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Last week we saw the first review of the Monster Digital OverDrive 3.0 512GB External SSD, only to be followed by a wicked review of the lightning fast Angelbird SSD2GO External SSD this past weekend. Today, the external SSD saga continues.
The Monster Digital OverDrive 3.0 1TB Portable SSD that we are looking at today comes in as the largest portable SSD available for retail purchase with speeds up to 250MB/s…and it fits in your pocket.
If you are a media professional, portable storage is a necessity for both trade and travel, trade being occupation of course. The ideal solution is to have the highest capacity, and most powerful portable SSD, available to quickly transfer media to and from your PC or Mac while on-the-go. Our recent review of the Angelbird SSD2Go recognized it as the worlds most powerful portable SSD by a length but its capacity only stretches to 480GB in a single drive.
As well, a recent report of the Monster Digital 512GB External USB 3.0 SSD brought decent capacity and with it, a very compact form factor. As good as the performance of the Monster Digital OverDrive 3.0 1TB external SSD we are reporting on today is, it wouldn’t be foolish enough to go head to head with SSD2Go for a second, just as the SSD2Go wouldn’t venture into the Monster Digital waters of capacity and form factor.
The Monster Digital OverDrive 3.0 External SSD is available in capacities of 128, 256, 512GB presently with the 1TB version becoming available right about the time we publish this report. Performance is listed at 250MB/s read and 150MB/s write and the manufacturers website lists warranty as being 5 years, although packaging reflects 3 years. Perhaps the most unique feature of the Overdrive isn’t so much that it is 1TB as the fact that it is only 60mm x 126mm x 8mm and smaller than most cell/smart phones.
Pricing for the OverDrive is less than $1/GB at Amazon
and the MSRP for our sample 1TB capacity is $1199 so we can guarantee you will see that below $1000 as well. We don’t think there is another external SSD in existence that reaches these price points.
The outer shell of the Monster Digital OverDrive 1TB external USB 3 SSD is of a stainless steel with laser branding. A definite plus for this unit is that it has an integrated 165mm USB3 cable with a magnetic catch. Very conceivable is the reality that we can now simply throw a 1TB capacity external device into our pocket.
Components consist of 16 pieces of Toshiba Toggle Mode NAND flash memory and each with a capacity of 32GB. The controller is the Phison PS2251 and coincidentally, we have recently seen the same controller memory in our recent Patriot Supersonic Magnum 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review, as well as our Kingston Data Traveler 512GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review.
The Integral Memory 1TB USB 3.0 SSD Portable External Solid State Drive is smaller and it is Available now. https://www.kapptech.co.uk/1tb-usb-3-0-ssd-portable-external-solid-state-drive.html
https://www.integralmemory.com/product/usb-30-portable-ssd-external
I have been looking for a product like this for ages. Thanks a lot for this review.
Your welcome!
Would the Monster SSD be powered adequately by present day 3.0 USB technology? I read a review on Amazon that identifies this point as a problem; thanks!
I don’t know exactly what you mean but…both the 512GB and 1TB capacity drives have been in use for transferring piks and videos for several months now without fail.
That sounds like good news. I don’t have a background to rely on or knowledge of the power supplied by the 3.0 USB technology vs. power required to operate the Monster SSD as rated or promoted in their advertisements. Happy New Year!
A few months back, I bought a 64Gb USB 3 memory stick (don’t recall the brand) to quickly back-up my desktop harddisk. Unfortunately, Win 7 indicated it would take some 6-12 hours to back-up 10 Gbyte — a speed comparable to that of USB 2. While I was waiting for copying the disk, I shopped around and found a Sandisk USB 3 64Gb (Extreme?). I drove to the shop and was back 1.5 hours into the copying process. With the new Sandisk USB memory stick, copying 10 Gbyte took some 12 minutes.
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My point is that USB 3 and SSD doesn’t guarantee fast operation. The use may be without fail, but it may be fast or slow — depending on the implementation. The criticism on Amazon is that the SSD they reviewed was not much faster than a fast HDD for small files.
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Angelbird SSD2go seems to be fast (indicated r/w speeds of up to 460Mb/s). But they don’t have a 1Tb version yet. Even with slow operation, SSDs may be useful — they are more rugged than HDDs. If speed is important, it is probably smart to check reviews that consider this aspect.
Small 4k files are a great deal more work to transfer than large files and this has always been known. The SSD is much more than a simple file transfer size, however, and the first step you take with access time increase is massive. IMHO, USB 3 alone has been set aside by today’s Superspeed and new releases. Angelbird is that example.
I analyse large data sets for a living. I need large capacity portable drives. What kind of performance improvement can I expect from the Monster SSD compared to read/write to a powered non-ssd 3TB Seagate external? Thanks!
Comparing ANY SSD to a hard drive when transferring large amounts of data is like comparing apples and oranges. The hard drive doesnt come anywhere close to transfer speeds. Look around our site though and see what we have posted with SuperSpeed and UASP.
Thank you for your reply, Les! I looked around and came across the Drobo Mini. It seems to be a good option for me with upgrades and expansion abilities. Your thoughts? I am wondering how the disk management software that comes with the Drobo will impact on my computer’s RAM?
The only hesitancy I might have with that is transfer speeds. The Drobo (which I am not totally familiar with by the way) uses HDD for storage which will still limit your transfer speeds from the external to the system. The SSD increases this significantly. As a more recent example, look at the MyDigitalSSD OTG we recently reviewed. Similarly, we will be reviewing the MyDigitalSSD Pocket Vault in the next few days…both with SuperSpeed that triples and even quadruples transfer rates compared to such a device.
Thanks again Les! I will investigate the MyDigitalSSD further. I see however that the Drobo (www.drobo.com) now caters for SSD as well and even have a mSATA ssd slot. It might be a product to review?
Read this…preformance sucks.
https://reviews.cnet.com/external-drive-bays/drobo-mini/4505-3033_7-35544730-2.html
Better yet:
https://www.drobospace.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=37629
We have a similar NAS on the way that we know does twice that for performance…and is very similar. To me, that is still WAY TOO LOW! I don’t know why these companies haven’t caught on yet.
Thanks again Les! I am looking at the MyDigitalSSD at the moment. Final question please. I saw you gave the OWC Envoy USB 3.0 an editors choice award. Since I am after speed and not safe storage, which would you prefer, MyDigitalSSD or OWC. Keep in mind my data analysis software runs on Windows. Also can I put a 1TB Samsung in the OWC? Thank you!
I just bought a monster digital usb 1tb ssd. I plug it in and it doe snot show up in my removable storage. I can find it in my Disk manager but I am unable to format it. I have called and emailed Monster Digital but I get do response from them. Is there a driver for this device? If so where can I get it. Is is not on the Monster Digital web site.
There is no driver; it is plug and play.
It’s USELESS to me in the Case. How do i remove the ssd from monster
digital case? I needed a 500gb SSD to permanently mount as the system
boot drive in a new PC. The SSD had the lowest price. But then it
shows up in the “Overdrive Mini” case–USELESS TO ME!!! How do I remove
it so I don’t have to waste $$$ on buying another SSD?
This is a joke post right? There is not a standard format SSD in here to use, other than to plug it into a USB which is the same as with the case.
Hi Les, thanks for the review and the info. I purchased the 1TB version and love the product. Now my issue is that the drive has stopped working and I have a feeling that it’s the cable. How do I remove the cable and replace with my own? My drive is already past the 3 years warranty. Martin
Sorry… cannot help you on this one. 3 years of use…. good run.