Teamgroup X2 Max evaluate: This SSD flash drive is a mighty mite

Finest Costs Right now: Teamgroup X2 Max

The Teamgroup X2 Max took me unexpectedly. I used to be anticipating a slowish commodity drive, because it’s as small as any thumb drive in my assortment.

Nonetheless, when push got here to shove, the X2 Max delivered superlative 10Gbps USB efficiency throughout almost all of our checks — rivaling that of many considerably bigger 10Gbps SSDs. Briefly, it’s a gem.

Learn on to study extra, then see our roundup of one of the best exterior drives for comparability.

What are the X2 Max SSD’s options?

At just below 3-inches lengthy, by 0.75-inches huge, by 0.25-inches thick — and together with each a captive Kind-C port and Kind-A port — the X2 Max is outstandingly demure, even for a thumb drive. It’s so svelte it makes most of its ilk look chunky compared.

The twin port varieties, proven beneath, additionally make it straightforward to make use of with just about any USB-enabled machine on the planet. Lightning connector Apple stuff after all excepted.

The drive makes use of NVMe internals to function at 10Gbps USB 3.2 speeds, with sustained transfers maxing out at just below 1.1GBps. Teamgroup wasn’t inclined to debate the controller or particular sort of NAND concerned.

Nonetheless, given the wonderful efficiency and talent to maintain cheap switch speeds over the lengthy haul, I’m considering state-of-the-art on each counts.

There’s not particular sturdiness (TBW) score, however Teamgroup warranties the drive for a full 5 years, a munificent rarity for any exterior SSD.

How a lot is the X2 Max?

Whereas it isn’t sluggish like a commodity USB stick, the X2 Max isn’t low-cost like one both. 1TB prices $70, and the 2TB model we examined is $130. However you get what you pay for. This isn’t your father’s USB stick — it’s a full-on 10Gbps SSD in a tiny type issue. For, that, the value is correct on.

How briskly is the X2 Max?

The X2 Max benchmarked extraordinarily nicely for a 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD in CrystalDiskMark 8, ATTO 4, and AS SSD 2. It additionally carried out nicely in our fundamental real-world transfers — most impressively, by not tanking as many SSDs do throughout super-long writes.

Truly, the X2 Max is definitely the quickest thumb drive I’ve examined, and quicker than a lot of its bigger 10Gbps brethren.

Whereas not gentle years higher in CrystalDiskMark 8 than the Seagate Extremely Compact SSD and SK Hynix Tube T31, the X2 Max did finest them total in sequential transfers.

The one space the place the X2 Max lagged behind its opponents was in random efficiency beneath CrystalDiskMark 8. Not disastrously so, however definitely noticeably — particularly within the 32-queue write. In fact, I’m not conscious of any real-world software program that makes use of greater than 4 queues.

The X2 Max was again to shining in our 48GB transfers.

Observe that there have been modifications in the best way I’m testing storage. Xcopy and our new favourite utility FastCopy at the moment are used to indicate extra of the true potential of the drives, and I’ve changed the RAM disk with a 25GBps twin RAID 0 SSD array because the second drive in switch checks. Learn the “How we take a look at” part on the finish of the article for more information.

The place the X2 Max actually impressed me was with its sustained write efficiency. Throughout the 450GB write (utilizing Home windows Explorer), the X2 Max did decelerate, however not by that a lot — dropping from round 850MBps to between 500MBps and 650MBps.

The identical factor occurred once I wrote 950GB on prime of that. Due to this, I’m not useless set on recommending the 2TB drive because the 1TB model (if it behaves equally) probably gained’t sluggish tragically both. No matter you’re doing, Teamgroup… Carry on doing it.

Under is visible affirmation that the X2 Max doesn’t sluggish to an absurdly low tempo throughout lengthy writes as some SSDs do.

As you’ll be able to see above, the place the X2 Max actually separated itself from the pack was within the super-long writes — lengthy a bugaboo of thumb drives and cheaper SSDs. The upshot being that this drive is nice for prosumers and common customers alike.

Must you purchase the X2 Max?

Completely. If you need small and quick — it’s nearly unattainable to beat. Even forgetting the small, the X2 Max is greater than aggressive speed-wise with far bigger 10Gbps SSDs. It ain’t low-cost, however one of the best hardly ever is. Good on ya’, Teamgroup.

How we take a look at

Drive checks at present make the most of Home windows 11 24H2, 64-bit operating off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Professional in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Extremely i5 225 feeding/fed by two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of reminiscence whole). Each 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are built-in and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. SSDs concerned within the take a look at are mounted in a HighPoint 7604A 16x PCIe 5.0 adapter card.

We run the CrystalDiskMark 8, AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 artificial benchmarks (to maintain article size down, we solely report one) to seek out the storage machine’s potential efficiency, then a collection of 48GB and 450GB transfers checks utilizing Home windows Explorer drag and drop to indicate what you’ll see beneath Window, in addition to the far quicker Xcopy to indicate what’s potential.

The 48GB and 450GB write checks are written to/from a 25GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Highpoint 7604A. Previously the 48GB checks had been performed with a RAM disk.

Every take a look at is carried out on a newly NTFS-formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Observe that in regular use, as a drive fills up, efficiency might lower as a consequence of much less NAND for secondary caching, in addition to different elements. This may be much less of an element with the present crop of SSDs with far quicker late-generation NAND.

Caveat: The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we had been shipped and to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can and can range by capability as a consequence of extra or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes throughout and the quantity of NAND accessible for secondary caching. Distributors additionally often swap elements. In case you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report, by all means, tell us.