SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 Thunderbolt / USB Dual-Mode Portable SSD Review

Western Digital is introducing a brand new flagship transportable SSD immediately below the SanDisk Skilled model. The PRO-G40 dual-mode PSSD ticks all the fitting bins for prosumers, content material creators, and studios on the lookout for a high-performance rugged bus-powered transportable storage drive with huge compatibility. 1TB and 2TB variations can be found. Whereas the PSSD delivers its most efficiency (near 3GBps) when linked to Thunderbolt 3 hosts, it could actually additionally work as a 1GBps-class drive when linked to a USB 3.2 Gen 2 host port. Western Digital supplied us with a 2TB pattern of the PRO-G40 to place by means of our rigorous direct-attached storage analysis.

Introduction

Exterior bus-powered storage units have grown each in storage capability in addition to speeds during the last decade. Because of fast developments in flash expertise (together with the arrival of 3D NAND and NVMe) in addition to sooner host interfaces (corresponding to Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.x), we now have palm-sized flash-based storage units able to delivering 3GBps+ speeds. Whereas these speeds could be achieved with Thunderbolt 4, mass-market units should depend on USB. Throughout the USB ecosystem, USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) is quick changing into the entry stage for thumb drives and transportable SSDs.

The preliminary wave of Thunderbolt 3-based transportable SSDs and enclosures provided spectacular efficiency, however market acceptance was restricted by their incompatibility with conventional USB ports. Intel’s Titan Ridge controllers provided an attention-grabbing characteristic when utilized in shopper units corresponding to peripherals and/or docks. Along with downstream PCIe lanes, an USB 3.2 Gen 2 host interface was additionally included. This allowed producers to supply distinctive dual-mode designs by tweaking the normal JHL7440 Thunderbolt 3 SSD. The USB 3.2 Gen 2 downstream port is linked to the upstream interface of a USB to NVMe bridge chip. Relying on the host to which the drive is linked (reported by the JHL7440), the PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes of the NVMe SSD are linked to both the JHL7440’s downstream PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes or the bridge chip’s PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes. The Sabrent ROCKET XTRM-Q was one of many first PSSD lineups to help dual-mode operation primarily based on this structure.

Western Digital is becoming a member of the dual-mode bandwagon immediately with the SanDisk Skilled PRO-G40 Moveable SSD. The PSSD makes use of the WD_BLACK SN750E M.2 2280 drive internally. On the bridge facet, the JHL7440 Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controller is augmented by the ASMedia ASM2362 USB 3.2 Gen 2 – NVMe bridge chip. The enclosure itself is sort of fashionable, and is manufactured from strong aluminum. One facet is roofed by a silicone base. The drive additionally features a LED indicator and a metal-reinforced USB-C port.

These options enable the PRO-G40 to acquire an IP68 ranking – full safety in opposition to mud ingress, and no harm ensuing from full and steady impression below 1m of water. The strong aluminum core permits for drop- (as much as 3m) and crush-resistance (as much as 4000 lbs.) additionally, whereas supporting sooner warmth dissipation as a part of the thermal answer.

The PRO-G40 PSSD is available in a minimal package deal with the principle unit and a brief 20cm Thunderbolt 3 passive cable. The size might be a priority for typical desktops, however the use-case for these dual-mode drives largely entails notebooks or programs that make the most of a Thunderbolt dock as a part of the workspace.

The drive comes formatted for Macs out of the field, however it’s trivial to reformat in a single’s OS of selection. Our pattern was evaluated with the exFAT filesystem on a Home windows 10 machine. The ‘points’ plaguing all Thunderbolt SSDs on Home windows have an effect on the SanDisk Skilled PRO-G40 too. Until write caching is enabled within the quantity insurance policies for the Thunderbolt port-connected drive, the write efficiency does not match the expectations / marketed numbers.

Our coverage is to judge all exterior storage units with default OS settings – and this has been for fast elimination since we moved to Home windows 10 on our new testbed. Nonetheless, we did consider the PRO-G40 drive thrice – as soon as linked to a Thunderbolt 3 port, and one other time linked to a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port enabled by the ASMedia ASM2342 controller. In our last cross, we repeated the analysis process with the write cache settings modified, as proven within the image under (default settings on the left, and modified one on the fitting).

CrystalDiskInfo offers a fast overview of the PSSD as seen by the host system. The interface part is of explicit curiosity – NVM Specific over Thunderbolt, and UASP (NVM Specific) over USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Sort-C.

S.M.A.R.T Passthrough – CrystalDiskInfo
SDP PRO-G40 2TBSDP PRO-G40 2TB [ASM2342]Kingston XS2000 2TBSDP G-DRIVE ArmorLock 2TBSamsung T7 Defend 2TBSDP G-DRIVE 2TB	SDP PRO-G40 2TB [ASM2342]Kingston XS2000 2TBSDP G-DRIVE ArmorLock 2TBSamsung T7 Defend 2TBSDP G-DRIVE 2TBSDP PRO-G40 2TB

The desk under presents a comparative view of the specs of the completely different PSSDs offered on this overview.

Previous to wanting on the benchmark numbers, energy consumption, and thermal answer effectiveness, an outline of the testbed setup and analysis methodology is supplied.

Testbed Setup and Analysis Methodology

Direct-attached storage units are evaluated utilizing the Quartz Canyon NUC (basically, the Xeon / ECC model of the Ghost Canyon NUC) configured with 2x 16GB DDR4-2667 ECC SODIMMs and a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD – the IM2P33E8 1TB from ADATA.

Probably the most enticing side of the Quartz Canyon NUC is the presence of two PCIe slots (electrically, x16 and x4) for add-in playing cards. Within the absence of a discrete GPU – for which there is no such thing as a want in a DAS testbed – each slots can be found. In truth, we additionally added a spare SanDisk Excessive PRO M.2 NVMe SSD to the CPU direct-attached M.2 22110 slot within the baseboard with a view to keep away from DMI bottlenecks when evaluating Thunderbolt 3 units. This nonetheless permits for 2 add-in playing cards working at x8 (x16 electrical) and x4 (x4 electrical). For the reason that Quartz Canyon NUC does not have a local USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port, Silverstone’s SST-ECU06 add-in card was put in within the x4 slot. All non-Thunderbolt units are examined utilizing the Sort-C port enabled by the SST-ECU06.

The specs of the testbed are summarized within the desk under:

The testbed {hardware} is just one section of the analysis. Over the previous few years, the standard direct-attached storage workloads for reminiscence playing cards have additionally developed. Excessive bit-rate 4K movies at 60fps have turn out to be fairly widespread, and 8K movies are beginning to make an look. Recreation set up sizes have additionally grown steadily even in transportable sport consoles, because of excessive decision textures and art work. Conserving these in thoughts, our analysis scheme for direct-attached storage units entails a number of workloads that are described intimately within the corresponding sections.

• Artificial workloads utilizing CrystalDiskMark and ATTO
• Actual-world entry traces utilizing PCMark 10’s storage benchmark
• Customized robocopy workloads reflective of typical DAS utilization
• Sequential write stress check

Within the subsequent part, we’ve an outline of the efficiency of the SanDisk Skilled PRO-G40 2TB PSSD in these benchmarks. Previous to offering concluding remarks, we’ve some observations on the machine’s energy consumption numbers and thermal answer additionally.