Sabrent introduced the Rocket X5, its first SSD connected to the Gen5 interface. and as expected it’s one of the fastest we’ve seen yetwith sequential data transfer greater than 14 Gbytes per second.

The Gen5 SSD offering comes with a dropper. Whether it’s due to cooling issues or Gen4 stock recalls, we’re not seeing any rush from the biggest in the sector, with the likes of Samsung, WD and Kingston yet to announce their solutions and the offer comes mainly from integrators. Seagate recently introduced the FireCuda 540 SSD, its first PCIe Gen5 solution, and this may give the segment a boost.

Sabrent is a California based integrator that is heavily involved in the storage segment and at the time was the first manufacturer to market an 8TB SSD for consumption. Now bet on performance using the most advanced interface. According to tests with CrystalDiskMark, the Rocket X5 achieves data transfer speeds 14,179 / 12,280 Mbytes per second in sequential read/write mode. 4K random performance is also high.

The Rocket X5 SSD is a typical M.2 2280 (80mm) format drive and can be attached to it active cooling system, with a fan and a large heatsink. Like others of its kind with these designs, it won’t be able to mount on laptops and will be limited to desktops.

We haven’t actually seen any Gen5 drives fitted in new OEM laptops and these types of solutions will have to wait. Also, when they arrive they will be underpowered to keep consumption and temperatures, as you know, very high at this speed. It is clear that the industry needs a more efficient solution for their control than installing fans.

Considering that the first Gen5 increased (and quite a lot) the prices per GB of flash drives, and that Gen4 is sold at very cheap prices, as we see in the sales season, it is not surprising that the big sectors are in no hurry to update their solutions.

We don’t have any price for this Sabrent Rocket X5 which will be launched in capacities at least 1 and 2 TB.