Netstor NA611TB3 Thunderbolt 3 NVMe External SSD Review

[Guest]

The Netstor NA611TB3 enclosure brings Thunderbolt 3 to two high-performance NVMe SSDs in a semi-portable enclosure with rugged features.

Netstor NA611TB3 Thunderbolt 3 NVMe External SSD Review : Read more

 

[richardvday]

Impressive performance for the wealthy. Then again its not meant for people like me.
Maybe in a year or two the price will come down to more reasonable levels.

 

[pjmelect]

People forget that SSD drives lose their data when not powered up for a long time which makes them unsuitable for back up purposes. I think that I would prefer a large hard drive which would be cheaper as well. Backups should be done in the background when you are not using your computer so speed should not be an issue. I can't see why people would want one of these drives unless it is to transfer data from one place to another (sneakernet).

 

[hixbot]

I was into it, until I saw it needs a power brick

 

[derekullo]

People forget that SSD drives lose their data when not powered up for a long time which makes them unsuitable for back up purposes. I think that I would prefer a large hard drive which would be cheaper as well. Backups should be done in the background when you are not using your computer so speed should not be an issue. I can't see why people would want one of these drives unless it is to transfer data from one place to another (sneakernet).

https://www.anandtech.com/show/9248/the-truth-about-ssd-data-retention

Your theory only applies to drives that are passed their endurance rating, 400 Terabytes of data written if we are talking about the 1 Terabyte 960 Pro.

"Remember that the figures presented here are for a drive that has already passed its endurance rating, so for new drives the data retention is considerably higher, typically over ten years for MLC NAND based SSDs"

The majority of people who would use the dual 960 Pro configuration would be for professional editing and rendering videos, likely in 4k or higher, that do not have access to a specialized NAS or SAN for their data needs, like Pixar/Lucasfilms would have.

http://www.slashfilm.com/cool-stuff-a-look-at-pixar-and-lucasfilms-renderfarms/

I wouldn't use this for backup, not because it wouldn't be reliable, but because it isn't cost efficient to use this device as a backup device.

For the $1800 that 1 - 2 Terabyte 960 Pro costs, I could get a 4 terabyte 860 Pro for $1700 and save $100 and get double the backup space.

Having said all that even I don't have an all flash backup solution for my house.

For backup for all computers in my house/streaming to any computer in the house/steam library, I use 6 - 10 terabyte Western Digital Gold in a raid 6 (zraid2) on a NAS4FREE server with 64 gigabytes of ram that also uses a 1 Terabyte Samsung 850 Pro as a read cache (L2ARC).

Hopefully with QLC an all flash array will be affordable.

 

[The original Derfman]

I have a suggestion... why not have separate awards for consumer, prosumer, and enterprise. I think this device shows that in the prosumer arena it is a winner.

 

[Eximo]

Still waiting on my USB to NVMe adapter. Don't care about performance, just inconvenient to have to mount the drives in my computer for imaging. And I would want a sacrificial controller for working on potentially non-functional hardware.

 

[WyomingKnott]

"We don't run many application tests on external or portable storage products because the typical workload is sequential in nature. Most of us simply read and write large pieces of data for archiving or transferring data from one location to another."

I am hoping to find a blazingly fast external storage, preferably one that supports encryption in hardware, for application work. Imagine being able to carry my entire workspace and datasets between the office and home. This thrills me more than replication or remote control. Sigh.

 

[Brian_R170]

Nice performance, but...
1. It could be 1/4 the volume using a single board and centrifugal fan.
2. It should be 1/4 the price.
3. It should not look like it was designed to appeal to 5-year-old girls.

 

[Uniblab]

People forget that SSD drives lose their data when not powered up for a long time which makes them unsuitable for back up purposes. I think that I would prefer a large hard drive which would be cheaper as well. Backups should be done in the background when you are not using your computer so speed should not be an issue. I can't see why people would want one of these drives unless it is to transfer data from one place to another (sneakernet).

Thats based on an improper interpretation of a review some years ago. An SSD can be considered a high performance flash drive, the technology is similar. Flash drives (thumb drives) dont have the consideration of losing data and go throughout their usage mostly unpowered. It was an error that went viral since many folks dont take the time to check where it came from.

SSD's - being flash drive based - have the same and better reliability of saving data, unpowered or not. If they are near end of life and in a really hot environment, issues may develop.

 

[CRamseyer]

We have a thumb drive roundup coming up soon and I went back to my shoebox filled with old thumb drives to build my test software. There were many with corrupt data.

Fast forward to the new consumer SSDs testing where we ran around 100 older SSDs through to get baseline performance and build the new burst test. Nearly every 840 EVO I have was dead after sitting for two to three years. I didn't have the issue with any other drive, just the 840 EVOs. Even my prototype SandForce SF-2281 still worked and it hasn't had power in a very, very long time.

 

[WyomingKnott]

My Mushkin Ventura Ultra is still chugging away, and I haven't cut myself on it recently.