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Pretty good price for a large capacity ssd! Solid deal :)
Crucial X8 4TB Portable SSD $405.25 Delivered @ Amazon US via AU
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Kazusa on 13/01/2023 - 10:09 amazon.com.au (274 clicks)
Last edited 13/01/2023 - 10:15 by 1 other user
Last edited 13/01/2023 - 10:15 by 1 other user
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Solid
Solid
Solid
QLC based, the sustained write for the 2TB version is around 180MB/s so guessing the 4TB is roughly the same. SLC cache (best case, when SSD is empty) is 560GB. It's dynamic so it is roughly 15% of the drive. However, once the drive is filled to 80%, SLC write cache generally cannot be used.
I think you're over analysing an external ssd at $400
Really? At $400, the idea is to go for Crucial P1 grade 4TB SSD?
So ?
These numbers just don't matter for many use cases - for example if you're going to plug it into an XBox and use it for games, then 180MB/s is more than fast enough for the internet downloads that'll be writing to the drive.You need some very specific use cases to run into the limitations of drives like these. If you're going to point them out, then it would be nice to add a disclaimer to help the rest of the community understand that they probably won't run into the limits !
tl;dr the limitations don't matter for most users.
If it is XBox One S|X, it doesn't matter, if it is Series S|X, it might matter.
- Despite Series S|X only support USB 3.2 gen 1 (aka USB 3.0), it does have an internal SSD. When this "external" SSD is filled to 80%, SLC cache is not usable. Thus, all writes from internal SSD to this SSD, will be 180MB/s.
- That's not limited to just internal SSD. If you have another external SSD (because XBox One and Series S|X support multiple external storage devices), it is the same situation.
Also, if you use this for XBox One or Series S|X, you basically don't care that the max read speed is halved (I don't understand why Microsoft elected not to upgrade Series S|X's USB to USB 3.2 gen 2 (it remains Gen 1, aka USB 3.0). Furthermore, with Microsoft not allowing Series S|X enhanced games to play from USB storage, in the long run, does this really make sense?
If you get this for XBox One S|X and Series S|X, you are basically not taking the full read advantage and you simply get Crucial P1 class NVMe SSD. Sure, if you have the money, you can go for it.
How does this compare to the shield at equivalent size?
This cannot compare to T7 Shield. T7 Shield's selling point is sustained sequential write at 1000MB/s. This one is best case 1000MB/s. If we compared X8 1TB to T7 Shield 1TB, then X8 1TB's sustained write is around 100MB/s.
However, if you are not going to fill the whole SSD in one go, or your source drive is an HDD (when doing the copying / cloning), then $/GB might be more important to you.
Thanks. I was thinking of upgrading external hdd to this.
It's an awesome upgrade from an external HDD 👍
The 1000MB/s write is pointless for general use because you're not going to be able to send data to the SSD at that speed anyway unless you're copying a massive file directly from another fast SSD - the important part of the performance is that it's an SSD vs a mechanical drive.
What's your use case ?
@Nom: It is not very objective if you cherry pick scenarios, especially gaming. We don't use portable HDDs only for gaming, we do use them to store other files (projects, videos, backup images etc…). As soon as you try to use this for non-gaming purposes (i.e. backing up some files), these things can happen:
- After 15% write (assuming the drive is less than 65% filled), SLC cache is depleted, you are looking at 180MB/s at best.
- It is unclear what happens to X8 once it reaches 80% in a full fill write mode, write speed could drop another 50% (to 90MB/s write) due to mandatory SLC cache recovery. Tom's Hardware only tested 15 minutes to find out at what point SLC cache is depleted.
- Recovery time is how long? That's the double edge sword of SLC cache. Until it is fully recovered (which hopefully only take 30 minutes), there is no SLC cache.
I've been given a QLC SSD (less than 1TB), it took me more than 3 hours to fill the whole SSD. Compared to my $85 1TB TLC SSD (in PCIe gen 3 x4 mode only), which took less than 35 minutes to fill it. That's not even my best 1TB TLC SSD.
Yes, for gaming, and you copied the data from an HDD, it is fine. With mostly reads for gaming, it will be rather pleasant. However, Crucial P1 like isn't awesome. If you purchased this for Macbook Pro M1/M2 for example, then it is not awesome.
$422+ with delivery
Is this any good 16TB External Hard Drive SSD，Portable External Solid State Drive 16TB-Reading Speeds up to 500Mb/s, USB 3.1 Type C SSD Compatible with Desktops,Laptops,PC, XS Windows ($129 from Amazon)?