - link
This feels like a major cop-out in the conclusion to just recommend another drive which is known to have recent issues and then to just take the vendor's word for it that it's better now."we believe Western Digital has already addressed the problem if they are confident enough to continue selling it". Reply
ganeshts - Tuesday, October 3, 2023 - link
A 'cop-out' would have been to not make any mention of the SanDisk external SSD problems at all while recommending it.To be frank, we have put two different 4TB SanDisk Extreme PRO v2 samples through our test suite - both were from the initial batches. One was with a firmware version that had a bug when hardware encryption was enabled - that never made it to a public release. For normal benchmarking without password protection, both drives had excellent performance and thermal profiles - as shown in the results.
If you just take a look at the different metrics, the SanDisk Extreme PRO v2 comes up short against the T9 in two aspects:
(1) pseudo-SLC cache size : 60 GB for the SD EP v2, vs. 175 GB for the T9, but if you look at the graph for the sequential write performance consistency test, writing 3.6 TB continuously to the SD EP v2 takes around 2150s, while it takes around 3700s. So, one can't say the T9 is a clear winner here.
(2) Higher power consumption - peak of 7.2W vs. 6.7W, but I will give it to the T9 here - the use of a single PCB and a DRAM-less solution is indeed more power efficient even on an average power consumption basis. The SD EP v2 uses a real M.2 NVMe SSD with DRAM for FTL in a separate board, and it does have a penalty from the energy consumption viewpoint.
I hold no torch for either WD (SanDisk) or Samsung here. I can only present analysis based on experimental results here. Unless I am going to be using the drive mainly with battery powered systems, the SD EP v2 is a better choice even from the cost perspective.
Modern-day SSDs are complex systems, and even the best vendors have had trouble with the products in this domain. Unless one goes for enterprise-focused products (that have longer validation cycles, better components, and correspondingly higher cost), there is always a risk (Even Samsung has had issues with some of their recent internal SSDs, prompting a well-known computer system assembler to drop some of those capacity points from their builds).
From a consumer viewpoint, it is always useful to follow the 3-2-1 rule. 3 copies of data in 2 different media, with at least 1 copy off-site. If you are backing up data in the field (from photo or video shoots), never delete the original contents from the card until the photos / videos have at least two other copies. Reply
PeachNCream - Thursday, October 5, 2023 - link
Prosumer - Thank goodness we have desperate marketing departments mashing words together to help customers feel bettwr about spending disposable income on largely frivilous electronics purchases. Sadly it works on nerd buyers quite well. Replydeil - Friday, October 6, 2023 - link
as owner of 2 items from this line, 256GB with fingerprint and 2TB without, I can tell you guys, it's decent product. I even bought it as present recently as well.its not the best, but it's decent contender. Reply
hMunster - Tuesday, October 10, 2023 - link
Thank you for this article, it comes at a time when I'm thinking of replacing some external HDDs with SSDs. It's a shame that the direct predecessor, the T7, is missing from the benchmarks, would've been nice to compare. And what I'd like to know, does TRIM work with a current Mac? Reply