Angelbird SSD2go & Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB External SSD Review – Pushing USB 3.0 To The Limit

With the rapid progress of technology from one day to the next, concepts, ideas, inventions, and reinventions suddenly turn from wishful thinking into reality. In the case of solid-state drives the burning question was whether we would see a viable external solution. Conventional hard-drives already go their external variant primarily thanks to USB 2.0; with the raw speed and performance of SSDs however, the lagging catalyst was the upgraded USB 3.0 interface standard. Of course a slue of other components were needed as well - cooling, enclosure size, controllers, design, chipsets just to name a few. Only recently after advancements in each area did this mix come together to form a practical external SSD concoction in the Angelbird mobile SSD line. Today we take a look at two different models - the $780 Angelbird SSD2go 480GB and the $900 dual Angelbird SSSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2). We will see if the Angelbird drives are worth their premium prices, and if they can indeed perform at SATA 3.0 speeds using USB 3.0. SPECIFICATIONS AND CUSTOMIZATION Key features to focus on of course include the USB 3.0 connectivity and subsequent 460MB/s concurrent read and write speeds. Note that the USB 3.0 is 5Gb/s versus SATA 3.0 which is 6Gb/s; hence, we can expect a loss of about 128MB/s read/write when comparing the two. The rating is technically incorrect as the parts inside the Angelbird's are capable of 6Gb/s; unfortunately standard consumer USB 3.0 is capped at 5Gb/s and unless you have a similar-specced Angelbird USB 3.0 bridge, 6Gb/s speeds will not be achievable. A three-year warranty accompanying both the Angelbird SSD2go and its TWIN variant are excellent, along with the security and enterprise features. The SSDs within also use typical architecture such as SandForce SF-2200 series integrated controllers and Micron MLC NAND flash memory. While the normal SSD2go is one drive available in 120/240/480GB, the TWIN can go up to 960GB depending on how you configure it, as the TWIN is basically two SSD2go's stacked together (as seen by the larger height dimension). You can check the SSD2go and SSD2go TWIN configuration pages down below, which allow you to mix and match not only different storage sizes, but also colour your external drive enclosure by choosing from the plethora of vibrant colours. SSD2GO + TWIN EXTERIOR Getting to the Angelbird SSD2go's, right off the bat you will notice they look sturdy. The colours really pop on what is a fairly conservative, minimalistic design; it is very practical however. Although with a fair amount of uses, the Angelbird's will most likely appeal more towards those who need fast, robust external SSDs in a rugged environments. The brushed aluminum metal frame is incredibly sturdy - so much so it could easily leave a dent in cement - while remaining lightweight, and cold for heat dispersion; overall, the perfect mix for extending the longevity of any SSD. The front as we can see has the branding, while the back has additional information, as well as four Torx screws binding the two parts of the shell together: The sides and top are completely void, while the bottom houses the USB 3.0 input header as well as a blue indicator LED. In the case of the SSD2go TWIN, both the top and bottom drives have their own inputs and LEDs, which gives away the fact that they are not running in RAID. Looking above, each drive comes with its own USB 3.0 to USB 3.0 cable for data transfer. The headers could have been any variation of USB 3.0 (for example microUSB), but having the standard large USB 3.0 header both ways just adds to the robustness of the Angelbird SSD2go's. SSD2GO + TWIN INTERIOR Taking a closer look at the enclosures, the folks at Angelbird have done a great job with inserting a generous number of thermal pads for excellent passive cooling as the external SSDs have no ventilation. For the dual stacked TWIN version, there is a large metal heatsink slab dividing the top and bottom SSDs which requires unscrewing an additional four screws to remove: Both the top and bottom of the complete external shell are slathered with them, as well as the PCB's themselves on each of the SSDs respectively: Before going deeper, here are the naked PCB's. The PCB design, layout, and overall construction of the Angelbird SSD2go and TWIN is exceptional; no poor soldering stains, or glue trails to speak of! Angelbird SSD2go 480GB: Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB - 240GB SSD 1: Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB - 240GB SSD 2: Identical components are present in both the SSD2go and TWIN variant, however the number of memory modules are different. The 480GB SSD2go is filled to maximum capacity, hence we see 16 Micron packages (8 on each side) of 32GB each. Since the TWIN is segregated 480GB with two 240GB boards, there are only 8 packages total on each respectively; if you were to get the max capacity 960GB version of the TWIN, the two PCB's would look identical to the normal 480GB SSD2go you see here. SSD2GO + TWIN CLOSER LOOK As seen throughout, both the SSD2go 480GB and SSD2go TWIN 480GB use SandForce controllers and Micron NAND flash chips. Again, all of the models use the exact same components; the only potential change is in the amount of NAND present, which correlates to the size configuration you want. Zooming in we see that the specific SandForce FPU is the SF-2281VB1-SDC model, which can be configured anywhere between 12GB to 512MB MLC/SLC NAND memory, and more importantly supports SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s - 8 channel) with 20,000 sustained IOPS. The flash memory modules are the Micron 25nm IKA12 NW296 synchronous MLC packages. They are rated for a program-erase cycle of 3000 and hence are much better performers than their asynchronous version. Once the cycle is complete however, the SandForce SF-2281 SSD controller picks up the brunt to increase longevity and prevent deterioration. The larger the space, the more packages present, for up to a max of 16 modiles - 8 on each side of the PCB (32GB each for a total of 480GB usable/512GB raw); the extra space would go towards firmware + extras. The final standout component present on each SSD PCB respectively is the Cap-XX H-Series HZ202 supercapacitor. With 5.5V capability and extended temperature rating, the HZ202 is suited perfectly for the GPRS capabilities in Angelbird's unique USB 3.0 design. Speaking of the USB 3.0 to SATA 3.0 + power bracket, as we will see from tests later on, this is a custom conversion adapter proprietary to Angelbird. We have the ATMEL 1150 USB 3.0 JTAG ISP programming chip, as well as the ASMEDIA ASM1053 and ASMEDIA ASM1456 processing units: The ASM 1053 is a 6Gb/s SuperSpeed USB 3.0 chip with an embedded 8-bit microprocessor, integrated voltage regulators, and spread spectrum control which enhances the performance. The ASM 1456 is a SATA 6Gb/s (3.0) 2-differential-channel signal switch which is used to mux/demux high speed signals. It supports 1:2 or 2:1 multiplexer/demultiplexer switching with low on-resistance and crosstalk, operating at only 1.8V. TESTING AND BENCHMARKS The system configuration for testing the Angelbird SSD2go and SSD2go TWIN will be Intel-based: The benchmark suites used for testing will most likely already be on your system, as essentially all of this software is available online. As such, it allows direct correlation between reader and reviewer due to the ease of accessibility, and hence results can simply be compared between different test systems and configurations. Real-world benchmarks included a batch of ~90,000 files and folders with capacities of 250MB, 500MB, 1000MB, and 120GB respectively to test file transfer performance. Windows 7 boot times were also monitored and timed starting from the OS load screen to Steam’s login window (the last program to load). In terms of usable space, the Angelbird SSD2go 480GB shows up with 447GB usable, whereas the Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB shows 223GB usable for one SSD; hence 446-447GB usable for both in total. CRYSTALDISKINFO X64 VER. 5.5.0 CrystalDiskInfo allows monitoring the health of all the physical hard disks, may they be internal, or external. Using their own built-in SMART tools plus any temperature-monitoring tools that may be present in the computer or hard drive, CDI gives accurate health readings of your drives and gives warnings in case of imminent drive malfunction. Angelbird SSD2go 480GB: Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2): ATTO DISK BENCHMARK VER. 2.47 The ATTO Disk Benchmark measures storage performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. ATTO is rated to test RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives. Angelbird SSD2go 480GB: Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2): CRYSTALDISKMARK X64 VER. 3.0.2f CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark utility that measures performance for sequential and random reads/writes of various sizes for any storage device. It is useful for comparing the speed of both portable and local storage devices. Angelbird SSD2go 480GB 0-Fill: Random: Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2) 0-Fill: Random: AS-SSD VER. 1.7.4739.38088 AS-SSD Benchmark is a lightweight application that is designed to provide a simple means of evaluating the performance of SSDs. The tool contains six synthetic and three copy tests. The synthetic tests to determine the sequential and random read and write performance of the SSD. These tests are carried out without use of the operating system caches.The program comes with a copy benchmark as well as one for compression and it can also be used with hard disk drives. Angelbird SSD2go 480GB: Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2): ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES VER. 1.0.51 RC6 Anvil Storage Utilities is a powerful tool that is designed in to provide a simple means of assessing the read and write performance of a solid state drive. Angelbird SSD2go 480GB 0-Fill Compressible: Incompressible: Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2) 0-Fill Compressible: Incompressible: HD TUNE PRO VER. 5.00 HD Tune Pro supports performing secure erasure, running comprehensive error scans (including a review of a disk’s SMART health status), displaying read, write, and spin-up times and recording benchmark performance metrics. Angelbird SSD2go 480GB: Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2): ADVANCED TESTING Just to show how important the Angelbird adapter is in the grand scheme of the SSD2go's, we decided to benchmark the drives without it. First up we have the SATA 3.0 benchmark results: Angelbird SSD2go 480GB: Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2): As we suspected before, the 5Gb/s USB 3.0 limit rears its ugly head. However, Angelbird's bracket is capable of SATA 6Gb/s, and we can see from these results alone that it is not far from achieve true SATA 3.0 speeds. It certainly is a masterpiece design, and the first that we have seen capable of delivering even close to true 6Gb/s performance. The last interface test we have is with Patriot's SuperSonic Gauntlet USB 3.0 enclosure: Angelbird SSD2go 480GB: Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2): While Patriot's enclosure uses a custom board, the performance is nowhere near the Angelbirds'. In fact, it barely saturates USB 2.0 speeds. Mind you, the Patriot enclosure is about 1/6th the price of what Angelbird's adapter alone is, but the results speak for themselves. The USB 3.0 to SATA 3.0 bracket is the catalyst that makes the SSD2go and SSD2go TWIN scream, and the entire product line would be nothing without it. REAL-WORLD BENCHMARKS Just to close out the testing, we have a few extra benchmarks. We see that the SandForce SF-2281 FSP is more than capable of boosting overall productivity. The file copy results are pretty quick for duplicating and moving around data. The TWIN is just a tad faster than its singular counterpart, but the difference is negligible: Windows 8 boot speeds are brilliant themselves, and essentially identical: Finally getting to temperature, the SSDs remain cooler than the ambient environmental temperature of 20°C thanks to the aluminum metal frame. The TWIN again performs better since the two SSD PCB's are split between a massive heatsink block, and also have less heat due to fewer NAND modules per PCB compared to the fully saturated lone 480GB SSD2go model. Due to the USB 3.0 interface, TRIM does not work as noted by TRIM check ver. 0.4. We expected TRIM not to be supported via USB 3.0 anyway, but it is if you run the Angelbird SSD2go's using SATA 3.0 instead. FINAL WORDS AND CONCLUSION The Angelbird SSD2go 480GB and SSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2), simply put, are unrivaled. There are no other external SSD USB 3.0 solutions in the market at the moment that can even touch them in terms of raw performance. The benchmark results are absolutely exquisite when considering the interface these are running off of. Achieving close to SATA 3.0 - or 6Gb/s - speeds on a USB 3.0 interface, when considering all of the headroom, encoding and decoding, and the rest of the processes that hinder USB 3.0...it is difficult not to be utterly astounded. Angelbird's custom proprietary USB 3.0 to SATA 3.0 adapter, as we have stated in the review, is what makes all of this happen. Even though it is capable of 6Gb/s, standard USB 3.0 is 5Gb/s. While there is a loss of performance, it is better to overprovision since that extra 1Gb/s present on the Angelbird controller will ensure consistent USB 3.0 SuperSpeed 5Gb/s. Now with that said, you are looking at about a $300 premium just for the bracket alone. Without it, the Angelbird SSD2go's are essentially SATA 3.0 SSDs in an enclosure. The price may be a bit tough to swallow for most, but those who are looking for a rugged, high-performing external solution should not hesitate a second when considering either the SSD2go or SSD2go TWIN; even if affordability is a concern, the investment will pay for itself in the long run. Keep in mind that you can customize either the way you want, and even boost the storage up to 960GB. From the solid frame and exceptional build quality, to the screaming performance and functional applications; the Angelbird SSD2go family wholeheartedly gets our complete recommendation on effectively becoming the first external SSD solution to utilize 6Gb/s and push USB 3.o to the brink.

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Angelbird SSD2go & Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB External SSD Review – Pushing USB 3.0 To The Limit

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