INTRODUCTION

   Portable storage has come a long way since the early 2000's and so from 2GB USB 2.0 flash drives and 120GB USB 2.0 portable hard drives with speeds which rarely surpassed 40MB/s we now have USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Thunderbolt 3 portable SSDs with performance levels going all the way up to 1000MB/s (10Gbps) and 4000MB/s (40Gbps) respectively. Still there are two things aside performance which always mattered to me, size and durability. I am of course referring to the size and durability of the housings/enclosures used and as many of you are certainly aware rugged portable storage media are nowhere near as many in number as their regular non-rugged counterparts. Well, some manufacturers seem to be well aware of this and so today I'll be testing the brand new CarbonX USB 3.2 Gen 2 Portable External SSD by Mushkin.

   For over 25 years, Mushkin has been dedicated to helping Gamers, digital artists, IT managers and professionals alike enhance their computing experience by providing reliable, high-performance products. Mushkin’s products include a complete selection of USB, SSD and Memory Module upgrades for both the consumer and enterprise industries. Since the company’s founding in 1994, Mushkin has received numerous awards and commendations for quality, reliability and technical excellence.

   The CarbonX model by Mushkin is currently available in 250GB/50GB/1/2TB capacities and features a mid-sized enclosure made out of anodized aluminum (also helps with heat dissipation) which is surrounded by a removable rubber bumper. Needless to say, this enclosure is not only temperature-proof (from -40 and up to 85 degrees Celsius), vibration-proof and shock-proof (1500G max shock resistance) but it's also crush resistant. Under the hood of the CarbonX we find an M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD based on the Silicon Motion SM2263ENG NAND flash controller (configured as the SM2263XT model making it effectively also DRAMless), Micron 96-layer 3D QLC NAND flash and a host PCB with the ASMedia ASM2362 PCIe to USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface bridge chip. Typically for a USB-C drive the CarbonX is fully compatible with PCs, Macs, PS4s, XBOX Ones, iPad Pros, Chromebooks and select Android devices and is covered by a 3 year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Mushkin used a small black and green box to pack the drive inside but instead of using a product picture at the front they just placed their logo, product name and the main product features.

A few words about the product are printed at the rear right next to a small product picture.

The drive is wrapped inside a synthetic cover and placed in a formed piece of plastic.

Along with the drive itself you're getting an USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-A to USB-C cable.

THE CARBONX 1TB

Measuring 120mm in length, 50mm in width and 17.5mm in thickness the aluminum and rubber enclosure of the CarbonX is medium in size.

To understand what i mean by that i placed the CarbonX right next to the Rocket Pro by Sabrent, SE760 by ADATA, TB2-T3 by YottaMaster Z7S by NETAC and the PC60 by Silicon Power.

The surrounding rubber bumper is there to make sure that the drive doesn't get damaged if you happen to drop it.

Of course, you can always remove it although I’d recommend against that.

The enclosure has an activity LED and the USB-C port on its left side seen above.

Removing the interior is very easy (just 2 screws hold it in place).

On the top of the PCB, we see the mounting areas for M.2 2232/2240/2260/2280 SSDs and the ASMedia ASM2362 bridge chip.

Turning the PCB over we see the M.2 PCIe NVMe drive with its SM2263ENG NAND flash controller and its 4 (2 on each side) 96-layer QLC NAND flash packages by Micron.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

    Solid state drives are basically the same as USB flash drives and so we’re using almost the same testing methodology to successfully record achieved read & write performance numbers in our charts*. The benchmark suites used are HD Tach RW (Read Speeds / Long Bench 32mb Zone Testing), HD Tune Pro (Read / Write speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Titanium 2020 (Read / Write speeds), AIDA64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear / Random Read & Write speeds), Crystal Disk Mark 6.0.2 (2GB Read / Write speeds) and finally ATTO 4.00.0F2 (Max Read / Max Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into our charts (0 = we were unable to complete that test).

    All tests are performed with our main rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a CORSAIR MP510 960GB NVME SSD* with all updates installed up to the day we started tests.

* Since August 2019 for portable SSD tests I started using the primary test rig.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA TITANIUM / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

CONCLUSION

   Once again, the charts say everything you need to know about the drive in my hands, or do they now? Yes, the CarbonX 1TB by Mushkin may not be the fastest USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable SSD to ever make its way to the lab but performance is really not everything. For example, I’ve always liked rugged drives and the CarbonX is among a handful which are quite this rugged so even though it can’t match the performance of the Rocket Pro model it represents a better deal for people like photographers (especially wild nature ones) who are always on the road and thus a rugged drive could come handy. On top of that Mushkin bundles the drive with two cables (USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-C) and covers it with a 3-year limited warranty (something we don’t see with all drives on the other side of the Atlantic).

   As I type these lines the CarbonX 1TB by Mushkin retails for USD148.12 inside the USA (Newegg.com) a price tag which is not bad for a rugged M.2 PCIe NVMe portable SSD. Overall, the CarbonX does everything right, it packs performance, durability, design and is priced quite well so for all of these it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Rugged Aluminum Enclosure)
- Very Good Performance (USB 3.2 Gen 2)
- Temperature, Vibration And Shock Proof
- Crush Resistant
- 3 Year Limited Warranty
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- EU Availability