As a long time user of USB external storage, I'm glad to see such reviews. Since the summer I've gone down the build-your-own route after an Angelbird ssd2go died on me after a few years of commendable service. I'm currently using an Ultra II 480GB in an Inateck FE2007 (+3 pendrive USB30 ports). The 480s faster controller allows 448/425 seq R/W (23/77 for 4kQD1) so it would be interesting to see how the Extreme 500 480GB model pans out.
What about Lexar's "Professional Workflow" storage drives? They have been out for over a year. They claim up to 450 MB/s read and up to 250 MB/s write.
"Our testing methodology for DAS units also takes into consideration the usual use-case for such devices. The most common usage scenario is transfer of large amounts of photos and videos to and from the unit. The minor usage scenario is importing files directly off the DAS into a multimedia editing program such as Adobe Photoshop. "
I would have thought booting and running an OS would be the most common scenario... Certainly on Macs, the primary use I have made of SSDs is when an internal drive dies and you keep the machine useful by running it off a USB boot drive.
Obviously a machine that is now tethered to an external boot drive is not as portable or as sleek as its original form, but it's good enough for many purposes, whether that's desktop use, HTPC, or some sort of home server.
Now you can sneer that that is a stupid Mac thing, that "real computers" allow you to replace broken HDs, but a visit to Best Buy will show you that that is an idiotic claim. The majority of PCs sold are laptops, most of which are getting smaller and more difficult to replace parts in every year. Those desktops that are sold are primarily AiOs (ie iMac-style machines) again hard to get into. So it's just as relevant to these machines that they have some sort of usage story after their internal HD (by far the most fragile remaining component) dies after anywhere from two to five years.
If you think about the general market / average consumer (not from a power user mindset) - these devices actually target users who want to transfer data fast from their notebooks or desktops. I would think that a majority of that market doesn't want to bother with installing a OS on an external drive.
You might use an external drive to keep an AIO running after its internal drive died; but 99% of the people buying that sort of computer would either take it back to the store for repair or throw it out as broken and replace it entirely. Doubly so for a laptop that would lose most of its easy portability and become semi-deskbound as a result.
@name99: "The majority of PCs sold are laptops, most of which are getting smaller and more difficult to replace parts in every year. Those desktops that are sold are primarily AiOs (ie iMac-style machines) again hard to get into. "
There is a difference between difficult and unsupported. Most laptops I see aren't even that difficult to replace the HDD. Haven't seen a single AiO that poses a problem, though I'm not really in the market and I'm sure a few exist. Microsofts Surface, Apples Macbook Air, and many of the tablet / hybrid designs out there do not support internal storage replacement (list is not comprehensive).
@name99: "I would have thought booting and running an OS would be the most common scenario..."
People who find a standard laptop HDD replacement daunting will more than likely also find and externally booted OS equally daunting. I don't really think this is the common scenario. That said, it would be interesting to see an article detailing the experience of running the OS on an external drive as an internal replacement, or just as an option when two people want to "share" a computer without "sharing" the computer.
External OSes are depressingly common for iMac users. I am tech-experienced enough to have replaced laptop HDs, rewired old appliances, that sort of thing, but I am not doing what ghastly nonsense has to be done to replace my iMac HD and will be putting an external OS on it shortly (SSD research brought me to this post). I agree it is still a more power user activity, but, if you have an expensive iMac you're a lot less likely to just toss it, when you can spend a relatively small amount of money to bring it back to life.
All the PC compatible laptops, including lightweight super-portables, I have purchased in the last five years have featured hard drives that can be swapped in less than 5 minutes. My platter drives last for 6-8 years from manufacture date until disposal and even then they still work and I just upgrade. If you buy your stuff or even use Best Buy as a source for your tech, and your drives are only lasting 2-5 years, you're evidently doing it wrong.
"SanDisk confirmed that the Extreme 500 does support TRIM and also does garbage collection as well when plugged in"
Perhaps my info is wrong and/or outdated but I thought that generally TRIM is not supported through USB. I have several SSDs which are deployed inside USB 3.0 enclosures and that's an issue which I thought I'll have to address eventually. I am very curious it's done with this device.
Yes, most USB drives don't support TRIM, but a few do - such as the Corsair Voyager GTX that we reviewed a year or so back. SanDisk indicated that this one does, too - but we didn't test it out in particular.
What a coincidence this article just came out. I was shopping for these type of devices and had some of my own conclusions between this unit, a MyDigitalSSD OTG, and a Samsung T1.
Basically the T1 blows away all in terms of 4Kq32 testing and leads in sequential. Do for OS images and whatnot, that one is king.
The MyDigitalSSD OTG is faster than this one in 4k writes as well although not rugged and uses the Phison controller. You can also get a cheap 64gb version for about $45 now. For my purposes that one was the winner.
I can't understand how they missed the Samsung for this review. As far as I can tell, that unit has been and still is king. I am curious about the refresh of the Samsung, hopefully they will get up into at least 2TB capacity.
I own the Voyager GTX and it's pretty cool. Just a little bigger than your average USB flash drive. But boy is it faster. Cheap USB flash drive suck bad especially at copying many smaller files but also sequentially. I say the stick was for sure worth it just for not getting frustrated with crappy flash drive performance anymore.
SIIG is shipping a USB 3.1 enclosure. I've placed a 480 GB Patriot Blaze in mine. The performance is very good, as high as 500 MBps reads, using a Samsung 950 M.2 drive as the destination. Still, it doesn't live up to the speeds the USB 3.1 bandwidth should allow, especially combined with the Samsung's write speed to avoid that bottleneck.
Perhaps you folks could get ahold of one and do some better testing than I could here at home.
Why not compare it with Samsung T1? Can you also include those benchmarks for comparison as the review for Smausng T1 was already done on Anantech? Cheers!
Unfortunately, SanDisk Global Customer Care have confirmed that this SSD does NOT support TRIM... "We would like to clarify that TRIM cannot be enabled when the drive is a portable device."
So, on the face of it, a very nice little unit, but the lack of TRIM means a shortened life and ever-decreasing performance.
Hello. I'm desperate. My Sandisk Extreme 500 have been broken. The USB female connector have go out of the box and now dosen't work. I've all my life photos. I think i can solve open the unit and connecting a usb to SATA adapter. But How do you open it? Can you explain or send me some images or anything that can help.
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mapesdhs - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
Why does the Extreme 500 suffer so much for the Photoshop "Read" tests? What's going on there?timbotim - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
As a long time user of USB external storage, I'm glad to see such reviews. Since the summer I've gone down the build-your-own route after an Angelbird ssd2go died on me after a few years of commendable service. I'm currently using an Ultra II 480GB in an Inateck FE2007 (+3 pendrive USB30 ports). The 480s faster controller allows 448/425 seq R/W (23/77 for 4kQD1) so it would be interesting to see how the Extreme 500 480GB model pans out.jasonelmore - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
how about you start your own thread instead of latching onto someone else's legitimate question.heffeque - Tuesday, January 12, 2016 - link
My thoughts exactly.lioncat55 - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
What about Lexar's "Professional Workflow" storage drives? They have been out for over a year. They claim up to 450 MB/s read and up to 250 MB/s write.name99 - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
"Our testing methodology for DAS units also takes into consideration the usual use-case for such devices. The most common usage scenario is transfer of large amounts of photos and videos to and from the unit. The minor usage scenario is importing files directly off the DAS into a multimedia editing program such as Adobe Photoshop."
I would have thought booting and running an OS would be the most common scenario...
Certainly on Macs, the primary use I have made of SSDs is when an internal drive dies and you keep the machine useful by running it off a USB boot drive.
Obviously a machine that is now tethered to an external boot drive is not as portable or as sleek as its original form, but it's good enough for many purposes, whether that's desktop use, HTPC, or some sort of home server.
Now you can sneer that that is a stupid Mac thing, that "real computers" allow you to replace broken HDs, but a visit to Best Buy will show you that that is an idiotic claim. The majority of PCs sold are laptops, most of which are getting smaller and more difficult to replace parts in every year. Those desktops that are sold are primarily AiOs (ie iMac-style machines) again hard to get into. So it's just as relevant to these machines that they have some sort of usage story after their internal HD (by far the most fragile remaining component) dies after anywhere from two to five years.
ganeshts - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
If you think about the general market / average consumer (not from a power user mindset) - these devices actually target users who want to transfer data fast from their notebooks or desktops. I would think that a majority of that market doesn't want to bother with installing a OS on an external drive.DanNeely - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
You might use an external drive to keep an AIO running after its internal drive died; but 99% of the people buying that sort of computer would either take it back to the store for repair or throw it out as broken and replace it entirely. Doubly so for a laptop that would lose most of its easy portability and become semi-deskbound as a result.BurntMyBacon - Monday, December 14, 2015 - link
@name99: "The majority of PCs sold are laptops, most of which are getting smaller and more difficult to replace parts in every year. Those desktops that are sold are primarily AiOs (ie iMac-style machines) again hard to get into. "There is a difference between difficult and unsupported. Most laptops I see aren't even that difficult to replace the HDD. Haven't seen a single AiO that poses a problem, though I'm not really in the market and I'm sure a few exist. Microsofts Surface, Apples Macbook Air, and many of the tablet / hybrid designs out there do not support internal storage replacement (list is not comprehensive).
@name99: "I would have thought booting and running an OS would be the most common scenario..."
People who find a standard laptop HDD replacement daunting will more than likely also find and externally booted OS equally daunting. I don't really think this is the common scenario. That said, it would be interesting to see an article detailing the experience of running the OS on an external drive as an internal replacement, or just as an option when two people want to "share" a computer without "sharing" the computer.
camidumas - Friday, December 18, 2015 - link
External OSes are depressingly common for iMac users. I am tech-experienced enough to have replaced laptop HDs, rewired old appliances, that sort of thing, but I am not doing what ghastly nonsense has to be done to replace my iMac HD and will be putting an external OS on it shortly (SSD research brought me to this post). I agree it is still a more power user activity, but, if you have an expensive iMac you're a lot less likely to just toss it, when you can spend a relatively small amount of money to bring it back to life.Vladimir Py - Tuesday, July 12, 2016 - link
All the PC compatible laptops, including lightweight super-portables, I have purchased in the last five years have featured hard drives that can be swapped in less than 5 minutes. My platter drives last for 6-8 years from manufacture date until disposal and even then they still work and I just upgrade. If you buy your stuff or even use Best Buy as a source for your tech, and your drives are only lasting 2-5 years, you're evidently doing it wrong.maofthun - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
"SanDisk confirmed that the Extreme 500 does support TRIM and also does garbage collection as well when plugged in"Perhaps my info is wrong and/or outdated but I thought that generally TRIM is not supported through USB. I have several SSDs which are deployed inside USB 3.0 enclosures and that's an issue which I thought I'll have to address eventually. I am very curious it's done with this device.
ganeshts - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
Yes, most USB drives don't support TRIM, but a few do - such as the Corsair Voyager GTX that we reviewed a year or so back. SanDisk indicated that this one does, too - but we didn't test it out in particular.Scipio Africanus - Saturday, December 12, 2015 - link
What a coincidence this article just came out. I was shopping for these type of devices and had some of my own conclusions between this unit, a MyDigitalSSD OTG, and a Samsung T1.Basically the T1 blows away all in terms of 4Kq32 testing and leads in sequential. Do for OS images and whatnot, that one is king.
The MyDigitalSSD OTG is faster than this one in 4k writes as well although not rugged and uses the Phison controller. You can also get a cheap 64gb version for about $45 now. For my purposes that one was the winner.
ssddaydream - Saturday, December 12, 2015 - link
I can't understand how they missed the Samsung for this review. As far as I can tell, that unit has been and still is king. I am curious about the refresh of the Samsung, hopefully they will get up into at least 2TB capacity.beginner99 - Monday, December 14, 2015 - link
I own the Voyager GTX and it's pretty cool. Just a little bigger than your average USB flash drive. But boy is it faster. Cheap USB flash drive suck bad especially at copying many smaller files but also sequentially. I say the stick was for sure worth it just for not getting frustrated with crappy flash drive performance anymore.epobirs - Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - link
SIIG is shipping a USB 3.1 enclosure. I've placed a 480 GB Patriot Blaze in mine. The performance is very good, as high as 500 MBps reads, using a Samsung 950 M.2 drive as the destination. Still, it doesn't live up to the speeds the USB 3.1 bandwidth should allow, especially combined with the Samsung's write speed to avoid that bottleneck.Perhaps you folks could get ahold of one and do some better testing than I could here at home.
The_Smoker - Thursday, December 17, 2015 - link
Why not compare it with Samsung T1? Can you also include those benchmarks for comparison as the review for Smausng T1 was already done on Anantech? Cheers!DavidOn - Wednesday, March 9, 2016 - link
Unfortunately, SanDisk Global Customer Care have confirmed that this SSD does NOT support TRIM..."We would like to clarify that TRIM cannot be enabled when the drive is a portable device."
So, on the face of it, a very nice little unit, but the lack of TRIM means a shortened life and ever-decreasing performance.
Sadly, avoid.
leozelig - Thursday, February 23, 2017 - link
Hello. I'm desperate. My Sandisk Extreme 500 have been broken. The USB female connector have go out of the box and now dosen't work. I've all my life photos. I think i can solve open the unit and connecting a usb to SATA adapter. But How do you open it? Can you explain or send me some images or anything that can help.Best regards
Desperate user