SABRENT Rocket Pro 512GB USB 3.2 External Aluminum SSD (SB-512-PRO)

I bought this primarily to do periodic full drive image backups for my Asus laptop, hoping for a quicker alternative to the 4GB Western Digital brand My Passport USB hard drive.I'm not disappointed.I did some basic benchmarks using real world applications to show the speed advantage to compare to the hard drive.I first tested by doing a full drive copy of my Linux drive that takes of 112.7GB, first with the USB hard drive, then with the Sabrent Rocket Pro USB NVME drive.The hard drive took 19 minutes 30 seconds, while the Sabrent Rock Pro drive took only 7 minutes 30 seconds...not bad at all.I then did a full image backup of the same drive using Clonezilla with compression switched on, again first with the USB hard drive, then with the Sabrent Rocket Pro.The average transfer rate using the hard drive: 9.64GB per minuteThe average transfer rate using the Sabrent Rocket Pro: 15.54GB per minuteMy laptop comes equipped with three USB 3.1 ports, one USB-C gen 2 (10 GiB/S throughput) port, and one USB 3.0 port, so I tested the Sabrent Rocket Pro using both the USB 3.1 and USB-C ports to see if the transfer rate might be higher on the USB-C port, but there was no difference, as shown by the numbers.I already knew that the USB 3.0 port will have only half the throughput of the USB 3.1 ports, so keep that in mind when using this and coming away disappointed that you don't get the numbers that I did.That applies even more so if you have only the much slower USB 2.0 ports, so also keep that in mind.As others have already mentioned, the packaging for the drive is outstanding, consisting of a nice aluminum shell with matching lid that nicely encloses the drive itself and both cables in closed-cell foam with appropriate recesses for cushioning.The packaging is so nice that it makes no sense to throw it away, since it works perfectly to store the drive and cables between uses.It's also worth mentioning that, contrary to the photos for this product, there is no USB-C/USB-A adapter and a single USB-C/USB-C cable, but two separate cables, one USB-C/USB-C and one USB-C/USB-A, which is better anyway.The cables themselves are of excellent construction, with stout conductors and well made connectors, with the length between six inches and one foot, so long enough to make it easy to position the drive while using it, but not so long that it's unwieldy or compromises transfer rate.The drive itself is surprisingly heavy, constructed of a fairly thick-walled aluminum shell to both contain the NVME drive inside and to act as a heat shield, and the whole thing is less than half the size of my Western Digital My Passport 4GB conventional USB powered hard drive.When using the drive for a large data transfer (over 300GB continuous backup), the drive gets only moderately warm, so it seems the heat sink properties are working well to evenly distribute the heat dissipation.So far, after multiple backups, I'm impressed with this drive, and I expect to get plenty of use out of it for some time to come.

This thing is fast. I use it primarily on my computers with USB 3.2 (USB 3.1, Gen 2) ports and get consistent read and write speeds of 950 to 1050 MBs/sec. It's not the lightest or smallest external SSD out there but it feels very substantial, solid and well built. The thick aluminum case really does its job as a heatsink. I have never had this thing get hot even when transferring large amounts of both small and large files. Slightly warm yes, but never even close to being uncomfortable to touch. I've only had it for about 2 weeks but so far I'm in love with this thing. Time will tell over the long haul if it will hold up but so far so good and I highly recommend it.

TO BE FAIR the drive is extremely fast (~950MB/s read/write) and well built. However, it's completely unreliable.Also, do you wanna get burnt? Well, this will be a perfect product to do so. I don't have a thermometer but the case reaches uncomfortable temperatures during use, where touching it is possible for five seconds tops. Additionally, the SSD randomly drops connection with the computer where other devices don't have such problem.*** UPDATE on 2020/09/23 ***I received a replacement drive and that drive completely died hours after first connection to the computer. Sabrent support suggested updating the firmware which didn't change a thing, so pretty much the drive is DOA. I verified my findings with three different computers with three different operating systems (macOS, Linux, Windows) using a range of cables.I don't know if Sabrent changed something in a new revision or recently overall, since these drives have outstanding reviews all around the web.

This is my initial impression of the device:I suppose the first thing I should mention is how nice the packaging is. Now, on to the performance...I intend to use this device for running VMs since I've outgrown my internal drive (1TB SSD), so when I plugged into my notebook (USB-C 3.0) this morning the first thing I did was transfer my VMs over - 6 VMs and an OS vmdk, ~365GB. The average transfer speed was >= 500MB/s consistently (see images) and took ~10 minutes. The drive got a little warm but nothing to be concerned with (<100F). The weight and housing of the drive is obviously heat-sink and works as expected.Once the files were copied over I resumed the (2) VMs I had been using prior to moving, acknowledged that i had moved the VMs, and everything is working wonderfully. It actually seems that the VMs are more responsive than they were on my internal HDD, and even if they aren't, I haven't noticed any loss of performance. I'm not going to run any before/after benchmarks, just going by 'feel' and it feels good.Only concern now is performance over time. If I have anything to report i'll update the review, otherwise I'm very pleased!- Update 09/03/2020After a few months in service the drive has started randomly ejecting, which is HORRIBLE when running VMs so I've already corrupted most of them. Fortunately I had backups but still lost work/lost time/frustration. I reached out to Sabrent support and am getting the runaround from them which I why I decided to update the review and hopefully save someone from the same troubles.Final thought - if you're just going to use the drive for backup/storage it should be a solid choice, but if you are planning to use the drive as an active service drive then you probably will want to look elsewhere. Overall very disappointed as this drive was crazy fast.Update 09/28/2020After numerous emails with Sabrent support I was able to get an RNA and return my drive for a replacement. I received the replacement drive today. I have to assume that it's a refurbished drive based on the physical appearance of the drive and the fact that it doesn't work - AT ALL - Fatal Hardware Failure. My PC wont even reboot with the drive connected.Update 04/09/2021 (final)I wanted to wait for the final update until I had a final review, so here it is:Sabrent did replace the faulty replacement they sent me originally, and I've been using it since October of last year. It's been very reliable and none of the issues that I experienced with the original drive. It gets hot with lots of activity, but that's to be expected. Overall I'm happy with this drive and will probably get another one at some point. I haven't' received any compensation for this review. I just wanted to give a final update. Raising to four stars.