TweakTown’s Ranking: 98%
The Backside Line
If you need elegant, quick and supremely suitable moveable storage, Essential’s X9 Professional moveable SSD delivers all.
Execs
- + Compatibility
- + Compact
- + Pricing
Cons
Must you purchase it?
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Introduction & Drive Particulars
Somewhat over two years in the past, we acquired our first style of Silicon Movement’s SM2320 native USB controller through an engineering pattern. From that day to today, exterior SSDs based mostly on the SM2320 native USB controller have remained, for us anyway, most popular over all others. Why? Supreme compatibility.
Up to now, we have seen many moveable SSDs that includes Silicon Movement’s SM2320 controller, all of which rank among the many greatest gadgets ever made. The primary purpose is that SMI’s beautiful controller is native USB, that means it would not want a bridge chip to translate NVMe to USB. No bridge chip means much less warmth, much less energy draw, and common compatibility.
Essential has launched a brand new line of moveable SSDs based mostly on what we consider is the most effective moveable SSD controller ever made, the aforementioned SM2320. This controller not solely affords supreme compatibility throughout all USB host gadgets but in addition permits for brand new slim, compact, pocket-friendly enclosures.
Essential’s X9 Professional is a slim, rugged, and pocket-friendly moveable speedster, starkly contrasting to its earlier portables which are roughly twice the dimensions of our take a look at topic. Moreover, it runs a lot cooler than its predecessors. The X9 Professional gives plug-and-play compatibility with Home windows, Mac, Android, iPad, PC, Linux, PlayStation, and Xbox gaming consoles through an included USB-C cable. Safety through password safety and 256-bit AES {hardware} encryption.
Drive Particulars
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The Essential X9 Professional Transportable SSD is available in anodized aluminum with a rubberized soft-touch base in a mini 65 x 50 mm design that features a drive exercise gentle within the built-in lanyard gap. With IP55 water and dirt resistance and drop-proof sturdiness as much as 7.5 toes/2 meters, your beneficial knowledge is effectively secured.
Essential X9 Professional 2TB Transportable SSD
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* Costs final scanned on 12/11/2023 at 5:00 am CST – costs might not be correct, click on hyperlinks above for the newest worth. We could earn an affiliate fee. |
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Artificial Benchmarks: CDM, ATTO & Blackmagic
CrystalDiskMark
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25Glorious sequential throughput for a 10Gbps interfaced moveable gadget. At 1,092 MB/s, our take a look at topic is true up there with the most effective we have seen from equally interfaced gadgets. QD1 random efficiency signifies that the drive will ship glorious efficiency if serving as a conveyable gaming gadget.
ACT
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25ATTO demonstrates the X9 Professional can ship primarily full sequential efficiency at 128K transfers. Precisely what we wish to see from any storage gadget.
Blackmagic
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25When serving knowledge to the host, we discover our take a look at topic delivering among the many greatest we have seen thus far for a 10Gbps storage gadget. It’s considerably higher than any 10Gbps moveable with a bridge chip. Excellent.
Actual-World Testing: PCMark 10, 3DMark SSD Gaming & Switch Charges
PCMark 10 Information Drive Benchmark
The Information Drive Benchmark is designed to check drives which are used for storing recordsdata quite than functions. You may as well use this take a look at with NAS drives, USB sticks, reminiscence playing cards, and different exterior storage gadgets.
The Information Drive Benchmark makes use of 3 traces, operating 3 passes with every hint as follows:
- Copying 339 JPEG recordsdata, 2.37 GB in whole,?into?the goal drive (write take a look at).
- Making a replica of the JPEG recordsdata (read-write take a look at).
- Copying the JPEG recordsdata to a different drive (learn take a look at).
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25Greatest-in-class efficiency right here. It is the most effective we have ever attained from any native USB gadget, together with these with a 20Gbps interface. Spectacular.
3DMark SSD Gaming Take a look at
UL’s latest 3DMark SSD Gaming Take a look at is essentially the most complete SSD gaming take a look at ever devised. We think about it superior to testing in opposition to video games themselves as a result of, as a hint, it’s way more constant than variations that can happen between runs on the precise sport itself. This take a look at is similar as operating the precise sport, simply with out the inconsistencies inherent to utility testing. In brief, we consider that that is the world’s greatest approach to take a look at 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 Obligation 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 sport progress in The Outer Worlds.
- Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike International Offensive from an exterior SSD to the system drive.
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25Gaming 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 opinions, as utilizing moveable storage for gaming duties could be very fashionable amongst avid avid gamers.
Extremely-portable, totally suitable storage is a pleasant complement to any console or PC gaming gadget. The X9 Professional is among the many greatest selections one could make for this position.
DiskBench – Switch Charges
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25We brutalize our take a look at topics with our extraordinarily hard-to-swallow 100GB knowledge block. This knowledge block is similar one we use for our inside SSD testing and contains greater than 62K recordsdata. 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 way more real looking take a look at state of affairs than a sustained filling of all the drive.
100GB at 764 MB/s is the most effective we have obtained from any 10Gbps storage gadget. Spectacular.
Ultimate Ideas
It is nice to see one other native USB gadget based mostly on SMI’s 2320 controller. We love what Essential has achieved with the bodily design of the X9 Professional’s enclosure. It is completely sized and slim, so it is tremendous pocket-friendly, which is a should as we see it. The pricing is superb as effectively.
25Essential’s X9 Professional is without doubt one of the greatest examples of elegantly designed, quick, environment friendly, suitable, and rugged moveable storage we have ever come throughout, and, as such, it deserves our highest award. Editor’s alternative.
