ADATA SD810 Portable SSD Review

I’m ecstatic to say that we’re firmly ensconced in a modern era of external SSDs. For a long time, it was strenuous to recommend anything other than a 10Gbps drive like the (still amazing) Crucial X6, because that’s all most motherboards could handle. But now, 20Gbps SSDs like the ADATA SD810 are widely supported, which is a huge benefit to us gamers.

It’s not just about the USB generation. It’s also about value. External USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 SSDs like the SD810 are now very reasonably priced, making it strenuous to recommend the older drive unless you’re on a tight budget or have an older computer that doesn’t have a Gen 2×2 port.

But for most people using a current gaming PC, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 is what matters most, and in that segment the SD810 rules. It’s everything I value in my gear, no matter what it is: basic, speedy, effective, and reasonably priced. No gimmicks, no unnecessary filler, just a solid drive that gets the job done.

Of course, transfer speeds are critical—speedy and consistent peak speeds—but so is portability, durability, and sensitivity. The SD810 is very sensible. You unpack it and are greeted by a petite, brushed metal drive that feels oddly comfortable in your hand and pocket. For those familiar with its apparent predecessor, the ADATA SE880, it has the same sort of design, but is a bit larger.

That is, except for one addition. The SD810 has a plastic cover along one side that, if you push strenuous enough, pops open to reveal the USB-C port. While it might be a little tricky at first, you’ll soon get used to pressing your thumb against the raised edge until it pops open with a satisfying snap.

That’s what I mean when I say that this SSD retains its value by destroying everything that’s unnecessary. There’s only the practical, like this cover, that gives it IP68 protection classmeaning it’s “dustproof” and “protected against the effects of continuous immersion in water.” That’s about as close to an official level of protection as you can get without entering absurd military territory.

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That’s about dust and water resistance, though, not “rugged” drop protection. On that front, all I can say is that I definitely dropped it from desk height a few times during my testing and it was fine. I wouldn’t make a habit of it, though, because this thing definitely doesn’t seem designed to be super drop-proof.

Again, that’s what I love about it: it holds onto what’s really critical to most people. Most people aren’t going to drop this thing from a height, but it would definitely benefit from some protection from rain or backpack crumbs during transport. In those regards, it’s as solid as it gets.

Of course, none of this would matter if it couldn’t run. Fortunately, it can. In fact, it ran better than any other 20Gbps drive I’ve put it up against in most operate cases. I say “most use cases” because if you’re thinking about doing a lot of 250+GB file transfers, something like the Samsung T9 might be more proficient, because through some magic I still don’t understand, it managed to maintain half-peak transfer speeds throughout the entire 15-minute test.

However, for most operate cases where you won’t be regularly transferring over 250GB of data at once, the SD810 offers plenty of sustained peak transfer performance. As I showed in my IOMeter test, we’re talking about 260GB of sequential data transferred at around 1750MB/s for 2 minutes and 30 seconds before the SLC cache is exhausted and speeds drop.

That’s about the same peak speed as other 20Gbps drives, but maintained for much longer, suggesting an SLC cache of 250-260GB, which would be considered huge for even a decent M.2 drive. Keep in mind that this peak speed is reliant on a speedy USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port, so you shouldn’t expect similar performance unless you have a USB port like that to plug it into.

Somehow it managed to stay cooler than the other drives I tested, topping out at 54°C. When idle, it runs a bit hotter than some other drives, at 33°C, but who really cares about idle temperatures?

Its random 4k reads and writes aren’t anything special compared to other similar drives, but they’re all pretty similar in that regard. And in fact, when the random 4k rubber meets the road and we try it out in games, we see that the SD810 actually performs better than the rest. The 3DMark Storage test found the SD810 scoring slightly better than the other drives, and it tests real-world scenarios like “loading Battlefield V from boot to main menu” and “installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.”

I tried playing on the SD810 and had no problems. Steam transferred the 1.7GB of Crab Champions from my internal SSD to my external SSD almost instantly, and loading was a breeze. New levels loaded instantly, and I didn’t notice any difference between playing on the SD810 and my internal Lexar NM790. It’s perfect for operate as a portable game install drive.

Considering that the 1TB ADATA SD810 is currently available about 80 dollars—and when it’s not so economical, it’s usually only about $10 more—I can highly recommend it. It’s the drive I’d buy for my own personal operate if I just wanted an external SSD with no downsides. It’s relatively petite, speedy, reasonably priced, and water and dust resistant. Nice and basic. There’s nothing more to it, and there doesn’t need to be.