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SONNET FUSION DRIVE USER REVIEW
LIGHTNING FAST SSD technology mixed with a Thunderbolt 3 connection promises speeds unheard of in single unit storage
WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL
onnet asked us to review its new 1TB Fusion PCIe SSD with a Thunderbolt 3 connection, but it took us a while to find a home for it. As it turned out not many of our contacts had a full Thunderbolt 3 infrastructure so we couldn’t test the advertised speeds. We wanted to test the claims of up to 2600MB/s or at least to the 1400MB/s that would be available through a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 3 connection. Other than this important speed factor, the Fusion drive is definitely housed as a ‘pro’ product with a solid aluminium enclosure and heat sink all around. Importantly the Fusion drive is bus powered, which in the time poor world of production is very important; nobody wants to be looking for a mains lead when you need a last-minute transfer or render. The unit is eminently grab-able but you wouldn’t say it was pocketable so you wouldn’t want to turn it into a portable device as such. Another point in its favour though is the use of a captive cable so you’re not searching for the right one. Fusion is also PC and Mac workstations agnostic.
ABOVE Offering Thunderbolt 3, this SSD is a real speed machine.
THE FUSION DRIVE IS BUS POWERED, WHICH IN THE TIME POOR WORLD OF PRODUCTION IS VERY IMPORTANT; NOBODY WANTS TO BE LOOKING FOR A MAINS LEAD
SPEED MACHINE It’s obvious that workstation replacement doesn’t necessarily happen as soon as a faster connection is announced. However, it was great news that Cinelab, one of the only film processing labs left in the UK, had just invested in a new iMac Pro and immediately plugged in the Fusion drive to see how it could fit in to its way of transferring scanned film. They found almost instantly that 16-bit 4K DPX files were flying through and they were rendering programming at the unheard of speed of 100 frames per second. They also recorded transfer speeds of 1300MB/s which is as advertised when some computers connect only two PCIe lanes (x2 PCIe Gen 3) to some or all ports. Most computers
equipped with Thunderbolt 3 connect four PCIe lanes (x4 PCIe Gen 3) to Thunderbolt 3. Whatever the spec says the team at Cinelab were mightily impressed. They had kept an eye on SSD technology over the years and it was only this experience that made them serious potential buyers of these types of drive. For the company anything that increases the throughput of scanned film from scanner to server to portable drive is the way to go. For Cinelab, a drive like the Sonnet Fusion would sit on the end of the iMac Pro and deal with any type of transfer or rendering project without moving files from the drive including output to all edit file formats and final DI conforms from select take scanning.
The Sonnet Fusion PCIe
SSD is available from Holdan for £1,015+VAT.
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MAY 2018 DEFINITION
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