Which is better, Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB or Lexar NM790 4TB? July 2026 side-by-side with prices, specs, and verdict.
Cross-generation comparisons reveal whether you're paying for peak speed or sustained value. Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB vs Lexar NM790 4TB at 4 TB is a perfect lens for that question.
Hardware-wise, the Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB runs on Phison's E26 silicon, which kicked off the consumer Gen 5 era and typically requires a heatsink. The Lexar NM790 4TB pairs the MaxioTech MAP1602 — a DRAM-less Gen 4 controller dominating the value tier across TeamGroup, Lexar, and others.
At a 31% price gap, the Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB needs to be measurably better in your specific use case to justify the spend. For gaming and general PC use, the Lexar NM790 4TB's lower $/TB tilts the value equation decisively in its favor.
On sequential reads the Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB pulls ahead by 6,600 MB/s (14,000 MB/s versus 7,400 MB/s). That matters for moving large files but rarely shows up in game loads.
Write speeds skew toward the Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB: 11,600 MB/s sustained against 6,500 MB/s. Content creators feel this; gamers do not.
Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB bundles a DRAM cache chip; Lexar NM790 4TB is DRAM-less. This sounds like a big deal but reviewers have been arguing for years about whether it actually matters in consumer use. For most workloads, no.
For PlayStation 5 builds, the console's internal M.2 slot tops out around 5,500 MB/s sustained, so both Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB and Lexar NM790 4TB hit the same wall — pick whichever is cheaper at the moment you buy. Generational difference matters mainly for sequential-heavy workloads. The Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB's 14,000 MB/s read beats Lexar NM790 4TB's 7,400 on paper, though in practice both feel identical loading games. Video editors will gravitate toward the Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB 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: the Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB ranks #4 of 6 Gen 5 4 TB drives we track by $/TB, while the Lexar NM790 4TB ranks #1 of 6 Gen 4 4 TB drives. That puts at least one of them near the top of the value table — a reasonable head-to-head to be choosing from.
At $127.50/TB, the Lexar NM790 4TB is already among the cheapest 4 TB drives we track — nothing in this class undercuts it. See the full $/TB ranking.
Lean toward the Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB when meaningfully faster reads (14,000 MB/s), higher sustained writes (11,600 MB/s), and a dedicated DRAM cache chip top your priority list. Of the Phison E26 drives, Sabrent's Rocket 5 has earned a reputation for consistent thermal behavior with its larger heatsink design.
Lean toward the Lexar NM790 4TB when the lower retail price ($510 vs $739), and better $/TB economics ($127.50/TB) top your priority list. The Lexar NM790 4TB wins on $/TB because it pairs DRAM-less MAP1602 silicon with low-margin distribution. Performance is fine for OS and gaming, weaker only on sustained random writes.