Compared to storage giants like Samsung and Toshiba, Sabrent so far only offers a very limited range of SSDs. Nevertheless, all have been mostly well-received by users and hardware editors alike. Along with Corsair and Gigabyte, the company was also early on the PCI Express 4.0 scene with this Gen4-capable drive.
Overview: Memory Type, Controller, and Cache
All of the M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs launched at the same time as AMD’s X570 platform use, for the most part, identical components. That includes a Phison E16 controller and 96-layer Toshiba triple-level cell (TLC) NAND memory. They are also equipped with a DDR4 DRAM buffer and, like all TLC-based SSDs, an SLC-mode cache is used to achieve the high transfer rates offered by the new interface.
Sabrent Rocket Gen 4 Vs. Corsair MP600 Vs. Aorus Gen4
| Phison E16 PCIe 4.0 SSD Comparison | Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 1TB | Sabrent Rocket Gen4 1TB | Corsair Force MP600 1TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | Phison E16 | Phison E16 | Phison E16 |
| Form Factor (Interface) | M.2 2280 (PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3) | M.2 2280 (PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3) | M.2 2280 (PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3) |
| NAND Flash type | Toshiba 96-layer 3D TLC | Toshiba 96-layer 3D TLC | Toshiba 96-layer 3D TLC |
| Random Read | 750K IOPS | 750K IOPS | 680K IOPS |
| Random Write | 700K IOPS | 750K IOPS | 600K IOPS |
| Sequential Read (max) | 5,000 MB/s | 5,000 MB/s | 4,950 MB/s |
| Sequential Write (max) | 4,400 MB/s | 4,400 MB/s | 4,250 MB/s |
| Write Endurance | 1800 TBW | 1800 TBW | 1800 TBW |
| Warranty | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years |
Although the hardware appears to be largely identical, it’s clear that the first batch of PCIe 4.0 SSDs don’t use the same firmware. All of them offer extreme sequential performance compared to previous-gen drives but differ in some performance aspects. The Sabrent Rocket Gen 4 is available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities (with or without a large heatsink). As per usual, the smallest 500GB capacity does not reach the same level of parallelism and is therefore somewhat slower when it comes to sequential writes.
It should once again be mentioned that the advertised maximum sequential speeds will only be reached using a PCI Express 4.0-capable platform. At the time of writing (late 2019), the only widely available PCIe 4 consumer platform consists of an X570 motherboard combined with an AMD Ryzen 3000-series processor. Otherwise, this and other PCIe 4 drives will reach a performance ceiling at about 3,500 MB/s (sequential read).
Power Consumption (Laptop Suitability)
At the end of 2019 and early 2020, the Sabrent Rocket Gen4 (or any other Gen4 SSD) is not recommended for laptops, as none are PCIe 4.0-enabled.
Warranty and Endurance Rating
Sabrent offers a 5-year limited warranty with the Rocket Gen 4, which is an industry standard for high-end SSDs. The endurance ratings in TBW (terabytes written) are excellent at 900 TBW (500GB), 1,800 TBW (1TB) and 3,600 TBW (2TB).
Expert Reviews
Gen4 speeds and the lowest cost for E16-based SSDs makes the Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 drive a winner.
… one of the fastest solid state drives we’ve ever tested and one of the fastest available for a mainstream platform.
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