Professional’s Score
Execs
- Each 10Gbps and Thunderbolt 3/4 connectivity
- Quick, particularly over Thunderbolt
- IP68 climate and mud resistant
Our Verdict
For the consumer who needs the choice of speedy 40Gbps efficiency, the Professional-G40 is one of the best dual-bus drive that we’ve examined. However that flexibility will value you. As a USB 3.2 10Gbps, the Professional-G40 is sweet, however not noticeably higher than the best-performing drives in that class.
Finest Costs At present: SanDisk Professional-G40 SSD
It’s good to have selections, and the Professional-G40 exterior SSD offers a really helpful one: Thunderbolt 3/4 or 10Gbps USB. Yup, you may join this drive to both bus relying on want: optimum velocity, or minimal energy consumption.
Additional studying: See our roundup of one of the best exterior drives to study competing merchandise.
SanDisk Professional-G40 design, options, and worth
Although the spotlight of the Professional-G40 is its dual-bus (10Gbps USB/40Gbps Thunderbolt 3) compatibility, it’s additionally extraordinarily rugged and weather-toughened. The Professional-G40’s IP68 ranking (no mud intrusion, and no water intrusion as much as 1 meter) is nothing to scoff at. Given the uncovered (no plug or cowl) Sort-C connector, it’s no imply trick both.
The opposite factor in regards to the Professional-G40 is that, it’s, err… costly. The 1TB mannequin retails for $160, the 2TB for $200, and the 4TB for $400. By means of comparability, the 2TB Samsung T7 Protect is a mere $140.
The excessive worth means it’s best to solely contemplate the Professional-G40 in order for you Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt storage is all the time costly, so don’t take this as a knock on the Professional-G40—there are costlier Thunderbolt drives.
As for the know-how inside, to attain the throughput Thunderbolt can ship NVMe is required. Certainly, AS SSD enumerated the inner drive as a Western Digital (the father or mother firm) SN750E—an NVMe drive. What bridge or combo chip is in use internally, SanDisk didn’t say.
A be aware on Thunderbolt 3 versus Thunderbolt 4—each are the identical velocity (40Gbps) and fundamental know-how, with barely completely different specs by way of what they need to help earlier than they’ll use the brand. Model 4 was principally carried out to power distributors to implement everything of the spec, which incorporates tunneling USB/DisplayPort/HDMI, and many others., to be licensed. Many early implementations have been lower than full.
In the event you’re shopping for a Home windows PC and wish to be sure you have all of Thunderbolt’s options, search for the Thunderbolt 4 emblem. Macs have all the time featured a whole implementation. For drives, together with the SanDisk Professional-G40 or OWC’s Envoy collection, Thunderbolt 3 is all you want as they perform solely as storage.
How does the SanDisk Professional-G40 carry out?
Although the Professional-G40 is a good performer over the 10Gbps USB bus, it’s clearly going to be a good higher one utilizing 40Gbps Thunderbolt. The gold bars under provide loads proof of that.
Nonetheless, earlier than the plain velocity benefit seduces you, I ought to let you know that I’ve backed off pure Thunderbolt drives for on a regular basis use, opting as an alternative for USB 10Gbps and 20Gbps. Why’s that, you ask? It’s typically quick sufficient, makes use of much less energy, and produces much less warmth.
It’s probably not Thunderbolt’s fault—it’s merely that the sooner transfers use extra juice, which in flip makes issues hotter. After all, when I’ve a extremely large switch operation, I swap to Thunderbolt—I’m not loopy!
The Professional-G40 is an excellent performer—it offers you high velocity once you want it and daintier energy consumption and fewer warmth when USB will do.
As you may see above, the Professional-G40 actually goes to city on Thunderbolt, and is sort of good as a 10Gbps USB drive as effectively. Notice that the WD Black P50 is a Superspeed 20Gbps drive, not 10Gbps just like the Professional-G40 and Samsung T7 Protect. It’s merely there to point out the variations between 10Gbps, 20Gbps, and 40Gbps.
As a way to preserve the charts readable, I neglected the opposite combo USB/T3 drive I’ve examined for Macworld—the OWC Envoy Professional FX. The Envoy Professional FX is a worthy product, however performs a hair slower than the Professional-G40 over Thunderbolt, and for some purpose, was a gradual reader over 10Gbps USB.
The 48GB transfers proven above have been very shut between the Professional-G40 and the T7 Protect, with the Professional-G40 taking a slight victory by advantage of a really quick folder learn time.
SanDisk Professional-G40 was quick over Thunderbolt, however slightly gradual by way of USB when writing our single giant 450GB file. Shorter bars are higher.
Jon L. Jacobi
Whereas the Professional-G40 over Thunderbolt was quick on the 450GB write, the drive was significantly slower than the T7 Protect by way of 10Gbps USB. Not by a ton, however noticeably so.
Notice that whereas the Professional-G40 ships formatted to APFS, we reformatted to NTFS for testing. ExFAT would let you swap between macOS and Home windows/Linux machines with impunity.
Total, the Professional-G40 is an excellent performer, and as famous, offers you high velocity once you want it and daintier energy consumption and fewer warmth when USB will do.
Must you purchase the SanDisk Professional-G40?
Thunderbolt drives are by no means low cost, however they’re completely price it if efficiency is paramount. In truth, it’s laborious to inform them other than inside storage when in use. USB, then again is quick sufficient for most people and makes use of considerably much less energy.
That’s a slightly roundabout means of claiming: In the event you want the velocity, go for it—the Professional-G40 is pretty much as good as we’ve seen for a dual-bus drive. However given the worth, if 10Gbps will suffice, go for a inexpensive drive such because the Samsung T7.
How we take a look at
Exterior drive assessments presently make the most of Home windows 11 64-bit operating on an X790 (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of reminiscence whole). Each 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 4 are on the board and Intel built-in graphics are employed. The 48GB switch assessments make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk taking on 58GB of the 64GB of whole reminiscence. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Professional 2TB which additionally runs the OS.
Every take a look at is carried out on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Notice that in regular use, as a drive fills up, efficiency will lower because of much less NAND for secondary caching, in addition to different components.
Caveat: The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we have been shipped and to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can and can fluctuate by capability because of extra or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes throughout and the quantity of NAND obtainable for secondary caching. Distributors additionally sometimes swap parts. In the event you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report, by all means, tell us.
