Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

Sabrent has been offering a very potent M2 SSD with the Rocket. And yes this might not be the newest PCIe gen 4.0 model (they send out the wrong sample), it certainly does show it isn't a slouch either. Sabrent is a brand more popular in the USA and Amazon though, however, can be spotted on global Amazon sites here in the EU just as well. With a 5-year warranty and excellent TBW values, you can hardly argue a product like this. 

Performance

Technologies like TLC and QLC face some challenges writing more bits per cell of NAND, we noticed a dropoff in performance with mixed heavy workloads that exceed writing ~25 Gigabyte continuously. After you pass that value of writes (and I do mean continuous sustained/linear writes minute after minute), then the SSD buffer is full and starts to write directly to TLC NAND. This, in a nutshell, is what you need to be aware of with TLC and QLC SSDs. IOPS performance is good on this unit, really good. The overall workload traces also indicate this SSD to be extremely capable and fast. Out of the dozens of SSDs we have tested, this one makes the top 10 (until you run out of that buffer). This SSD will write as fast as it can through a cache, once that cache runs dry you drop in write performance. Before you run into that 'issue' you need to realize the complexity of workload. We have written 25 GB continuously at max speed before the SSD dropped to 1 GB/sec (which is till hugely fast for something priced 11 cents per GB). That is the one difference with Samsungs 970 EVO (Plus), they can keep up that write hole up-to roughly 80 GB for the 1 TB model. Also please do realize that the performance in writes differs per volume size you purchase, a 512 and 256GB model would write slower. So we are strictly compressing this conclusion towards the 1 and 2TB models. So the question, do you write such large files often? That answer is likely no. In that case the Rocket is going to kick butt in terms of value for money. TBW values are good as well, 1665 TBW for the 1 TB model. Albeit how companies calculate or test these values these days, is a bit of a mystery. 

• SB-ROCKET-256, TBW=380
• SB-ROCKET-512 TBW=800
• SB-ROCKET-1TB , TBW=1665
• SB-ROCKET-2TB, TBW=3115

Concluding

I can find very little wrong with the Sabrent Rocket. The Phison controller has proven itself over the past two years and is offering terrific performance over PCIe Gen 3.0. This is a super-fast TLC based M.2 SSD that ticks most right boxes as on most workloads it remains to be a very strong performer, even without heatsink the temps did not exceed 65C on the controller. The one caveat is the aforementioned TLC write hole which we measured once you pass that ~25 GB region of continuous writing. That's a value that requires really significant workloads, and for a DIY or game PC, it's a value that ain't even relevant. Once the write hole does kick in, you're still hovering at 1 GB/sec write performance. This all is not different for the Samsung flagship SSDs, however, their TLC buffer only kicks in after 80 GB written (on the 1 TB models). The TB value is 1665 Terabyte written for this SSD, that's alongside a 5-year warranty. One tip to Sabrent, the baby blue PCB color needs to go, black, please. Also, we're pretty sure this SSD originates from the same OEM that others like Corsair, Plextor, TeamGroup, Patriot and so on purchases them as well. Pricing is a bit trivial, the 1TB SSD as tested sits at roughly 14~15 cents per GB written, that is on the high side as we have seen similar performing products in the 11~12 Cents per GB range. Other then that, really we cannot complain at all.

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