Adata SE920 2 TB external SSD review
The Adata SE920 is one for all you speed freaks out there. For most people, it'll be overkill, but for those of you who don't mind throwing caution and money to the wind, it's a blazingly fast external SSD.
It belongs to a new generation of USB 4 portable SSDs. The USB 4 standard is rated for transfers at up to 40 Gbps, or 5 GB/s, while the still pretty recent and much more common USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard caps out at half of this. It's also worth noting that if you have a Thunderbolt 3, 4, or 5 port, this should support USB 4.
Don't expect a full 5 GB/s out of a USB 4 external SSD right now, though. In practice, as with the previous USB generation, drive speeds cap a little behind the theoretical maximum of the transfer protocol. For 3.2 Gen 2x2 drives, this means 2,000 MB/s and for USB 4 drives like this SE920, it means about 3,800 MB/s.
Which is still almost twice as fast as the still speedy but much more common and affordable 3.2 Gen 2x2 drives like the Adata SD810. In other words, we shouldn't take the SE920's rated speed lightly. Do mind, however, that if you don't have a USB 4 port, you'll be capped well below these rated speeds.
Capacity: 1 TB / 2 TB (tested) / 4 TB
USB Gen: 4
Rated performance: 3,800 MB/s (read) / 3,700 MB/s (write)
Flash memory: 3D NAND
Controller: ASMedia ASM2464
Price: $270
With great speed comes the requirement for great cooling, which is why this external drive comes with its interesting pop-open design. Press down on the top edge and the casing pops further apart, which allows more airflow for the «built-in micro fan» active cooling. This, Adata claims, makes it «10% cooler than fanless products of the same specifications».
It seems like the problem with USB 4 external drives is the same one that plagues PCIe 5.0 SSDs: they run very hot. As such, while a pop-open shell might seem a bit gimmicky, it might not be a bad idea after all when combined with the active cooling. Even 10% less heat can prevent some thermal throttling.
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