Sabrent Rocket 5 1TB ($259) vs Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB ($244). $/TB analysis, performance, and use-case recommendations.
Sabrent Rocket 5 1TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB are direct competitors — same generation, same capacity. Choose by controller behavior under sustained load, DRAM/HMB cache strategy, and $/TB economics.
Hardware-wise, the Sabrent Rocket 5 1TB runs on Phison's E26 silicon, which kicked off the consumer Gen 5 era and typically requires a heatsink. The Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB pairs Samsung's Piccolo controller — DRAM-less with PCIe 4.0/5.0 dual-mode support.
On sequential reads the Sabrent Rocket 5 1TB pulls ahead by 6,750 MB/s (14,000 MB/s versus 7,250 MB/s). That matters for moving large files but rarely shows up in game loads.
Write speeds skew toward the Sabrent Rocket 5 1TB: 11,600 MB/s sustained against 6,300 MB/s. Content creators feel this; gamers do not.
Cache architecture differs: Sabrent Rocket 5 1TB has DRAM hardware, Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB uses HMB. For OS, gaming, browsing — indistinguishable. For databases, large file ops, or 4K video editing — DRAM has a small but consistent edge.
Heading to a PlayStation 5? Both drives drop into the console's M.2 bay and report identical real-world benchmarks since the PS5 caps storage at PCIe 4.0 speeds. The Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB wins this matchup on $/TB. Video editors will gravitate toward the Sabrent Rocket 5 1TB for its write headroom (11,600 MB/s sustained). Project saves and proxies move faster, which compounds across a workday. Heads-up — these are full-length 2280 drives. Steam Deck and most current handhelds require shorter 2230 modules, so check capacity-specific 2230 variants if that's your target platform.
Market context: we track 6 Gen 5 1 TB drives, and by price per terabyte the Sabrent Rocket 5 1TB currently sits #5 while the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB sits #3. Neither cracks the top of the value table, so it's worth glancing at the alternatives below before picking either.
As of July 27, 2026, these tracked drives undercut both the Sabrent Rocket 5 1TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB on $/TB:
The Sabrent Rocket 5 1TB is the right call if meaningfully faster reads (14,000 MB/s), higher sustained writes (11,600 MB/s), and a dedicated DRAM cache chip matter to you. Of the Phison E26 drives, Sabrent's Rocket 5 has earned a reputation for consistent thermal behavior with its larger heatsink design.
The Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB is the right call if the lower retail price ($244 vs $259), and better $/TB economics ($244.00/TB) matter to you. The 990 EVO Plus uniquely supports both PCIe 4.0 x4 and PCIe 5.0 x2 modes — useful flexibility if you might upgrade motherboard generations.