Sabrent Rocket SSD review: A great option for cheap, fast storage for your PC

SSD prices thankfully aren't as absurd as they once were, but it's just facts that you'll always be getting less storage for more than coin than over the old mechanical hard drives. The same applies, likewise, when looking at NVMe SSD storage compared to ii.5-inch SATA drives, just it'due south not all bad news.

Y'all can notwithstanding go along a tight budget and become a fast SSD for your PC, and that's exactly where the Sabrent Rocket comes in. With prices starting at just $40 for NVMe performance, even a super upkeep build can accept smashing performing storage.

Budget functioning

Sabrent Rocket

Bottom line: NVMe operation at a low toll is hard to ignore, then long as you're not cloning an existing drive.

Pros:

Great read speeds
Fantastic price
Uses quality Toshiba NAND
v-twelvemonth warranty

Cons:

256GB model hampered compared to others in range
Not the best choice for cloning existing drives

Great performance on a upkeep

One of the main reasons to consider the Sabrent Rocket at all is the price. At the low stop, the 256GB model I have hither costs but $forty. At that place'south no other way of maxim information technology, that is cheap for an NVMe SSD. But sometimes cheap can also start alarm bells ringing, so what do you lot really get for your money?

Here'due south a quick rundown of key specs.

Category	Spec
Capacity	256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB
Interface	PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3
Sequential read	Up to 3,400 MB/s
Sequential write	Up to three,000 MB/southward
Random read	Up to 650,000 IOPS
Random write	Up to 640,000 IOPS
NAND	3D BiCS3
Controller	PS5012-E12
Warranty	5 years

It'due south important to point out that the all-time-listed specs belong to the 1TB model, which itself only sells for $110, less than half a comparably sized Samsung 970 EVO Plus, our well-nigh recommended SSD. The 256GB I have is express to 3100/1050 MB/s sequential read and write speeds, with random read and write limited to 167,000 and 256,000 IOPS respectively.

All capacities come with fantastic read speeds, but the 1TB is the cream of the crop.

The Sabrent Rocket uses retentivity from Toshiba, which speaks to its quality, and the peace of heed of a five-yr warranty is reassuring, especially when buying from a less familiar brand.

Is it a quality product, though, even when you're just paying $40? Absolutely, and that begins right from the packaging. The Rocket comes in a small metal box, and while y'all toss the packaging away, a expert showtime impression is of import. Sabrent boxes > Samsung boxes.

Specifically, I picked upwards the cheapest model because I was interested in just what yous can get from the perspective of building a budget PC. And on the whole, I haven't been disappointed.

Running a couple of key benchmarks, it'southward clear to run into in CrystalDiskMark that the Rocket does get to the manufacturers claimed numbers. You tin also see how it compares to Samsung's 970 EVO Plus, which while much faster, especially on read, is as well significantly more expensive.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark likewise shows a similarly pleasing prepare of results, with consistent read and write speeds as file sizes increase. If you lot do a lot of large file writing, video editing for example, and then you lot may still do good more from going with a brand like Samsung or Western Digital, but for full general PC builds, laptop upgrades or gaming PCs, especially those on a budget, the Rocket is an ideal SSD to house your Windows installation and most used applications.

A couple of negatives

There's a lot to like about the Sabrent Rocket, but there are some downers. The most obvious is how hampered the 256GB model is compared to the residual of the range. If all you demand is something to boot Windows from and want to spend as footling as possible, information technology'southward still an excellent choice. The performance is far beyond any affordable SATA SSD you'll detect. But to get the very best of the agglomeration you need to get the 1TB model ideally.

Fifty-fifty the 512GB model has significantly better specs than the entry-level version. That'south disappointing, and while performance differences on lower capacities aren't exactly uncommon, the disparity here between the unlike size Rockets is disappointing.

Cloning to one of these has additional steps cheers to a lack of 512-byte emulation

The other, less obvious affair to consider is if you're going to be cloning an existing bulldoze to this one. It's a bit of a pain. It uses 4k sectors and has no 512-byte emulation built-in, which means that without the right software you just flat out tin can't clone to this drive. Initially, that appeared to be more of an issue as it is now since Sabrent has since released a utility that allows you lot to reformat the bulldoze and choose the size of the sectors.

But it's not made very obvious this tool even exists, and annihilation that makes a process longer isn't going to win fans. If you're doing a clean install of Windows, there'due south absolutely no drama. It works just like any other bulldoze.

Should y'all purchase the Sabrent Rocket?

If good quality storage at an affordable price sounds good to you, and then absolutely go the Sabrent Rocket. The 512GB model at $60 is probably the best for most people, with a good balance of price and performance.

The 256GB model at just $40 is however far across the functioning you lot'll become from any SATA SSD, then even if you're just looking to spend as little as possible, information technology's a decent purchase.

The write speed on the cheapest version is disappointing, though, and if you intend to clone to your Rocket, you accept to jump through some extra hoops. But even with this in heed, this is 1 of the best affordable NVMe SSDs you can find.

Budget performance

Sabrent Rocket

First-class performance at a low toll

While write speeds aren't the greatest you'll find, on balance, this is an excellent SSD, peculiarly at the price, and a definite upgrade to a HDD or a SATA SSD.

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