The original Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus (opens in new tab) was released in the winter of 2020 and, while not the fastest drive, offered great performance at a reasonable price. However, Sabrent believes it can surpass it, and has updated the firmware on its Phison PS5018-E18 controller and adopted Micron B47R NAND TLC memory to improve the drive's performance.

Somewhat confusingly, Sabrent has not badged these new drives differently from the original SSDs, so you may not know which you are getting. Sabrent has stated that all of the original drives have been sold out, so you can be sure that everything on the reseller's shelf Everything that is there must be this new generation, but it is impossible to tell just from the packaging.

Once the drive is installed in the machine, you can check the firmware version using the Sabrent Rocket Control Panel app. New drives use R4PB47.2 firmware, while original drives use RKT4P1.2 firmware. The NAND flash used may also be visible, but to do so you will need to remove the metal sticker on the front of the drive.

The drives are available in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB capacities, with prices ranging from $149 for a 1TB drive to $1,499 for the highest capacity. Heatsinks can be obtained at the time of purchase, although they may not be necessary depending on the cooling performance of the motherboard and current case configuration. 7]

For reference, we benchmarked the drive without additional cooling, not even provided by the motherboard manufacturer, and the maximum temperature was 70°C which is warm, but not alarming. This is warm, but nothing to worry about; it is well below the rated operating temperature of 85ºC. It is also worth noting that benchmarks are much more demanding on the drive than normal daily use, so it is unlikely that such temperatures would be reached under normal circumstances.

Before we get into the benchmark, it is worth noting the numbers that Sabrent presents for this new drive. These are a peak sequential read speed of 7,000 MB/s and a write speed of 5,500 MB/s for the 1 TB model; the 2 TB and 4 TB drives will have a write speed of 6,850 MB/s and random 4K IOPS of 650K, which is higher than the 350K we have seen.

At the end of the specs, Sabrent offers an endurance of 700 TBW, which doubles to 1,400 TBW for the 2TB model. To qualify for this warranty, one must register when purchasing the drive, but it is not an unreasonable requirement.

Sabrent can be surprisingly conservative when it comes to quoted sequential throughput, and in fact, tests have confirmed higher numbers for writes: 5,875MB/s on CrystalDiskMark and 5,604MB/s on ATTO

Aside from write performance, the results are pretty much what one would expect from a second-generation PCIe 4.0 SSD. It is fundamentally a strong performer, especially when it comes to synthetic benchmarks.

The problem here for Sabrent is that this performance is not really something to get excited about; in PCMark 10 and real-world tests, the WD Black SN850 puts up better numbers. For example, file copies took 140 seconds, a few seconds slower than the WD drive.

This new version of the Sabrent also can't compete when it comes to Final Fantasy XIV load times, with the WD drive still in first place at under 7 seconds. It is by no means lagging far behind, but given that the price of the WD drive is currently the same as this drive, it is clear that money should be invested in the WD drive.

The new version of the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus is a welcome release, even if it does not dramatically change the drive's position in the market. With the recent release of faster drives like the Kingston Fury Renegade (open in new tab) and lower-priced drives like the WD Black SN770 (open in new tab), the new Rocket 4 Plus, while not the fastest or cheapest, is a worthy candidate! .