Up shiny and early this morning to place the ending touches on what has been a whirlwind of SSD critiques over the previous few weeks. In lower than 48 hours, I’ll be setting the keyboard apart for a month as I embark on a coast-to-coast-to-coast bike journey throughout North America in beneath three weeks, Atlantic to Pacific and again once more.
The trip helps an unimaginable trigger: elevating consciousness of PTSD and selling psychological wellness amongst Navy and First Responder Veterans. We not too long ago shared a put up concerning the occasion, and whereas it might appear uncommon to say a motorbike trip in an SSD evaluate, there’s a becoming connection.
Nothing stops this trip. Greater than 130 “full pull” riders will face regardless of the highway throws at us, and that type of endurance jogs my memory of the SanDisk Optimus GX Professional 8TB 8100 Gen5 SSD. Rated for an distinctive 4,800TBW and backed by a five-year restricted guarantee, it’s designed to resist demanding workloads 12 months after 12 months. And with respect to hurry, the GX Professional 8100 is among the quickest… which once more ties into my given nickname of ‘Ticket Grasp’. We don’t talk about this any additional.
Just like the 8100, our group pushes ahead by way of the sudden. The picture above was taken throughout our 2024 tour, on what grew to become Halifax’s wettest single day on document, as torrential rain did not sluggish the trip. Should you’d wish to be taught extra about this unimaginable journey, go to The Rolling Barrage web site, or comply with alongside by way of any of my social media channels. This will likely be my fourth trip throughout Canada, and as soon as once more, each mile is for a trigger that actually issues. You’ll be able to even donate to an awesome trigger right here as TRB has included a ‘Sponsor-a-Rider’ fundraising alternative to assist us alongside if you want to participate!
As a fast refresher, we beforehand reviewed this SSD in its 2TB configuration when it was marketed because the SanDisk WD_Black SN8100, previous to the cut up between SanDisk and Western Digital. Other than the rebranding, efficiency and specs stay nearly unchanged. The distinction at present is that our Check Bench is house to the spectacular 8TB mannequin, a capability that has turn out to be more and more unusual as NAND costs proceed to rise.
The SanDisk Optimus GX Professional 8100 is a PCIe 5.0 (Gen5) x4 NVMe SSD constructed across the newest NVMe 2.0 specification. It’s accessible in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB capacities. One noteworthy design function is that the 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB fashions are all single-sided, whereas the 8TB model makes use of a double-sided PCB to accommodate its considerably larger NAND density.
Efficiency specs are variable with the 8TB model chatting with 14.9GB/s learn and 13.2GB/s write with as much as 2200K learn and 2400K write IOPS. The 8100 has TCG Opal 2.02 encryption as a safety function and this SSD is predicated on a 2280 type issue, which means it measures 22mm vast by 80mm lengthy and weighs beneath 10g. The 1TB model drops only a bit to 11GB/s write and 1.6 million IOPS random learn and a full record of specs are proven right here:
On the coronary heart of the 8100 is a SanDisk branded Silicon Movement SM2508 8-channel NVMe SSD controller together with 4 items of SanDisk 218-layer BiCS 8 TLC CBA 3D NAND flash reminiscence. Two of those items are located on both facet of the 8TB model SSD, together with one piece of DDR4 DRAM buffer.
It’s relatively pertinent to once more observe that the 1, 2 and 4TB variations of the 8100 are single sided with a median energetic learn energy ranking of 6.5w and write as much as 7w. That is relatively essential because it demonstrates that the SN8100 is a comparatively cool SSD that may very well be thought of for laptops.
Pricing of the SanDisk Optimus GX Professional 8100 8TB SSD… has gone up immensely since our unique article the place we quoted that 2TB model at $279.99 on Amazon. Let’s be trustworthy; you gained’t be discovering costs like that ever once more. Proper now on Amazon that 2TB 8100 is listed at $549.99 and that’s with a 12% low cost!
In case you are trying on the 8TB model we’re testing at present, that is listed at $2149 if you’re within the USA. The place issues actually get scary is if you’re shopping for in Canada, as we’re a Canada-based web site. Proper now on Amazon Canada the SanDisk Optimus GX Professional 8100 Gen5 8TB SSD is listed at a whopping $5799.99. We merely needed to take a display shot as many would by no means imagine this! The 8100 is digital gold!
Sufficient of pricing, let’s get to some efficiency testing…
