TweakTown’s Ranking: 98%

The Backside Line
If you need the world’s quickest pocket transportable SSD, that is it!
Execs
- + Quickest exterior drive ever examined
- + Cool operating
- + Greatest performing
Cons
Do you have to purchase it?
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Introduction & Drive Particulars
ADATA’s SE920 exterior pocket transportable SSD represents solely the second USB4 machine we have gotten in for testing. The primary got here a bit of over a yr in the past once we received our palms on Orico’s Montage pocket sized USB4 exterior SSD. At as much as 3,200 MB/s, the Montage delivered the best learn throughput of any bus-powered pocket transportable storage machine we had ever examined, holding on to that report till as we speak.
In the present day, we’ve got one thing even sooner, and in contrast to the Montage, it totally dominates on the efficiency entrance along with attaining the best throughput of any machine of its sort. ADATA describes its latest transportable providing as follows:
“The SE920 makes use of the newest era USB4 transmission interface with a learn/write of three,800/3,700MB per second, and its warmth dissipation system is provided with a built-in micro fan. Merely pushing on the casing extends the chassis to shortly discharge warmth. When the extendable case is retracted, quantity is lowered, facilitating storage. This ingenious “patented energetic cooling” design considerably reduces temperatures by 10% in contrast with fanless merchandise of the identical specs and has received the Purple Dot Design Award, Japan GOOD Design Award, and Taiwan Excellence Award in 2022 and 2023.“
ADATA particularly designed an energetic cooling mechanism for the ultra-high-performance SE920. Activating the built-in micro fan successfully lowers IC temperatures by roughly 12% to keep up high-speed switch efficiency and case temperature at 50°C, remaining snug to the contact all through a grueling hour-long burn-in check. Spectacular.
The SE920 is a dual-interfaced machine able to delivering as much as 3,800 MB/s over USB4 or Thunderbolt4, PC, or MAC. It isn’t tremendous compact relative to among the smaller pocket-friendly storage units on the market, however in case you can match a deck of playing cards in your pocket, you’ll be able to actually pocket the SE920.
Drive Particulars
VIEW GALLERY – 25 IMAGES




Pricing is a little bit of a thriller at this level. The SE920 comes with what we’ll describe as the best high quality, most completely sized sleeved USB Kind-C cable we have come throughout to this point.

ADATA SE900 2TB
| In the present day | Yesterday | 7 days in the past | 30 days in the past | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $159.99 | $140.22 | $159.99 | |||
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* Costs final scanned on 12/12/2023 at 7:34 am CST – costs is probably not correct, click on hyperlinks above for the newest value. We might earn an affiliate fee. |
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Artificial Benchmarks: CDM, ATTO & Blackmagic
CrystalDiskMark
And there you might have it, 3,800 MB/s learn throughput at QD8. Spectacular. ADATA states the drive can hit as much as 3,700 MB/s sequential write throughput at QD32 over USB4. We’ve little question that it could possibly, however we check at QD8, not QD32, and there we’re getting roughly 3,200 MB/s, which is well the best we have ever seen from any exterior storage machine.
ACT
ATTO demonstrates the SE920 able to delivering full sequential throughput at 256K transfers. At 128K, which is what we chart, the SE920 delivers one other lab report for QD4 write throughput.
Blackmagic
When serving information to the host (studying), we discover our check topic delivering greater than 400 MB/s higher than something earlier than it. Excellent. When writing to the disk, the SE920 is barely outdone by externally powered raided units after which solely by a number of MB/s. We see that as a win for the SE920 as a result of it’s bus-powered and pocket-portable.
Actual-World Testing: PCMark 10, 3DMark SSD Gaming & Switch Charges
PCMark 10 Knowledge Drive Benchmark
The Knowledge Drive Benchmark is designed to check drives which might be used for storing information somewhat than purposes. You can too use this check with NAS drives, USB sticks, reminiscence playing cards, and different exterior storage units.
The Knowledge Drive Benchmark makes use of 3 traces, operating 3 passes with every hint as follows:
- Copying 339 JPEG information, 2.37 GB in whole,?into?the goal drive (write check).
- Making a replica of the JPEG information (read-write check).
- Copying the JPEG information to a different drive (learn check).
Our check topic completely demolishes the competitors right here, the place efficiency actually issues. This means that on-device enhancing will be executed at larger ranges than ever earlier than attainable with a pocket-sized transportable.
3DMark SSD Gaming Take a look at
UL’s latest 3DMark SSD Gaming Take a look at is probably the most complete SSD gaming check ever devised. We contemplate it superior to testing in opposition to video games themselves as a result of, as a hint, it’s far more constant than variations that may happen between runs on the precise recreation itself. This check is similar as operating the precise recreation, simply with out the inconsistencies inherent to software testing. In brief, we consider that that is the world’s finest solution to check an SSD’s gaming prowess and precisely evaluate it in opposition to competing SSDs. The 3DMark SSD Gaming Take a look at measures and scores the next:
- Loading Battlefield V from launch to the primary menu.
- Loading Name of Responsibility Black Ops 4 from launch to the primary menu.
- Loading Overwatch from launch to the primary menu.
- Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software program) whereas enjoying Overwatch.
- Putting in The Outer Worlds from the Epic Video games Launcher.
- Saving recreation progress in The Outer Worlds.
- Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike International Offensive from an exterior SSD to the system drive.
Gaming is a efficiency metric that issues to most DIY shoppers, particularly to the fanatic crowd that TweakTown caters to. We at the moment are together with gaming efficiency as part of our exterior SSD critiques, as utilizing transportable storage for gaming duties could be very in style amongst avid players.
Transportable, suitable recreation storage is a pleasant complement to any console or PC gaming machine. Along with being by far the best performing of its sort we have ever examined, the SE920 can ship gaming efficiency rivaling that of many inside SSDs. Spectacular.
DiskBench – Switch Charges


We brutalize our check topics with our extraordinarily hard-to-swallow 100GB information block. This information block is similar one we use for our inside SSD testing and consists of greater than 62K information. As we see it, 100GB might be proper on the higher restrict for a single switch, so once more, as we see it, it is a far more reasonable check state of affairs than a sustained filling of your entire drive. Once more, our check topic delivers massively and does so the place the rubber meets the highway for a conveyable storage machine.
Last Ideas
USB4 has been round for fairly a while now, however there haven’t been practically as many storage units based mostly upon this interface as we might count on. We have solely come throughout two of them, which is loopy contemplating the extent of efficiency on supply, as completely demonstrated by ADATA’s SE920.
ADATA’s latest transportable is by far the quickest, best-performing machine of its sort we have ever examined and, as such, is properly deserving of our highest award. Editor’s selection.
