Who doesn't like fast access to their data? That's especially important when it comes to external drives, which have, until very recently, lagged way behind internal and network attached storage. Faster controllers, connectors, and NVMe SSDs have ushered in a new generation of hyper fast external drives and the latest contender for the performance crown is the GigaDrive, which hit IndieGogo in mid-March.
It promises sustained read and write speeds well in excess of 2,000 MBps–rivaling some of the fastest drives ever made–as well as leveraging the latest USB 4 and Thunderbolt 4 connection standards so there are no bottlenecks to maximizing its bandwidth. It also claims dust and waterproofing, drop protection, and a powerful heatsink to prevent heat build up from effecting performance during lengthy transfers.
It's important to maintain a dose of skepticism with every crowdfunding campaign, though, especially when lofty claims are made (like being the fastest anything, ever). There is a very real risk with crowdfunding that you won't get what you paid for, and those risks are heightened with a company like GigaSSD, which has never run a campaign or launched a product before. Its official website is incredibly limited, and although it's registered in the U.S., it's actually based in Shenzhen, China.
There are no details about who is involved in GigaSSD, with the company merely telling Forbes that the team "are experienced in consumer electronics product. They used to work in OEM factory and have experienced [sic] in product development from the ground."
The GigaDrive also has a very low cost compared to similarly equipped external SSDs—as little as half the price at higher capacities. With all of that in mind, here's what we know about the GigaDrive so far.
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What is the GigaDrive?
The GigaDrive is an NVMe External SSD available (for pre-order) in capacities including 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB. TechRadar and AppleInsider both report that the NVMe drive inside is a WD Black SN750 paired with a DRAM cache chip and an Intel JHL8440 Thunderbolt 4 controller. It reportedly supports both Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4, and is backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.X devices.
It measures 4.5 x 1.5 x 0.5-inches, weighs 2.6 ounces, and features an aluminum casing which acts as both heatsink and protective shell. It's said to be compatible with Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android and Linux, and features an IP67 rating, making it dust proof and protected against water immersion up to a meter for up to half an hour.
GigaSSD claims that the drive can hit sustained speeds of 2,800 MBps read and 2,500 MBps write, which would make it one of, if not the fastest external drive out there. It would have stiff competition from the likes of the Samsung X5, which is rated for read/write speeds of 2,800/2,300 MBps respectively, as well as the G-Tech Mobile Pro and Plugable Thunderbolt 3 NVMe SSD.
How Fast is It, Really?
As a crowd funded, presumably mostly pre-production product, there isn't much in the way of verified test results for the GigaDrive. GigaSSD has its own video of some testing, showing an NVMe drive (presumably the GigaDrive, though it's shown without casing and initially detached from its PCB) being given a quick benchmark in BlackMagicDesign's Disk Speed.
A single synthetic benchmark doesn't tell us much about real world performance, however. AppleInsider and TechRadar have both had some hands-on time with the drive and reported some synthetic numbers (BlackMagicDesign Disk Speed and CrystalDiskMark) around that of the claimed figures, though other tests fell to between 95% and 65% (AS SSD and AJA).
PCGamesN tested an early sample of the drive too, though didn't have access to a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 connector, so its maximum performance may have been constrained. That said, it still fell significantly behind the Samsung X5, which likely faced similar constraints on port bandwidth.
Real world data transfers saw similar performance issues too, with TechRadar claiming that the drive's speed faltered to just 300MBps when transferring a 10GB file. GigaSSD claims that this is because "the testing person was not using USB4 / TB4 devices to test it," but that wouldn't account for sub USB 3.0 speeds. PCGamesN's performance was better, claiming between 850MBps and 1,200MBps when transferring a 30GB file.
PCGamesN's also claimed that the GigaDrive could boot some games slightly faster than the WD SN550 internal SSD, which is a solid achievement for an external drive, though those results are still quite limited to draw any firm conclusions on performance.
For all the claims of a powerful heatsink preventing performance degradation, too, AppleInsider reported a near one third drop in write performance after half an hour (though read speeds are said to have remained consistent). More real world, third-party testing will need to be conducted before a solid conclusion can be made about the effectiveness of the GigaDrive's performance and its cooling, but there are some concerns that the claimed numbers may be best case scenarios.
Adding to the concern and confusion, GigaSSD told Forbes that the final drive won't use the WD Black SN750 as the prototype does, but the "Intel AGI M.2 2280." This is a relatively unknown brand and drive, with the only reference to it that I could find being a Shopee product link for a 2TB model.
The reviews are good and the claimed speeds would make the GigaDrive possible, but it's a concern that GigaSSD is sending out sample drives which have an entirely different NVMe drive inside than the one it's selling its customers. There is zero way to test the actual performance of the eventual GigaDrive if GigaSSD is planning to switch the internal NVMe drive partway through production.
A Price That's Too Good to be True?
The real selling point of the GigaDrive isn't its performance, but its performance relative to its price tag. As with many crowdfunding campaigns, GigaSSD is selling the GigaDrive at a heavily discounted rate. But it's not just cheap compared to its eventual retail price; it's way cheaper than its competition too.
The 2TB GigaDrive Pro is being sold at an alleged 50% discount over its retail price: $219, instead of $438. It you want to buy a 2TB Samsung X5, a comparatively specced external SSD without any of the water or dust proofing, nor costly heatsink, you'd have to spend close to $600. The 4TB GigaDrive Pro is only $359 at its discounted price, with a suggested retail price of just $700.
To make this an even more unbelievably good deal, the WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD that the GigaDrive is reportedly built with is more expensive just by itself. If you bought the 4TB model direct from Western Digital it would cost you $800.
When pressed by a potential backer about why it was able to sell its drives at such low prices, GigaSSD responded: "The reason for the low selling price is because we sell directly to our client, with no middleman. Also, as we just launched our product on Indiegogo we prefer to offer around 50% off from our retail price and have a big customer base for the latter. Prices will be much higher after the Indiegogo campaign, for example 4TB price will be around $699 which is still considered as a low price comparing what there are in the market."
While big discounts aren't uncommon on crowd funding campaigns to drum up interest, they are rarely this good. There have also been several reports of the "limited" discounted model numbers consistently sitting at just one or two left available despite the continued success of the campaign, suggesting that somehow stock of these discounted drives improves at very convenient times.
Adding to all this, GigaSSD is leveraging affiliate schemes and commissions for influencers and publications which helps make sales on the crowdfunding campaign. That means GigaSSD will be taking even less profit from the sale of these drives, making their incredibly low price even harder to explain. When pressed for comment, GigaSSD provided Forbes with no additional explanation.
When Will The GigaDrive be available?
Current shipping estimates for the GigaDrive are July 2021, though as with any crowd funding campaign, that's far from set in stone. It also seems incredibly ambitious, considering that's mere months away and production of the final drives presumably hasn't begun in earnest while the campaign runs. More review units are reportedly shipping out to reputable publications, so more information may become available in the near future.
Should You Buy The GigaDrive?
At this time? We wouldn’t recommend it. There are too many inconsistencies with GigaDrive’s crowdfunding campaign, the limited testing numbers leave a lot to be desired, and the pricing is just too good to be true. Compared to products already available on market and depending on the exact hardware you’re working with, it might be better to purchase something tried and true than take a chance on an unknown that might only net marginal real world improvements to your computing experience.
We’d suggest waiting for more third-party benchmarks, potentially of the version consumers are meant to get, if and when they materialize. Forbes is expected to test a sample in the near future, so check back for those results if you’re looking into a purchase.
