We test external SSDs using PC Labs’ Windows 10 storage testbed, a desktop PC built on an Asus Prime X299 Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition CPU and an Nvidia GeForce graphics card. We use the motherboard’s native 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port for testing most drives, including the Ultra Compact SSD; for 20Gbps Gen 2×2 drives, we use a Gen 2×2 port added via an Orico PCIe expansion card.
We subjected the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD to our usual suite of external solid-state drive benchmarks, comprising the Crystal DiskMark 6.0 throughput tests, the PCMark 10 data drive benchmark—which aggregates an SSD’s speed results in performing a number of workaday storage tasks—the 3DMark Storage gaming test, Blackmagic’s Disk Speed Test, and our own folder transfer test. As the drive comes preformatted in exFAT, which is compatible with both Macs and Windows machines, we ran the latter two tests first on an Apple MacBook Pro. Then, we reformatted the drive in NTFS to run Crystal DiskMark, PCMark 10, and 3DMark on our Windows testbed. (Here’s a closer look at our testing regimen for SSDs.)
The Ultra Compact SSD’s Windows test results were typical of the USB 3.2 Gen 2 drives in our comparison group. Its PCMark 10 and 3DMark benchmark scores were both in the middle of the pack, and while its Crystal DiskMark sequential read score was the second-lowest among the drives we compared with, its sequential write score on the same benchmark was the second-highest. All results were within the expected range for a Gen 2 drive.
In our Blackmagic testing—which aggregates throughput speed results in writing and reading video in different formats—on our Mac testbed, the Ultra Compact SSD’s scores were substantially slower than our Gen 2 comparison drives, with a 25% lower write score than the next slowest drive, and a write score fully 39% lower than the nearest straggler. It did redeem itself in our folder copy test, turning in a two-second timing that matches a number of other Gen 2 drives for the fastest score we’d expect for SSDs with that interface.
Overall, although the Ultra Compact SSD’s results were on par with other USB 3.2 Gen 2 drives in my Windows testing, they were significantly slower than our comparison drives in the Blackmagic Mac video throughput benchmark. That said, this SSD should be considerably faster than even the fastest traditional USB thumb drive.
