Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
is a juicy number when it comes to holding lots of games, and there’s no reason why you can’t do this on last-gen consoles and for ever-growing Steam libraries. From a performance viewpoint, the X6 and X8 fall under different categories that are referred to here on as SATA-class and NVMe-class. Under the SATA-class devices, the Crucial Portable SSD X6 is pitted against the following external SSDs that were reviewed earlier: The X6 seems to have a power consumption profile similar to other drives in the set. The 1W+ idling number is a bit too high for our liking when attempting to use the drive with battery-powered devices, but the competition is not much better in any case.
The X8 2TB version consumes less power than the 1TB version from last year. In addition, the peak power consumption is the lowest for the X8 2TB drive. Idle power consumption is not as good, with the OWC Envoy PRO EX USB-C being much more efficient on that front. Pricing A similar drive with a Thunderbolt 3 interface might outperform the X8, but as far as USB-connected devices go, this is about as fast a drive as you're going to see at this price point. We ran a series of benchmark tests on both Macs and PCs and were more than pleased with the results. (On the PC side, we used our standard Intel X299-based storage testbed, with a motherboard-hosted USB 3.1 Gen 2 USB-C port. On the Mac side, we used a 2016 MacBook Pro and used the provided USB-C cable with one of the laptop's Thunderbolt 3 ports.) The X8 consistently scored at or near the top of the heap when compared to other SSDs we tested. This thing is fast, definitely performing at or near its advertised speeds. To test this, I used AS SSD's copy benchmark, which involves transferring three different file types from my OS drive to the X8 – an ISO folder consisting of two large files, a programs folder with lots of little files, and finally a game folder that’s made up of both big and small files. Crucial's X8 hangs in there with the best during our sequential tests. It delivers very responsive performance under random workloads, too. With the X8's random 4K QD (queue depth) 1 read speeds being at least one-third faster than the competition, it's no wonder the X8 performs so well when we hit it with the easier workloads. It's a responsive SSD with strong low-queue depth random read and write performance, which is important because this workload models normal light usage. Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery, and Temperature
Recently Viewed
Unleash your creative energy in the field with the Crucial X8 portable SSD and Apple’s iPad Pro. Add up to 2TB of capacity to your tablet instantly. Curate, edit, and export multi-stream video without your computer or an internet connection. Seamlessly works with popular video-editing software like LumaFusion.
Increasing capacities and falling prices make external USB-based SSD storage more attractive than ever. Though not the fastest drive on the market, Crucial’s X8 Portable SSD, available in 1TB and 2TB capacities, makes a strong case for a number of reasons. On the NVMe-class drives front, CrystalDiskInfo provides the following information. NVMe-Class External Drives InformationIncrease storage capacity for nearly any computer, tablet, phone, or console. Works with Windows, Mac, iPad Pro, Chromebook, Android, Linux, PS4, and Xbox. Connect with a USB-C 3.2 Gen2 interface or use our included adapters for USB-C or USB-A connections.
Both the HP P600 and the ADATA SC680 show signs of a SLC cache. On the other hand, the X6 starts off at around 200 MBps and goes down to around 35 MBps after 240GB of continuous writes. At 195 MBps, the drive already starts off with low expectations, and there is not much to write home about. Evaluation of DAS units on Windows is done with a Hades Canyon NUC configured as outlined below. We use one of the rear USB Type-C ports enabled by the Alpine Ridge controller for both Thunderbolt 3 and USB devices. AnandTech DAS Testbed Configuration The ASMedia ASM2362 USB 3.2 Gen 2 bridge controller handles communication between the USB interface and the PCIe NVMe SSD. It boasts a solid design that offers power management capability for low heat output and port connection stability. It links up to the NVMe SSD over a PCIe 3.0 x2 interface for low communication overhead and better performance. Form meets function with the Crucial X8. Built with a unibody core of anodized aluminum, the case not only looks and feels great, but dissipates heat efficiently to maximize performance. Housed within the casing is essentially a Crucial P1 SSD with modified firmware. The P1 is Crucial’s entry-level NVMe SSD that is powered by a Silicon Motion SM2263EN controller and features Micron’s 1TB 64L QLC NAND. Because QLC NAND has slow direct to flash speeds, Micron programmed in a dynamic pseudo-SLC write cache to speed up write performance. And, since the X8 is a portable device, the firmware on the internal SSD needed to be modified to suit the tasks, so, Crucial made the write cache a bit larger.
PCMark 8 has a storage test that simulates how well a drive will function under everyday workloads such as videoconferencing and word processing. All five of the tested drives performed similarly; the Crucial again came out on top but by a negligible amount. The X8, on the other hand, performs admirably with the SLC cache - For around 256GB of continuous writes, the drive provides 825 MBps+ of bandwidth before slipping down to around 150 MBps for the direct-to-QLC writes. The reason for the X8's stellar performance for normal workloads lies in this SLC cache. Normal workloads rarely go beyond this huge cache, and that is enough to make the X8 lead the charts in almost all tests. The problem is when the SLC cache runs out - as is possible for creative professionals transferring huge work files. Crucial does mention read-intensive workloads as the main focus of the drive, and hence folks with those types of workloads may well prefer SSDs such as the SanDisk Extreme PRO v2. Power Consumption Inside, Crucial uses 64-layer QLC NAND allied to a four-channel Silicon Motion SM2263 controller bridging over to USB. X8 opts to include the version using DDR4 memory – there is another relying on the Host Memory Buffer (HMB) interface for buffering duties – but do appreciate sequential speed is capped at 10Gbps, even though the controller and NAND can run faster in a PCIe-attached M.2 NVMe environment.
Great Deal 
New Comment