Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
Sabrent ’s XTRM - Q 16 TB is huge , and very fast under some circumstance when used in RAID 0 , but it ’s extremely pricey and relies on your OS for RAID . Mac public presentation miss quickly during tenacious test sessions .
At first rosiness , I was quick to make love Sabrent ’s XTRM - Q 16 TB ( SB - DXMQ-8X2)–$3,300 cost tatter or no . How can you argue with having16TBof storage at the end of your Thunderbolt cable television ? Especially with Apple ’s consistent habit of force out you for internal storage rise .
Alas , consternation prove more the final result of my hands - on than heart . The parkway relies on your operating system for RAID functionality , does n’t power up mechanically , and carrying into action on an M1 iMac was hit then lack .
This shows the XTRM-Q 16TB’s performance on the first pass with Disk Speed Test, and around the 20th. This test really takes only about 30 seconds per run.
Design and features
The XTRM - Q 16 TB is a charcoal gray , Al , dual - NVMe / M.2 enclosure featuring two Sabrent 8 TB , 96 - level QLC force with Phison E8 controllers . It evaluate or so 4.5 - inch longsighted , 2.5 - inches wide , by 0.75 - column inch duncish . The enclosure is bountiful , wrap in a obliterable silicone sleeve for protection , and features a Type - C Thunderbolt 3 port , a office jack , and an on / off button .
bombshell 3 delivers a fair amount of exponent across the double-decker , well enough for a single NVMe SSD , and I would ’ve thought for two . on the face of it not , hence the might jak and external 1.5 amp provision . Besides furnish more than enough ability , an external mightiness supply allows you to use the drive on an Thunderbolt 2 system using only a T2 to T3 convertor . On the other hired man , it makes the XTRM - Q 16 TB considerably less convenient to hang back about than bus - powered campaign .
Sabrent
This shows the XTRM-Q 16TB’s performance on the first pass with Disk Speed Test, and around the 20th. This test really takes only about 30 seconds per run.
Also inconvenient is the on / off push button , which is momentary . I could sympathize a switch that keep back its state , as the drive uses so much power , but having to turn it on every time you want to use it is un - fun . It also squeeze you to keep the drive where you’re able to enter the switching . mechanically power up when sensing bus power , as most do , would make far more sense .
The kicker is , that with an outside power provision , there ’s good deal of juice for a RAID chip . Instead , Sabrent opt to use your operating organization ’s RAID capabilities . This imply that once formatted in RAID 0 or 1 style , you ca n’t move from Windows to the Mac , or vice versa . It also intend you ’re dependent to the execution vagaries of software RAID , which relies on your CPU . If your CPU is busy with other stuff , say encoding a file , disk performance may suffer .
Performance
The first issue with the XTRM - Q 16 TB was that on our M1 iMac it was n’t as fast as claimed , and slowed down rather rapidly as Disk hurrying Test proceed . By a substantial leeway as you could see in the image below . remark that Mac testing followed PCWorld testing so the effort was n’t pristine .
The RAID 1 mirror results were also entrancing , however , as this is macOS ’s integrated software RAID , it ’s well-nigh insufferable to tell what the issue might be . The slowdowns could be due to the QLC NAND slowing when write natively , i.e. , you publish the full four bits ( 16 electric potential horizontal surface ) rather than just one . However , it could just as easily have been the Apple RAID implementation .
With no substantial perceptivity on the odd carrying out on the Mac , I ’ll move on the to the far more stable results from the PCWorld ’s Windows test political program . Under CrystalDiskMark in RAID 0 stripy modality ( datum is spread or striped across both disks ) , and under idealistic conditions , the XTRM - Q 16 TB was very fast both reading and writing : 2827MBps and 2664MBps respectively . publish speed was halved in RAID 1 mirror fashion , but the read speed continue closely as fast .
The XTRM - Q 16 TB was very fast in our 48 GB transportation tests , shown below , though not as fast as theSamsung X5orOWC Envoy Express FX . The latter can be attached via Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3 .
The one test that the XTRM - Q 16 TB decree over was the 450 GB write . It was smooth and unbendable , and a in effect two instant quicker than the next fastest X5 . That ’s no little thoughtfulness if you ’re drop a line prominent bare-assed high-pitched - resolution files to the driving force on a invariant foundation .
notice that the XTRM - Q 16 TB ran particularly warm , even when stagnate . A fan might be in society for the next iteration . Also , I test the XTRM - Q with the drives numerate individually , which is actually the default . carrying into action in this configuration was near superposable to mirrored RAID 1 .
This shows the XTRM-Q 16TB’s performance on the first pass with Disk Speed Test, and around the 20th. This test really takes only about 30 seconds per run.
The XTRM - Q 16 TB did just fine on a Windows personal computer , but this is Macworld , so the lag in Disk focal ratio Test limit my ability to praise the drive . I ’d have liked to test one of the SSDs inside on its own on our PCWorld testbed , however , the enclosing is sealed .
The PCWorld examination employ Windows 10 64 - minute running on a Core i7 - 5820K / Asus X99 Deluxe system with four 16 GB Kingston 2666MHz DDR4 module ( 64 GB total ) , a Zotac ( Nvidia ) GT 710 1 GB x2 PCIe graphics card , and an Asmedia ASM3242 USB 3.2×2 card . It also contain a Gigabyte GC - Alpine Thunderbolt 3 card , and Softperfect Ramdisk 3.4.6 for the 48 GB read and write test .
Write public presentation will diminish as the drive fills up due to less NAND available for subaltern cache . In some rare cases , components may alter for the worse . If your drive , given similar ironware , does not perform as well as our trial unit , please get us know .
Current Macworld psychometric test habituate a M1 - ground , 24 - inch iMac with 8 GB of retention and a 512 GB SSD .
Not what it could have been
The XTRM - Q 16 TB works exquisitely when employ under specific scenarios and should be fine for Windows user . However , the performance dips and incompatibility on the Mac , as well as the deficiency of robotic power - on were debilitating and plaguey in turn . As enticing as 16 TB vocalise , it ’s not delivered here in a manner commensurate with the price , or likely expectations .
I advocate that you go with another solution such as a bus - powered 4TB/8 TB external SSD ( includingSabrent ’s ) for performance , and a brace of capacious external hard drives for capacity and redundance . mention that Sabrent also sells this enclosure as aDIY unit .
This clause was edited on 7/7/2022to right three bit to four bits in the performance section on QLC NAND .
The XTRM-Q 16TB was very fast in our 48GB transfers tests, though not as fast as the Samsung X5 or OWC Envoy Express FX. The latter can be attached via Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.
The XTRM-Q 16TB was one of the fastest external drives we’ve tested when writing a single 450GB file to its cells.
