TRIM Performance:
While SSD's offer many benefits, there are some downsides to using flash memory. One of the biggest issues people run into is performance degradation. Over time, an SSD will run out of fresh blocks and will have to write over data the file system has marked as deleted. This procedure is very complicated and can slow an SSD's write speeds considerably.
To fix this problem, most manufacturers have added TRIM support to their SSDs. The TRIM command allows an operating system, such as Windows 10, to tell an SSD which data blocks are no longer in use. Using this information, the drive pro-actively erases these blocks and adds them to the free block pool.
To test the Rocket 4 Plus's TRIM and garbage collection functions, I first put the drive in a "dirty" state. I used Iometer to fill 80% of the drive and then ran a random write test for 30 minutes. Looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the Rocket 4 Plus's average read and write speeds dropped to 2420.93 MB/s and 341.40 MB/s, respectively.
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus - Dirty
To see how well the Rocket 4 Plus could recover, I let the computer sit for about 30 minutes and then reran the test. The drive's average write speed climbed up to 5323.98 MB/s. However, its read speed lagged behind, averaging out at only 1046.84 MB/s.
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus - After TRIM
Lastly, I used Parted Magic to perform a secure erase on the Rocket 4 Plus. With the drive wiped clean, it had average read and write speeds of 5556.91 MB/s and 4827.36 MB/s, respectively.
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus- Secure Erased
Final Thoughts:
The Rocket 4 Plus is the first SSD from Sabrent to come through the 'Labs and to be honest, they could not have made a better first impression. This compact, M.2 form factor drive is powered by Phison's highly anticipated PS5018-E18 controller and is available with up to 4TB of 3D TLC NAND flash. Combine this with a large DRAM cache and a PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe 1.3 interface and you have one of the fastest consumer SSDs on the market today. In our sequential read and write tests, the 1TB version of the Rocket 4 Plus was able to read at speeds as high as 7,035 MB/s and write at speeds in excess of 5,200 MB/s. It also did fairly well in our random write tests, producing nearly 147,000 IOPS at low queue depths.
Impressive performance isn't the only thing the Rocket 4 Plus has to offer. Along with support for SMART and TRIM commands, the drive features advanced wear leveling, bad block management, error correction code and over-provisioning. The Rocket 4 Plus also comes with Acronis True Image for easy cloning and is covered by a five year warranty.
The Rocket 4 Plus is available now in 1TB and 2TB capacities and can be purchased through retailers like Amazon for $300 and $400, respectively. If you need more storage, Sabrent plans to release the 4TB version of the drive later this year. At this point, there is no word on when exactly it will be available or how much it will be.
Highs:
- Available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities
- PCIe 4.0 x4 interface with NVMe protocol
- Phison PS5018-E18 controller
- Equipped with 3D TLC NAND flash
- Excellent sequential read and write speeds
- Good random read and write performance
- Small M.2 2280 form factor
- Large DRAM cache
- Supports TRIM and garbage collection
- Advanced Wear Leveling, Bad Block Management, Error Correction Code and Over-Provisioning
- Awesome packaging
- 5 year warranty (with registration)
Lows:
- Pricey
- Does not support hardware based encryption
