We take a look at exterior SSDs utilizing PC Labs’ Home windows 10 storage testbed, a desktop PC constructed on an Asus Prime X299 Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Core i9-10980XE Excessive Version CPU and an Nvidia GeForce graphics card. We use the motherboard’s native 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port for testing most drives, together with the Extremely Compact SSD; for 20Gbps Gen 2×2 drives, we use a Gen 2×2 port added by way of an Orico PCIe growth card.

We subjected the Seagate Extremely Compact SSD to our normal suite of exterior solid-state drive benchmarks, comprising the Crystal DiskMark 6.0 throughput exams, the PCMark 10 information drive benchmark—which aggregates an SSD’s velocity ends in performing numerous workaday storage duties—the 3DMark Storage gaming take a look at, Blackmagic’s Disk Velocity Take a look at, and our personal folder switch take a look at. Because the drive comes preformatted in exFAT, which is appropriate with each Macs and Home windows machines, we ran the latter two exams first on an Apple MacBook Professional. Then, we reformatted the drive in NTFS to run Crystal DiskMark, PCMark 10, and 3DMark on our Home windows testbed. (Here’s a closer look at our testing regimen for SSDs.)

The Extremely Compact SSD’s Home windows take a look at outcomes had been typical of the USB 3.2 Gen 2 drives in our comparability group. Its PCMark 10 and 3DMark benchmark scores had been each in the midst of the pack, and whereas its Crystal DiskMark sequential learn rating was the second-lowest among the many drives we in contrast with, its sequential write rating on the identical benchmark was the second-highest. All outcomes had been inside the anticipated vary for a Gen 2 drive.

In our Blackmagic testing—which aggregates throughput velocity ends in writing and studying video in several codecs—on our Mac testbed, the Extremely Compact SSD’s scores had been considerably slower than our Gen 2 comparability drives, with a 25% decrease write rating than the following slowest drive, and a write rating absolutely 39% decrease than the closest straggler. It did redeem itself in our folder copy take a look at, delivering a two-second timing that matches numerous different Gen 2 drives for the quickest rating we would count on for SSDs with that interface.

General, though the Extremely Compact SSD’s outcomes had been on par with different USB 3.2 Gen 2 drives in my Home windows testing, they had been considerably slower than our comparability drives within the Blackmagic Mac video throughput benchmark. That stated, this SSD must be significantly sooner than even the quickest conventional USB thumb drive.