PC World - USA (2021-02)

94 PCWorld FEBRUARY 2021

REVIEWS SABRENT ROCKET 4 PLUS NVME SSD

Rocket 4 Plus’s CrystalDiskMark 6 sustained

throughput numbers are impressive indeed,

trading first place between writing and

reading with the Samsung 980 Pro (go.

pcworld.com/s980).

The Rocket 4 Plus couldn’t quite match

the 980 Pro’s overall real world performance

in our 48GB transfer tests, but it took a solid

second place.

CrystalDiskMark’s 4K tests showed

another story—the Rocket 4 Plus lagged

significantly.

Where the 2TB Rocket 4 Plus really rocked

was in our 450GB sustained write tests. Note

however, that the 980 Pro Samsung sent me

was only a 1TB model. Though it’s not shown

in the charts, the 1TB version dropped to

around 675MBps (PCIe 3) at around the

350GB mark in the copy and took 386

seconds, compared to the 2TB version’s 250

seconds on PCIe 3 and 209 seconds over

PCIe 4. Yes, cache makes a difference.

I should also mention that in general, it’s

never a good idea to run an SSD close to

capacity. Write speeds will slow down

tremendously without NAND available as

cache. Always overbuy in terms of capacity.

The PCIe 3 tests utilized Windows 10

The Rocket 4 Plus turned in a very good

performance with 48GB Windows transfers

though it couldn’t match the Samsung 980 Pro.

Total Time

239

322

262

48GB transfers

Seconds

Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus (PCIe) Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4

Seagate FireCuda 520 PCIe 4 Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus (PCIe 3)

327

48GB Folder Write

98

128

106

134

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

48GB Folder Read

97

153

110

140

48GB Write

48GB Read

24

23

22

22

22

23

29

19

The Rocket 4 Plus’s CrystalDiskMark 6 sustained

throughput numbers are impressive indeed.

Sequential Write (Q=32, T=1)

5,188

3,892

6,601

CrystalDiskMark 6

MBps

Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus (PCIe) Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4

Seagate FireCuda 520 PCIe 4 Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus (PCIe 3)

3,483

Sequential Read (Q=32, T=1)

7, 1 2 9

4,525

6,985

3,547

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE