At first, we would like to thank Sabrent for offering a sample of their Rocket Nano Rugged 2TB USB 3.2 IP67 Waterproof SSD with Bumper Guard for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About Sabrent:

 

“At Sabrent, we create products that help people realize the power of technology and make people’s lives easier and better.

We have a proven track record to consumers and distribution partners, who are part of the rapidly growing Sabrent family.

 

Deliver the latest technology at an affordable price.

offer a broad product selection, specializing in items that sell.

Maintain large inventory levels and provide same day shipping.

Attractive retail packaging.

Instant live customer service and technical support, including remote access sessions.

No-nonsense product exchanges.

 

Sabrent’s commitment is to offer the latest technology and the highest quality consumer electronic products at an affordable cost to everyone. Since its founding, Sabrent has consistently delivered to market a full line of computer peripherals and accessories that incorporate style, quality and the latest technologies available.”

 

Product Features:

 

WATER RESISTANCE - Fully compliant with IP67 specification. Protection from immersion in fresh water with a depth of 1 meter (3.3 ft) for up to 30 minutes. RUGGED DESIGN - 1 meter (3.3 ft) drop-tested. Sealed against harmful dust.

COMPATIBILITY - Designed to work with both Windows and Mac OS, so you can transfer data between almost any computer in the world. Complies with trim, UASP, and firmware is upgradable.

PLUG & PLAY - OS independent, and fully bus powered; no drivers required!

SPEED - Ultra-fast 10Gbps throughput, low latency, and power efficient. At up to 1000MB/s,

DESIGN - Ultra slim aluminum alloy sandblasted shell. Sleek, Durable, and Convenient. Portable yet durable, ideal for traveling.

FUNCTIONALITY - Perfect for a variety of uses including data transfer, high-speed storage, data backup, and more.

 

Product Specifications:

 

Brand: Sabrent

Series: Rocket Nano Rugged

Model: SB-2TB-NAWP

 

Details

Capacity: 2TB

Memory Components: 3D NAND

Interface: USB 3.2

Color: Silver

 

Performance

Max Sequential Read: Up to 1000 MBps

Max Sequential Write: Up to 1000 MBps

 

It’s now the time to check out another interesting product from Sabrent, a portable drive carrying the name Rocket Nano Rugged, with a capacity of 2TB and supporting the USB 3.2 bus (10Gb/s). The product is fully compliant with IP67 specification, being able to be immersed in water with a depth of one meter for 30 minutes and can also sustain drops of about one meter.

 

The product was shipped inside a medium-sized enclosure, fully sealed with a transparent plastic layer on the outside:

 

 

 

After removing the first plastic layer, we will note that the enclosure does feature an additional cardboard layer on top, with a photo of the product, its name but also the capacity and SSD format:

 

 

 

The side reveals the product code name:

 

 

 

The opposite side comes with the SN:

 

 

 

On the back, we did note the main product features, package contents but also the system requirements:

 

 

 

The additional layer is easily removable, only to reveal an additional sticker on the enclosure which acts as a hinge on the aluminum material:

 

 

 

 

The box opens like a book and is split into two different compartments:

 

 

 

The Rocket Nano Rugged is accompanied by two USB cables, each sealed separately:

 

 

 

The cables are USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-C to be compatible with a large range of devices:

 

 

 

The unit is very compact (7.5 x 5.2 x 0.69 in) and is covered by a silicone layer in order to help with the “rugged” feature:

 

 

 

The top area also includes the drive activity LED but also an additional Sabrent logo:

 

 

 

The USB Type-C is well protected by the aluminum enclosure:

 

 

 

On the sides of the silicone layer, we will find orifices for ventilation purposes:

 

 

 

 

The bottom area of the Rocket Nano Rugged houses an inscription with more identification numbers:

 

 

 

The silicone protection layer can be always removed, if needed!

 

 

 

The aerospace aluminum alloy casing comes with a removable bottom; under the rubber strips we will find a couple of screws:

 

 

 

The rubber strips can be re-attached, but Sabrent insists that the unit is not to be opened (warranty void if removed):

 

 

 

The removable bottom includes a thermal pad on the inside, to help evacuate heat from the drive; a rubber gasket in black color can be also observed, which makes the product waterproof. In the middle we will find an USB-C to M.2 adapter, but also the Sabrent SSD pre-installed:

 

 

 

The drive can be removed quite easily, with only one screw:

 

 

 

On the back, we will learn of the SSD code name, format factor (2242) but also the capacity and serial number:

 

 

 

The controller is a rebranded version of the Phison PS5013-E13T:

 

 

 

The drive comes with four (two on each side) Kioxia TA8HG65AWV BiCS4 (Bit-Cost Scalable Generation 4) 96-Layer TLC ICs:

 

 

 

With the drive removed, it is easier to see how the adapter does look like; this one is held in place by two screws as well:

 

 

 

In its back side we can see the main controller, while the USB-C port does come with a rubber grommet as well, to help with water proofing:

 

 

 

The RTL9210B USB 3.1 Gen2 to PCI Express Gen3x2 bridge makes the data transfer happen on the adapter board:

 

 

 

The blue indicator light on the top of the drive is quite visible during operation:

 

 

 

Test Bench:

The test system did incorporate a Ryzen 5 5600X 6-core CPU, two Trident Z RGB 3200MHz 8GB memory modules with 16-18-18-38 XMP 2.0 timings, a PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 5700 video card but also a Patriot Memory Viper VP4100 PCIe 4.0 SSD ; all these were connected to the BIOSTAR B550GTA motherboard. As a power supply we have chosen a Cooler Master 850W non-modular and the system was running the latest Windows 10 OS build as well.

 

The drive has arrived pre-formatted exFAT:

 

 

We did format it back to NTFS just before starting testing:

 

 

 

With the help of AIDA64, we could extract more information regarding the drive; not a lot of info is available due to presence of a pass-through (bridge) chip:

 

 

 

 

The Tests

 

3DMark Storage Benchmark

 

HDTach Short Test

Blank SSD

 

HDTach Long Test

 

Blank SSD

 

CrystalMark HDD Test Suite

 

AIDA64 Disk Test Suite

 

 

CrystalDisk Test Suite (Random)

 

HDTune Test Suite

Blank SSD

 

PCMark Vantage HDD Test Suite

 

Anvil [Read]

 

Anvil [Write]

 

Extra Tests:

 

AS SSD Benchmark

Blank SSD

AS SSD Benchmark (IOPS)

Blank SSD

ATTO Disk Benchmark

Blank SSD

For conducting the second stage of the tests, we did fill up the drive over 50% and monitored the process. The drive started with write rates of about 720MB/s:

 

 

 

The transfer speed dropped to about 510MB/s after writing approximatively 26GB of data:

 

 

 

Surprisingly, the data rate of writes remained constant:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tests

 

3DMark Storage Benchmark

 

HDTach Short Test

Filled SSD

 

HDTach Long Test

 

Filled SSD

 

CrystalMark HDD Test Suite

 

AIDA64 Disk Test Suite

 

CrystalDisk Test Suite (Random)

 

HDTune Test Suite

Filled SSD

 

PCMark Vantage HDD Test Suite

 

Anvil [Read]

 

Anvil [Write]

 

Extra Tests:

 

AS SSD Benchmark

Filled SSD

AS SSD Benchmark (IOPS)

Filled SSD

ATTO Disk Benchmark

Filled SSD

The Rocket Nano Rugged 2TB drive is very compact, with proper cooling assured by the aluminum enclosure (IP67 water/dust resistant) and the SSD solution is DRAM-less, with Kioxia/Toshiba BiCS 4 96L 3D TLC and a Sabrent-branded Phison E13T controller. The product can sustain high transfer rates (about 500MB/s) thanks to SLC caching for most of the time, so we should not worry carrying and transferring large data files to it.

 

In our HD Tune Pro write file workload, the transfer speed remained constant as well, even if it is a different workload, but overall says the same story, thanks to the use of TLC NAND instead of QLC:

 

 

 

As with the last product from Sabrent, the Rocket Nano Rugged has left us with a very good impression in terms of build quality, starting with the packaging and ending up with the internals.

 

The Rocket Nano 2TB non-rugged variant can be found on Newegg.com for about $228, while in Europe, the rugged version can be picked up for about 300 Euros.

 

Sabrent Rocket Nano Rugged 2TB USB 3.2 IP67 Waterproof SSD with Bumper Guard is Recommended for:

 

 

 

We would like to thank again to Sabrent for making this review possible!