The Essential X9 Professional (begins at $89.99; $129.99 for 2TB as examined) has most every little thing customers would possibly search for in an exterior SSD: a compact and light-weight body that is additionally sturdy, capacities as much as 4TB, 256-bit hardware-based encryption, and good benchmark outcomes. Whereas the X9 Professional lacks the uncooked pace of the Editors’ Selection-winning Essential X10 Professional, which is geared to videographers and inventive sorts, it does not require particular {hardware} to get essentially the most out of it, and it is available in at a cheaper price. That makes it a better option for many customers, and it earns its personal Editors’ Selection award as a general-purpose solid-state drive.
The Design: Tiny, Featherweight, and Sturdy
Measuring simply 0.3 by 2.6 by 2 inches (HWD) and weighing a mere 1.5 ounces, the oblong, matte-gray X9 Professional is created from anodized aluminum with a black, rubberized base. Its easy but interesting design consists of beveled corners, certainly one of which has a gap by way of which you’ll be able to string a lanyard. The drive’s standing LED indicator can be seen by way of the outlet.
A USB-C port resides in the course of one of many X9 Professional’s quick ends, and a really quick USB-C-to-USB-C cable is included. The X9 Professional helps USB 3.2 Gen 2, and must be appropriate with most any laptop computer or desktop laptop with a USB-C or USB-A port. (For the latter, you may want a C-to-A adapter plug or cable.) The Essential X10 Professional helps the sooner USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 customary, however to avail your self of its blazing throughput you’ll need both a appropriate laptop (few fashions, even current ones, are), or so as to add a Gen 2×2 enlargement card. Take a look at our USB-C explainer for extra on the variations between the USB interfaces.
The X10 Professional comes preformatted within the exFAT file format, and works out of the field with Home windows, Mac, Android, iPad, PC, Linux, Xbox, and PlayStation.
The X9 Professional is available in capacities ranging as much as 4TB. Many Gen 2 exterior SSDs, such because the Editors’ Selection-winning Samsung Moveable SSD T7 Contact and the Samsung Moveable SSD T7 Protect, max out at 2TB, whereas the SK Hynix Beetle X31 is restricted to 1TB.
Bodily and Knowledge Safety
The X9 Professional has some ruggedness cred, with an Ingress Safety (IP) score of IP55. This means that the drive is licensed to offer water and mud resistance, though it’s not completely impervious to positive mud and its water resistance is restricted to being sprayed or splashed with water fairly than full submersion. Some exterior SSDs, such because the ADATA SE800 with its IP68 score, are much more ruggedized, offering even higher safety from each water and mud. The X9 Professional can be licensed drop-proof as much as 7.5 toes.
The X9 Professional helps 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption, thought-about the gold customary amongst civilian-level information encryption options. Micron backs the drive with a five-year guarantee, a beneficiant span when many external-drive producers cease at three years.
Testing the Essential X9 Professional: Above-Par Pace for On a regular basis Storage
We take a look at exterior SSDs utilizing PC Labs’ Home windows 10 storage testbed, a desktop constructed on an Asus Prime X299 Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Core i9-10980XE Excessive Version CPU, housed in a SilverStone case. The system has 48GB of DDR4 Corsair Dominator RAM clocked to three,600MHz, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics card. We use the motherboard’s 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port for testing appropriate drives such because the Essential X9 Professional; for Gen 2×2 drives, we take a look at utilizing a 2×2 port added by way of an Orico PCIe enlargement card.
We put the Essential X9 Professional by way of our normal suite of exterior solid-state drive benchmarks, together with Crystal DiskMark 6.0, PCMark 10 Storage, BlackMagic’s Disk Pace Take a look at, and our personal folder switch take a look at. The primary two are run on the PC with the drive formatted in NTFS, and the latter two on an Apple MacBook Professional utilizing exFAT. Crystal DiskMark’s sequential pace checks present a standard measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of huge recordsdata. The PCMark 10 Storage take a look at measures an SSD’s readiness for all kinds of on a regular basis duties.
The X9 Professional’s Crystal DiskMark and BlackMagic pace scores had been all inside the slender vary of scores we see for the overwhelming majority of Gen 2 exterior SSDs we now have examined, and the folder-copy outcomes had been additionally typical. Its PCMark 10 Storage rating was above common for a Gen 2 SSD.
Verdict: A Standout Exterior Drive for the Remainder of Us
The Essential X9 Professional is a general-purpose exterior SSD with no important shortcomings. (We do want it included a USB-C-to-A cable or adapter for customers who want it, although.) It’s light-weight and compact, obtainable in capacities as much as 4TB, and produced good scores on all our benchmarks. The X9 Professional gives 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption and a few fundamental ruggedization options, and is backed by Micron’s five-year guarantee.
It lacks the throughput pace of the Editors’ Selection-winning Essential X10 Professional with its Gen 2×2 interface, however you needn’t purchase any further {hardware} to get essentially the most out of the X9 Professional, and it is available in at a cheaper price. (Gen 2×2 ports are uncommon, in any case.) The Essential X9 Professional is a superb all-around exterior SSD, and earns our Editors’ Selection award as such.
