The new Samsung T9 Portable SSD arrives on the market promising speeds of up to 2,000 MB/s thanks to the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface. For a 3D professional, accustomed to moving projects of tens of gigabytes between workstations, this figure is tempting. But speed isn't everything; physical durability and compatibility with Thunderbolt ports are critical factors that determine whether this drive is a viable daily tool or just a flashy accessory.
Technical Analysis: USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 vs. Thunderbolt in Practice ⚡
The main advantage of the T9 is its USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard, which doubles the bandwidth of a standard USB 3.2 Gen 2. In synthetic benchmarks, it reaches the advertised 2,000 MB/s, far surpassing drives like the T7. However, in a real 3D workflow, the difference is nuanced. When transferring a 50 GB scene with 8K textures and dense meshes, the T9 completes the copy in approximately 25 seconds. A Thunderbolt 3 drive (2,800 MB/s) would do it in about 18 seconds. The gap exists, but it's not dramatic for most projects. The real bottleneck is often the read speed of small, fragmented files, where the T9 performs solidly, though without reaching the ultra-low latency of an internal NVMe SSD. For modeling, where individual files are loaded, the difference is barely noticeable. For rendering, where asset libraries are accessed en masse, Thunderbolt remains superior.
Ruggedness and Field Work: Is It Up to the 3D Scanner? 🛡️
Samsung has designed the T9 to withstand drops of up to 3 meters, essential for field work with 3D scanners and photogrammetry. Its rubber casing absorbs impacts that would render a traditional hard drive unusable. However, it lacks an IP certification for water or dust resistance, making it vulnerable in construction site or outdoor environments with fine dust. For a field workflow, it's an excellent solution for transporting point clouds and scan data from the camera or scanner to the laptop, as long as extreme conditions are avoided. My final recommendation: it's the ideal choice for the modeler who needs speed and robust portability without paying the Thunderbolt premium. For the renderer working with massive datasets directly from the drive, it will still be more cost-effective to invest in a Thunderbolt enclosure with an internal NVMe SSD.
Considering the high transfer speeds of the Samsung T9, what real impact does an external SSD like this have on reducing texture and asset loading times in large 3D projects compared to an internal NVMe SSD?
(PS: Your CPU heats up more than the Blender vs. Maya debate)