Review on 💨 Crucial X8 1TB Portable SSD – 1050MB/s Speed – USB 3.2 – External Solid State Drive with USB-C and USB-A Compatibility by John Boyce

This external SSD uses QLC memory with a small SLC cache. The QLC (Quad Level Cell) memory type is newer and cheaper to manufacture memory compared to the previous generation TLC (Triple Level Cell) memory, so they can offer this external 1TB for $150. If you regularly transfer small files under 13GB, this drive will work for you, but the SLC cache on this drive will not work with large files. I tried to transfer a 50GB file for testing purposes and it took almost 30 minutes while my WD Passport hard drive spinning at 5500RPM transferred it in 10 minutes. Running synthetic tests is one thing, real data transmission is another. Unfortunately, this drive is being relegated in favor of an external DIY SSD solution where I can choose the appropriate SSD to fit in. The latter will be a bit more expensive, but at least it will be able to transfer large files without slowing things down too much.