Samsung X5 1TB Review

1. Introduction2. Samsung X5 1TB3. ATTO/CrystalDiskMark/AS SSD4. Backup / Restore5. Throughput 6. Real Life File Transfers7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

In the past Samsung have used their T range of external drives to showcase the latest evolutions of the companies TLC V-NAND. But the latest external drive to roll out of Korea is a different beast entirely. The new X5 drive combines a very quick NVMe SSD with a Thunderbolt 3 interface to produce the fastest Samsung external drive to date.

Unlike the compact rectangular design of the T series, the X5 is all together a larger and heavier design despite being constructed from magnesium. At 150g the new drive is just over three times the weight of the previous T5 which is mainly due to the solid lump of a heatsink that the drive uses.

Samsung quote Sequential performance figures for the 1TB drive as up to 2,800MB/s for reads and 2,300MB/s for writes. We couldn't reach either of the maximum figures for the drive under testing in either the ATTO or AS SSD benchmarks but even so, 2,500MB/s for reads and 2,059MB/s for writes that we achieved from the ATTO benchmark are very impressive.

To protect the drive from overheating which is a real problem when using a very fast SSD in a small confined enclosure, Samsung have employed their DTG (Dynamic Thermal Guard) technology.

This ensures that the drive doesn't get too hot when it is involved in heavy duty sustained writing workloads by throttling back the drive should it sense that it is getting too hot – for the X5 this means a surface temperature above 45C. This can have a dramatic effect on performance. We saw this in action when we hammered the drive during repeated runs of our restore tests, where the transfer rate dropped on several occasions from 1,140MB/s down to 179MB/s for short periods when the drive got hot (53C).

We found the 1TB Samsung X5 available to pre-order on Scan.co.uk for £629.99 HERE

Pro

• Blistering performance.
• AES 256-bit hardware encryption.

Con

• Pricey.
• 3-year warranty is a bit mean.
• Not waterproof.

Kitguru says: A very impressively fast external hard drive aimed at the professional user but it does come with an equally impressive, not to mention eye-watering price tag.

 

 

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