SABRENT Rocket 2230 NVMe 4.0 512GB ?

[DWD1961]

Where do you put a 2230? I just requested this as a free product for review just because it is end of year and I have more write offs than I need (even though it's free, the IRS says the full retail price is what you earned as 'income.")

Anyway, Sabrent is a good vendor so I took it. Now I'm wondering how I test a 2230 drive with no 2230 internal mount -- hahahaha.

I'll test it using USB 10Gbps, but that only 1000MB/s. The drive is good for 5000MB/s / 3700MB/s read write, respectively, and 800,000 IOPS (doesn't state which size, but I will test the MFer for that!). It's also pricey at 89.00, but I guess that's due to the size?

I was going to find a small 2230 enclosure and make a high speed USB drive out of it, but again, all the enclosures are 2280 size, even though some can fit the 2230. Which, kinda defeats the purpose of getting an off sized card anyway. (Off size unless you have a laptop or Steam deck, etc. that can use it?)

Thought I would update with some pictures. This thingoid came in a metal rose colored padded box with a magnetic lid. WTF?

 

[Luke M]

https://www.amazon.com/JEYI-M2PLUS-Extended-Transfer-Change/dp/B084VLMQWC

 

[DWD1961]

https://www.amazon.com/JEYI-M2PLUS-Extended-Transfer-Change/dp/B084VLMQWC

HA! Thanks. lol Never would have thought.

 

[kirbyrj]

Why don't you test it in a Steam Deck as that's pretty much what it was designed for?

 

[DWD1961]

Why don't you test it in a Steam Deck as that's pretty much what it was designed for?

Steam what? Really, i don;t own a Steam Deck. I have no reason and I hate small screen devices. However, Sabrent didn't develop a 2230 drive specifically for a Steam Deck. It's for Steam Deck, Compact HTPC, Microsoft Surface, Ultrabook etc.

I'll probably use this and install it in my main rig, image my disk over to it, and see what it will do.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B5V7RG6R/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2NHDZWQCCF7UH&psc=1

I know it's DRAM-less, but those speeds are impressive. I can't wait to test it for sustained writes and reads to see how the speeds hold up.

Maybe now they can get 2TB in a 2330 form factor, the 2280 will decline?

 

[kirbyrj]

Three things:
1). 2330 isn't correct, it's 2230. You got it right in the title, but you use them interchangeably throughout.
2). The first bullet point on the Rocket 2230 website literally says, "Need to upgrade your Steam Deck, Microsoft Surface, or other device where space is limited?" If you think the driving force behind this isn't the Steam Deck, you are misinformed.
3). A review of this drive in a regular desktop setting is pretty much irrelevant because there are plenty of better 2280 options available. If you're not reviewing it in the context of what it was designed for, it's just random numbers on a graph.

Bonus #4: Why would 2280 decline? You can always get more NAND on a larger surface along with added DRAM. If they can get 2TB on a single sided 2230, they can get 8TB+ on a double sided 2280. Coupled with the fact that other components like GPUs and CPU coolers are getting ever larger, the use case for 2230 outside of niche devices (e.g. Steam Deck) is significantly smaller.

 

[Zepher]

Steam what? Really, i don;t own a Steam Deck. I have no reason and I hate small screen devices. However, Sabrent didn't develop a 2230 drive specifically for a Steam Deck. It's for Steam Deck, Compact HTPC, Microsoft Surface, Ultrabook etc.

I'll probably use this and install it in my main rig, image my disk over to it, and see what it will do.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B5V7RG6R/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2NHDZWQCCF7UH&psc=1
View attachment 537433

I know it's DRAM-less, but those speeds are impressive. I can't wait to test it for sustained writes and reads to see how the speeds hold up.

Maybe now they can get 2TB in a 2330 form factor, the 2280 will decline?

I was watching a Sabrent video and Dram is only used for holding the drive mapping. Dram less SSD's store the drive mapping in the NAND and then copies it to system ram and then keeps updating the mapping in NAND which does wear out the drive faster since it is constantly updating when the drive is written to or files are deleted.
For sustained max write speed it looks like that is determined by how much SLC cache is on the drive.

Maybe grab this Thunderbolt 4 enclosure and that adapter card and review both the ssd and this enclosure,
https://www.amazon.com/**********-Enclosure-Aluminum-External-2280-M207-Silver/dp/B0B14QY7MZ

 

[DWD1961]

Three things:
1). 2330 isn't correct, it's 2230. You got it right in the title, but you use them interchangeably throughout.
2). The first bullet point on the Rocket 2230 website literally says, "Need to upgrade your Steam Deck, Microsoft Surface, or other device where space is limited?" If you think the driving force behind this isn't the Steam Deck, you are misinformed.
3). A review of this drive in a regular desktop setting is pretty much irrelevant because there are plenty of better 2280 options available. If you're not reviewing it in the context of what it was designed for, it's just random numbers on a graph.

Bonus #4: Why would 2280 decline? You can always get more NAND on a larger surface along with added DRAM. If they can get 2TB on a single sided 2230, they can get 8TB+ on a double sided 2280. Coupled with the fact that other components like GPUs and CPU coolers are getting ever larger, the use case for 2230 outside of niche devices (e.g. Steam Deck) is significantly smaller.

1. Thanks. I think I changed the errors. But the the title was correct.
2. Did you miss "Microsoft Surface or other device?" I get your point, buit a 2230 drive comes in many devices, but most are OEM and not for retail sales, so options are limited.
3. I requested it for two reasons: It's free, seems fast, and would make a compact, fast external drive, if I could find a 2230 form factor enclosure. That's probably too niche at the moment. Second, I'm interested in sustained writes. It is DRAM - less, so that will be interesting (at least to me), and I can't find any reviews yet (didn't look too hard), although they will soon. I'm also interested in the IOPS and if that will make any difference, and how they tested it (what size they used to get IOPS). It's newer technology for a 2230 drive, and if it can perform, it's feasible we will see the 2280 shrink for desktop application such a ITX, where space is at a premium.
4. Bonus #4: Why not go as smaller when possible? It's kind of a thing, you know?

 

[DWD1961]

I was watching a Sabrent video and Dram is only used for holding the drive mapping. Dram less SSD's store the drive mapping in the NAND and then copies it to system ram and then keeps updating the mapping in NAND which does wear out the drive faster since it is constantly updating when the drive is written to or files are deleted.
For sustained max write speed it looks like that is determined by how much SLC cache is on the drive.

Maybe grab this Thunderbolt 4 enclosure and that adapter card and review both the ssd and this enclosure,
https://www.amazon.com/**********-Enclosure-Aluminum-External-2280-M207-Silver/dp/B0B14QY7MZ

View attachment 537476

I had an ORIC-O enclosure., It didn't even work. The one I got used the crappy JMcron controller. Also, I don't have a Thunderbolt 4 MB. Maybe one of these days Gigabyte will get around to including modern hardware in their boards, even though it's a brand new board, it only has USB 3-Gen2 ports.


Sabrent has impressive external enclosures. I have one that is CNC, not cast and it's so heavy it's ridiculous. This thing is amazingly overbuilt, but the one I have is only USB 10Gbps.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RVFQXQ6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[Zepher]

I had an ORIC-O enclosure., It didn't even work. The one I got used the crappy JMcron controller. Also, I don't have a Thunderbolt 4 MB. Maybe one of these days Gigabyte will get around to including modern hardware in their boards, even though it's a brand new board, it only has USB 3-Gen2 ports.


Sabrent has impressive external enclosures. I have one that is CNC, not cast and it's so heavy it's ridiculous. This thing is amazingly overbuilt, but the one I have is only USB 10Gbps.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RVFQXQ6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I have that same enclosure,

 

[DWD1961]

I have that same enclosure,
View attachment 537654

You could literally use it as a blunt force projectile. They feel like solid chunks of aluminum.

 

[DWD1961]

I can access my MB's back NVME drive slot without taking the MB out, so It's going in there for testing. YAY!

 

[legcramp]

It's probably targeting specfically the steam deck customers. There isn't another big name company making a retail drive that's not pulled from a previous system or only shipped from another country that provides a warranty unless you have a microcenter near you where you can pickup the inland 1tb drive I believe for around the same price or slightly cheaper than this Sabrent drive. I wasn't paying $140-150 for a 1TB SSD in 2022 so I literally picked a pulled Samsung PM991A 1TB in 2280 format and chopped off most of it to fit into the steam deck's 2230 slot and it's working great for $80 on ebay. Glad I ran into that reddit post where somebody else did this.

This drive though will probably be nice if the steam deck 2 comes out and the nvme speed isn't capped around 100/90 like it is now.

 

[DWD1961]

It's probably targeting specfically the steam deck customers. There isn't another big name company making a retail drive that's not pulled from a previous system or only shipped from another country that provides a warranty unless you have a microcenter near you where you can pickup the inland 1tb drive I believe for around the same price or slightly cheaper than this Sabrent drive. I wasn't paying $140-150 for a 1TB SSD in 2022 so I literally picked a pulled Samsung PM991A 1TB in 2280 format and chopped off most of it to fit into the steam deck's 2230 slot and it's working great for $80 on ebay. Glad I ran into that reddit post where somebody else did this.

This drive though will probably be nice if the steam deck 2 comes out and the nvme speed isn't capped around 100/90 like it is now.

I'm assuming your 2280 also has RAM on it so that's a plus. I'm just going to stick it in my rear slot and use it as a backup drive.

 

[DWD1961]

So, it's fast. It's actually faster than my Samsung 970 Evo transferring to the Sabrent Rocket drive, whereas the Samsung drive was a lot slower when transferring the files back to the Samsung drive. Anyone have any input on this? Crystal Diskmark put the drives very close together speed wise, but my real world test was different. According to Crystal, the Rocket drive read speeds faster than thee Samsung, so transferring back to the Samsung should have been faster, or since the write speeds are close, at least around the same time. The only real read difference difference was in the Crystal Real World test for is average latency, which was 78 for the Samsung drive but only 55 for the Rocket drive. That's a 30% difference, which was about the same percentage slower for reads from the Rocket drive to the Samsung drive. Would the latency difference be the cause of the transfer speed difference?:

Motherboard parameters (Sabrent drive is in the back)
Motherboard: Giagbyte B550 AORUS Pro AX
1 x M.2 connector (M2A_CPU), integrated in the CPU, supporting Socket 3, M key, type 2260/2280 SSDs: AMD Ryzen PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSDs
1 x M.2 connector (M2B_SB) on the back of the motherboard, integrated in the Chipset, supporting Socket 3, M key, type 2260/2280 SSDs: PCIe 3.0 x4/x2 SSDs

Samsung to Rocket = 603MB/s
Rocket to Samsung = 396MB/S

Samsung Real World
---------------------------

Sabrent Real World
--------------------------

 

[TheSlySyl]

Likely, and most simple answer is that the Samsung drive has more data written on it and NVME drives slow down a bit as they become more full.

Also, if the Samsung was being used in any capacity, OS drive, etc. It'll impact the read/write speeds. Especially if the dram cache is still being utilized.

 

[DWD1961]

Likely, and most simple answer is that the Samsung drive has more data written on it and NVME drives slow down a bit as they become more full.

Also, if the Samsung was being used in any capacity, OS drive, etc. It'll impact the read/write speeds. Especially if the dram cache is still being utilized.

The Samsung drive is the OS drive, but I didn't have any active forground stuff running. Still had background services, of course. The drive is only 30% full. Would the background services slow it down 30% vs the Sabrent? Or would it be more likely the discrepancy between the RAND4K Q1T1?

 

[TheSlySyl]

The Samsung drive is the OS drive, but I didn't have any active forground stuff running. Still had background services, of course. The drive is only 30% full. Would the background services slow it down 30% vs the Sabrent? Or would it be more likely the discrepancy between the RAND4K Q1T1?

As the OS drive it absolutely would cause the 30% decrease in performance. Your computer is ALWAYS using the OS drive in some capacity, even if you're not aware of it.
I was gonna benchmark my OS drive (WD Black SN850) and show you the discrepancy in speeds, but I don't want to turn off my RAMcache on it at the moment and the benchmark is a little... unrealistic.

 

[DWD1961]

As the OS drive it absolutely would cause the 30% decrease in performance. Your computer is ALWAYS using the OS drive in some capacity, even if you're not aware of it.
I was gonna benchmark my OS drive (WD Black SN850) and show you the discrepancy in speeds, but I don't want to turn off my RAMcache on it at the moment and the benchmark is a little... unrealistic.
View attachment 541776

I could just swap the drives by setting the active boot loader to the Sabrent drive and see if the write speeds decrease. That is, I already imaged the Samsung drive to the Sabrent drive and booted from the Sabrent drive. I could then do the write test from the now active boot drive using the Sabrfent drive and see how the speeds reacted to the Sabrent drive being the active OS drive. But, naw. I mean, the thing is fast,m even for sustained writes. Good enough!

I was wondering also if the difference might be from the Samsung drive using the CPU while the Sabrent uses motherboard integration?

 

[TheSlySyl]

From my experience with multiple NVME drives of all types, speeds and lane arrangements, the difference between CPU lanes and otherwise is mostly academic. Unless one of them happens to be a different PCI-E Generation (3 vs 4) or not have enough lanes on it. (My launch X370 board, for example, had an M.2 that was only given 2 lanes so it maxed out at around 1800mbps no matter what drive was in there.)
I've gotten the full speed from Gen 4 drives on CPU, Chipset (onboard m.2) and from a PCI-E Gen 4 to M.2 converter.

 

[DWD1961]

From my experience with multiple NVME drives of all types, speeds and lane arrangements, the difference between CPU lanes and otherwise is mostly academic. Unless one of them happens to be a different PCI-E Generation (3 vs 4) or not have enough lanes on it. (My launch X370 board, for example, had an M.2 that was only given 2 lanes so it maxed out at around 1800mbps no matter what drive was in there.)
I've gotten the full speed from Gen 4 drives on CPU, Chipset (onboard m.2) and from a PCI-E Gen 4 to M.2 converter.

Okay, thanks for that.