Side-by-side: Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB ($739) vs WD_BLACK SN7100 4TB ($570). $/TB winner, specs, real-world picks for July 2026.
This is a generational matchup at 4 TB: the older-gen drive offers proven reliability and better $/TB, while the newer-gen sibling brings raw bandwidth that most users never tap.
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 WD_BLACK SN7100 4TB pairs the SanDisk A101 — a more recent design from the WD/SanDisk lineup.
Prices favor the WD_BLACK SN7100 4TB by $42.25/TB ($142.50/TB versus $184.75/TB). Not a huge gap, but enough to be the tiebreaker if performance is similar.
On sequential reads the Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB pulls ahead by 7,000 MB/s (14,000 MB/s versus 7,000 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 6,700 MB/s. Content creators feel this; gamers do not.
The DRAM-vs-HMB question divides opinion: Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB's on-board DRAM theoretically helps under sustained workloads, while WD_BLACK SN7100 4TB's HMB approach has matured enough that most users won't see the difference. Pick on price if everything else is similar.
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 WD_BLACK SN7100 4TB hit the same wall — pick whichever is cheaper at the moment you buy. Comparing across generations always invites the same question: does the bandwidth gap convert into user-visible improvements? Honest answer for the Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB vs WD_BLACK SN7100 4TB pairing: only for sustained sequential reads of multi-GB files. 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 WD_BLACK SN7100 4TB ranks #5 of 6 Gen 4 4 TB drives. 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 4TB and WD_BLACK SN7100 4TB on $/TB:
Go with the Sabrent Rocket 5 4TB for meaningfully faster reads (14,000 MB/s), higher sustained writes (11,600 MB/s), and a dedicated DRAM cache chip. Of the Phison E26 drives, Sabrent's Rocket 5 has earned a reputation for consistent thermal behavior with its larger heatsink design.
Go with the WD_BLACK SN7100 4TB for the lower retail price ($570 vs $739), and better $/TB economics ($142.50/TB).