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The toughest benchmark available for solid state drives is AS SSD as it relies solely on incompressible data samples when testing performance. For the most part, AS SSD tests can be considered the ‘worst case scenario’ in obtaining data transfer speeds and many enthusiasts like AS SSD for their needs. Transfer speeds are displayed on the left with IOPS results on the right.
ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL
Anvil’s Storage Utilities (ASU) are the most complete test bed available for the solid state drive today. The benchmark displays test results for, not only throughput but also, IOPS and Disk Access Times. Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and use in our benchmark testing.
REAL WORLD FILE TRANSFER COMPARISON
We have put the WD_Black P50 Game Drive Portable SSD beside a few of other portable SSDs of different levels, along with the SanDisk Extreme Pro, for our true to life data testing. In this test, we simply place 15GB files representing music, video, pictures and operating systems onto the target drive. We then copy each file from one place on the target disk to another, recording the time taken for the transfer.
The 4TB version of the P50 is a tad slower than the 1GB version and this can be expected as it is the only of all the tested drives tested on an AMD Ryzen CPU based system. These results are still excellent.
REPORT SUMMARY AND FINAL THOUGHTS
As a media professional, I am not alone in the mindset that I want a sufficient backup device with me at all times for my work, regardless of where I am or what I am doing. Too many have fallen prey to something happening to their all important work or personal media, with no backup or way to recover. Western Digital’s upgrading My Passport SSD, SanDisk Extreme Portable and Pro, as well as the WD_Black P50 to 4TB capacity is a great thing.
Much has to be also said for the fact that Western Digital is all alone in providing portable SSDs that will move USB 3.2 Gen 2 data at 1GB/s (My Passport SSD/ Extreme Portable) or 2GB/s (Extreme Portable Pro/WD_Black P50) and the fact that all come with a 5-year limited warranty. Nevertheless, this still leaves me wondering about the lack of success with Thunderbolt 3 for the most part. Is it just too expensive to buy at the consumer level or does it have to do with licensing difficulties at the manufacturers level? In any case, Western Digital is doing a great job picking up those pieces to ensure USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20Gbps) gets all the recognition it deserves.
As for this sample P50 that is 4TB with 2GB/s speeds… Editors Choice!
