Rocket XTRM-Q 16TB External SSD Promises Speed And Storage Capacity

Any user who moves large files to and from a desktop or laptop computer wants the fastest external storage possible. Moving large files can take an extremely long time with slow interfaces and storage solutions. Sabrent has unveiled a new external SSD inside an aluminum housing called the Rocket XTRM-Q (SB-DXMQ-8X2). The solid aluminum enclosure is built for durability and helps dissipate heat.The drive also features an integrated temperature and health monitoring system, and the magnetic fasteners require no tools to open. The connection to the computer doesn't power the external storage device, a power adapter is required and is included. Inside the aluminum enclosure is a pair of eight terabyte discs providing a total of 16 terabytes of additional storage.

Each of those eight terabyte drives can be used separately or combined using software to function as a single large drive. The drives can be set up in a RAID 0 configuration for maximum performance or RAID 1 for data safety by copying the same data to both discs. JBPD/SEQUENTIAL is supported and writes data until the disk is full and then begins writing to the second disc.

The key selling point for the Rocket XTRM-Q is speed. Single disc speeds of up to 1400 MB/s for a single SSD or up to 2800 MB/s in RAID 0 are supported. The drive is also Thunderbolt 3 native with an integrated controller. The drive is fully certified by Intel to use Thunderbolt 3 technology, with the manufacturer claiming it's one of the few who are fully certified by Microsoft.

While the performance and durability for the Rocket XTRM-Q are impressive, its price might be shocking. The manufacturer lists the external storage device at $3299.99. The drive can be found at a lower price on Amazon, but it's still very expensive at $2899.99.