Sabrent comes with an interesting storage proposal meant for compact systems, such as the Microsoft Surface, the Steam Deck, the ASUS Ally and more! The Rocket 2230 NVMe 4.0 is available with capacities from 256GB and up to 1TB. One important aspect is that it packs Micron 176-Layer TLC packages to obtain good speeds when continuously writing to the drive and instead of going with DRAM for caching, it is using HMB, saving PCB space and keeping temperatures lower.
The drive is shipped inside a tiny cardboard enclosure, which does show a photo of the product on the frontal area, but also the total capacity of the drive:
On the side, Sabrent informs the customers that the drive is accompanied by the Acronis True Image Cloning software, to move the data from the old drive:
The opposite area does show the drive capacity again:
The back area does show the drive code name, but also its serial number:
After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with a tiny aluminum box, carrying the color scheme of the Rocket series:
The two halves of the casing are held together by a sticker hinge:
The drive is held secure inside a cardboard/sponge material:
Despite the tiny size of the 2230 form factor, Sabrent did not omit to use a tiny heatspreader on the frontal area of the PCB, made of thin copper:
The back side of the drive includes a small sticker with the product internal code name, but also its serial number:
After removing the top heatspreader, we will note a single NAND package, along with the controller:
The main controller is a Phison PS5021-E21, sporting four channels, a DRAMless design and with Host Memory Buffer support:
The NAND IC is a Micron 176-layer 3D TLC FortisFlash with the IA7BG94AYA code name:
