I watched this from day one. It could potentially make a nice 16TB SSD drive array with the Blade Station (albiet non standard drives). Whats strange is it was originally released with a Blade Station which a year later has never materialized. It's interesting the manufacturer either doesn't have the resources or the confidence in releasing the second half of the two piece solution. Instead they make you buy a $199 dock which is already lowered to $169 and is essentially a non standard cable to allow their drive to do anything. They missed their own launch. This doesn't go well for a new product launch trying to get everyone on your non standard format of connectors. Don't we have enough grief with all the USB-C formats? Why not buy a standard fast external ssd. They come much smaller than the blade and blade transport combined and are cheaper. I guess the previous poster was right its for camera people wanting to function like RED drives.
Because I and some colleagues were so curious about the possibility of M2 supporting 20Gbps USB Gen 2x2, I actually got ahold of a Sandisk Extreme PRO Gen 2x2 SSD V2 (1TB) which advertises 20Gbps speeds, and took it to the Apple Store today. Sadly, I found the M2 Max MBP 16" only showed 10Gbps speeds on this Gen 2x2 SSD.
I trust Mike's results on the PRO-BLADE Transport that showed 20Gbps speeds, so I wonder if the USB chip in the Transport reader is more of a USB4 chip, compared to the chips used in the older Extreme PRO V2 drive from 2021? Another reviewer actually claimed 30Gbps speeds with the PRO-BLADE on an M2 Air, which is strange but might lend credence to the USB4 hypothesis... (unless they accidentally tested their internal SSD rather than the PRO-BLADE like I accidentally did in one of my test runs today!)
In any case I'd have to agree with Mike that Gen 2x2 remains a bit of a mess, and focusing more on USB4 (not to mention Thunderbolt) seems ultimately for the best.
Testing methodology: Sandisk Extreme PRO V2 1TB purchased 2/19/23 from local Best Buy store, model # SDSSDE81-1T00. Cables: both included Sandisk USB-C cable (unmarked), and OWC 0.7m Thunderbolt 3 Passive Cable CBATB-002-070A. Computers: M2 Air 13" 8GB, M2 Pro MBP 14" 16GB, M2 Max MBP 16" 32GB, all on macOS Ventura 13.2.1 at the Apple Store. Testing Apps: Amorphous DiskMark 4.0(41) and Blackmagic Disk Speed Test 3.4.2, both with default settings.
Hello, it seems that you are the only one across the web that achieved such results with this disk and system combination and no one was able to reproduce that results. Thus, I am interested in learning more about it.
To make your results more credible, would you please mind sharing screenshots showing a) System info screen showing the specs and the speed of the attached disk, and b) Blackmagic Disk Speed Test or AmorphousDiskMark results for near 2 GB/s results. Many thanks in advance.
Hello, it seems that you are the only one across the web that achieved such results with this disk and system combination and no one was able to reproduce that results. Thus, I am interested in learning more about it.
To make your results more credible, would you please mind sharing screenshots showing a) System info screen showing the specs and the speed of the attached disk, and b) Blackmagic Disk Speed Test or AmorphousDiskMark results for near 2 GB/s results. Many thanks in advance.
Can't. As with nearly all of our reviews, the system was a loaner, and went back to the company long ago.
From that review: Performing the same tasks with a 2022 MacBook Air with the M2 chip saw the transfer times drop to under 11 seconds in either direction.
After timing the file transfers, I started up the Blackmagic Disk Speed test software to measure the data transfer rates. When running the check on the iMac I recorded write speeds of around 948MB/s and read speed of about 945MB/s. Using the same software on the 2022 MacBook Air saw write speeds of just under 3000MB/s and read speeds a little over 3260MB/s, showing better performance than is claimed by SanDisk.
Hello, it seems that you are the only one across the web that achieved such results with this disk and system combination and no one was able to reproduce that results. Thus, I am interested in learning more about it.
To make your results more credible, would you please mind sharing screenshots showing a) System info screen showing the specs and the speed of the attached disk, and b) Blackmagic Disk Speed Test or AmorphousDiskMark results for near 2 GB/s results. Many thanks in advance.
Can't. As with nearly all of our reviews, the system was a loaner, and went back to the company long ago.
From that review: Performing the same tasks with a 2022 MacBook Air with the M2 chip saw the transfer times drop to under 11 seconds in either direction.
After timing the file transfers, I started up the Blackmagic Disk Speed test software to measure the data transfer rates. When running the check on the iMac I recorded write speeds of around 948MB/s and read speed of about 945MB/s. Using the same software on the 2022 MacBook Air saw write speeds of just under 3000MB/s and read speeds a little over 3260MB/s, showing better performance than is claimed by SanDisk.
I checked that review too but it also lacked any solid evidence such as screnshots, I don’t know why the reviewer abstained from doing so. Also, I think that result belongs to the internal SSD, he must have chosen the wrong disk for testing since it is not logical to see 3000 MB/s speeds with a 2000 MB/s disk.
Anyways, I have the same disk as well as 5 other Gen 2x2 disks in hand and will visit Apple Store this week to test with M2 and M2 Pro/Max models. Let’s hope for the best.
I have the numbers now and unfortunately I wasn't able to reproduce the results in the original review. Apple MacBook Pro M2 Max doesn't support USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 speeds.
As you can see below, Apple MacBook Pro M2 Max and Sandisk Pro-Blade Transport only gives USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds (10 Gbps). The system info screen is in my local language but you will get the idea.
I also tested 5 other Gen 2x2 portable SSDs (Kingston XS2000, Sandisk Extreme Pro V2, Lexar SL660, Corsair EX100U, Sabrent Rocket Nano V2) and they all give similar values (around 800 MB/s read and write) when formatted as exFat. The speeds improve a bit when they are formatted as APSF, going over 900 MB/s and getting closer to the 1000 MB/s mark.
Comments
I trust Mike's results on the PRO-BLADE Transport that showed 20Gbps speeds, so I wonder if the USB chip in the Transport reader is more of a USB4 chip, compared to the chips used in the older Extreme PRO V2 drive from 2021? Another reviewer actually claimed 30Gbps speeds with the PRO-BLADE on an M2 Air, which is strange but might lend credence to the USB4 hypothesis... (unless they accidentally tested their internal SSD rather than the PRO-BLADE like I accidentally did in one of my test runs today!)
In any case I'd have to agree with Mike that Gen 2x2 remains a bit of a mess, and focusing more on USB4 (not to mention Thunderbolt) seems ultimately for the best.
Testing methodology: Sandisk Extreme PRO V2 1TB purchased 2/19/23 from local Best Buy store, model # SDSSDE81-1T00.
Cables: both included Sandisk USB-C cable (unmarked), and OWC 0.7m Thunderbolt 3 Passive Cable CBATB-002-070A.
Computers: M2 Air 13" 8GB, M2 Pro MBP 14" 16GB, M2 Max MBP 16" 32GB, all on macOS Ventura 13.2.1 at the Apple Store.
Testing Apps: Amorphous DiskMark 4.0(41) and Blackmagic Disk Speed Test 3.4.2, both with default settings.
Hello, it seems that you are the only one across the web that achieved such results with this disk and system combination and no one was able to reproduce that results. Thus, I am interested in learning more about it.
To make your results more credible, would you please mind sharing screenshots showing a) System info screen showing the specs and the speed of the attached disk, and b) Blackmagic Disk Speed Test or AmorphousDiskMark results for near 2 GB/s results. Many thanks in advance.
After timing the file transfers, I started up the Blackmagic Disk Speed test software to measure the data transfer rates. When running the check on the iMac I recorded write speeds of around 948MB/s and read speed of about 945MB/s. Using the same software on the 2022 MacBook Air saw write speeds of just under 3000MB/s and read speeds a little over 3260MB/s, showing better performance than is claimed by SanDisk.
As you can see below, Apple MacBook Pro M2 Max and Sandisk Pro-Blade Transport only gives USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds (10 Gbps). The system info screen is in my local language but you will get the idea.
I also tested 5 other Gen 2x2 portable SSDs (Kingston XS2000, Sandisk Extreme Pro V2, Lexar SL660, Corsair EX100U, Sabrent Rocket Nano V2) and they all give similar values (around 800 MB/s read and write) when formatted as exFat. The speeds improve a bit when they are formatted as APSF, going over 900 MB/s and getting closer to the 1000 MB/s mark.