The GigaDrive is apparently the world's fastest external SSD, or at least that's what it says
on it's IndieGoGo page.
Which, by the way has exceeded it's funding by almost 5000%, so it seems people are buying
into the hype.
Now I love making videos on external storage solutions, and obviously the team behind GigaDrive
watches my videos, because they reached out to me to review this product.
Quick disclaimer, I was sent this product for free but this video is entirely my own
opinion and has not been influenced or sponsored by GigaDrive at all, they didn't even watch
the video before I published it.
The big selling points of the GigaDrive is that it claims speeds of up to 2800 MB/s,
and that it's water, dust, and shock resistant, and don't you worry, we'll be putting it to
the test in this video to make sure those claims are valid.
A quick thanks to Wondershare's VidAir for sponsoring this video.
VidAir is a creative online video maker, designed to make video marketing easier on small businesses.
They help users create marketing videos to effectively promote anything in just minutes.
You get creative templates for every business, attractive text effects and stickers to make
your videos stand out, and 10,000+ free video, photo, and music resources.
Try it for free on your Windows or Mac device by clicking the link in the description down
below.
Let's start with the build quality.
Honestly, I'm impressed.
There are rubber pads on the bottom so it doesn't slide around too much.
The case is aluminum alloy and feels very sturdy and rugged to the touch.
It has some weight to it, although it doesn't feel quite as chunky and heavy as the Sabrent
Thunderbolt 3 SSD enclosure I've featured previously on this channel.
The reason having a thick enclosure is important is to dissipate heat, because NVMe SSD drives
can get very hot.
More on this later.
In terms of speed, it certainly is quite fast.
I tested it against several other popular external drives on the market, including my
very own custom 2TB NVMe SSD drive that I put together for only around $230 dollars.
Starting on an Intel Mac, I was able to get some pretty respectable speeds of around 2400mb/s
read and 2300mb/s write, absolutely destroying the Samsung T5 and T7, and even the Sabrent
Thunderbolt 3 enclosure with the Rocket NVMe SSD.
Some of you may already know that the USB-C ports on M1 Macs have performance issues when
using external drives.
As a result the speeds are a bit wacky as you can see with the increased read speed
but much lower write speed on the GigaDrive.
Although, this is no fault of the GigaDrive, as it happens with pretty much every other
SSD drive.
Transferring files is an absolute breeze, although I doubt you'll be transferring more
than about 100-200GB of files at a time, as most Mac owners only have between 256 to 512GB
of storage on their internal drive.
Thermal throttling caused by transferring huge amounts of files seems to be minimal,
and this is where the solid metal chassis comes in advantageous.
It simply takes longer to heat up to the point that transfer speeds slow.
I don't think you'll have any issues unless you're transferring over 500GB in a single
go, and even then the speeds will only slow marginally.
Now let's examine the boldest claim that Gigadrive makes - it's ability to withstand dust, dirt,
and water.
It's IP67 rating is the same as many popular smartphones currently on the market.
What does IP67 even mean?
Well, The "6" indicates the internal components are completely protected against solid objects
from entering, including dust, while the "7" indicates it can be completely submerged in
1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes before moisture penetrates the housing.
So, I went out and buried my Gigadrive in the back yard, dug it up again, and then washed
it off with a gentle stream from the hose.
I didn't use a more powerful jet option on purpose, because IP67 doesn't protect against
that type of pressure.
I pretty much used the same amount of pressure that's shown on the actual GigaDrive product
page.
Then, I dunked it in a glass of water for about 10 seconds.
After thoroughly drying it with a towel, blowing and cleaning out the USB-C port, and allowing
it to dry for a few hours...it was dead.
So, I decided to open it up, and immediately saw moisture had entered the enclosure.
I also saw that there were no seals around the edges of the two pieces, and also where
the enclosure surrounds the USB-C port.
This is pretty standard in my opinion to have on IP67 rated devices, such as iPhones, as
you can see in this image.
The Gigadrive is relying on nothing more than the two edges of the enclosure being a perfect
seal, which is almost impossible without a gasket or seal of some type, for example rubber
or glue.
There was also no protection around the screw holes apart from the rubber feet, so that's
another possible entry point for water and moisture.
Strangely enough, it started working about 10 minutes later, but I don't feel comfortable
in agreeing with the IP67 rating as stated on the website.
I believe it is water resistant at best, which means it should not be submerged or exposed
to any amount of water larger than light rain for a few seconds for example.
Moving on to drop and shock resistance, this is something I can agree with, it's a very
solid design and will likely be fine if you drop it.
I didn't have any issues with some moderate height drops I tested.
That being said, if you drop it and the impact creates a tiny gap between the two parts of
the enclosure, it will make it even less water resistant.
At the moment, the GigaDrive is priced insanely low for what you get, almost 50% off the RRP.
This can be explained by it still being in the funding period on IndieGoGo, it isn't
actually available for purchase yet.
Hence, they are keeping the price artificially low to create a buzz and market for the product.
This is pretty typical of Kickstarter and IndieGoGo campaigns.
Personally I think it's a great price if you can get it at a discount, and even the full
RRP is relatively typical for a drive of this particular capacity and speed.
Even if you were to build your own thunderbolt drive, the price would come out very similar.
In conclusion, I think the GigaDrive is actually a fairly solid external drive.
The speeds are fast, it is quite rugged, and the price is on par with the competition.
However, I do not agree with it's IP67 classification and advise you to keep it away from water
should you buy one.
Unless of course somehow GigaDrive adds some kind of seal around the edges of the enclosure
like I mentioned previously.
Anyway, thanks for watching this video, let me know in the comment section if you have
any questions, but apart from that, I'll see you in the next one.