Samsung releases external X5 NVme SSD with Thunderbolt 3

Samsung will release external SSDs in September that use the nvme protocol and connect to devices via Thunderbolt 3. There will be versions of 2TB, 1TB and 500GB. The cheapest model costs 410 euros.

The Samsung X5 SSDs have a type-c connection, but only work via Thunderbolt 3. So a laptop or computer with Thunderbolt 3 is also required. This allows the SSD to communicate with the connected device with a theoretical bandwidth of 40Gbit/s. . Samsung lists sequential read and write speeds of 2800MB/s and 2300MB/s for the 2TB and 1TB versions. The 500GB variant achieves a write speed of up to 2100MB/s.

Samsung puts the X5 SSDs in a metal housing, which weighs 150 grams and has dimensions of 119x62x19.7mm. According to the manufacturer, a fall from two meters is not a problem. The SSDs also have an ‘internal cooling system’, which must keep the heat released at high speeds within limits.

Hardware.Info has published a review of the external SSD. The site concludes that the Samsung X5 is very fast and that the housing ensures that the temperatures remain within limits. However, the review notes that the product is very expensive for ‘a 970-Evo-in-a-box’. The SSD uses 64-layer 3D TLC Nand with an SLC cache. The controller is the same as the one in the 970 Evo SSD.

The new X5 SSDs are a lot more expensive and somewhat larger than the external SSDs in the T5 series, which were released by Samsung at the end of last year. Those variants use the same nand memory, but work with the SATA protocol, which limits the maximum speed.