Crucial launched the X6 Portable SSD final 12 months as an entry-level different to their NVMe-based X8 Portable SSD. Launched in capacities of as much as 2TB, the X6 adopted a 96L 3D TLC model of the BX500 SATA SSD together with an ASMedia ASM235CM SATA to USB 3.2 Gen 1 bridge chip. Today, the corporate is launching a novel high-performance product within the exterior SSD house inside the identical X6 household.
Direct flash-to-USB controllers have historically been used solely in thumb drives, the place compactness is the first characteristic. These controllers current an a variety of benefits together with vital discount in bill-of-materials (BOM) price and total gadget energy consumption. However, such controllers have usually been restricted to speeds of round 400MBps. Taking benefit of the USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Gen 2×2 interfaces, Phison launched a few high-speed flash controllers with a direct USB interface at CES 2021. The U17, sporting a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) upstream interface and a 2-channel 1200 MT/s downstream NAND interface, is the one on which Crucial’s Portable SSD 4TB is predicated.
Crucial claims speeds of as much as 800MBps for each reads and writes. This is considerably larger than the 540 MBps numbers doable with the SATA-based exterior SSDs. Officially, the X6 drives have ‘Micron 3D NAND’ and there’s no specification of the technology / layer rely. However, Crucial indicated that the X6 4TB drives being shipped at present include 96L Micron 3D NAND (QLC). As is common with Micron / Crucial, it’s doubtless that the NAND technology could get up to date sooner or later to permit Micron to supply even cheaper price factors.
The new 4TB X6 Portable SSD is priced at $490. At this value level, it compares fairly favorably with the opposite QLC-based exterior SSDs such because the Sabrent XTRM-Q (although the latter comes with a Thunderbolt interface). The different 4TB exterior SSDs available in the market are from Western Digital, with costs starting from $680 to $750. Given their 3D TLC flash and the utilization of a NVMe drive behind a bridge chip, they’ll provide significantly better efficiency, endurance, and extra flexibility (equivalent to the flexibility to salvage the inner SSD within the case of a bridge chip failure) for skilled use-cases. However, for the typical client, the worth per GB in addition to value to efficiency ratio are each in Crucial’s favor with the brand new X6 Portable SSD based mostly on the Phison U17 controller.
