Six Times The Boost For Your PC? Dynabook SSDs Put To The Test!
Updated: Jan 9, 2023
Are you still running Windows off an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) in 2022 and you're considering a cost-effective way to speed up your PC boot times and read-write speeds? Dynabook might be an option you want to consider as they have a lineup of SSDs (Solid-State Drives) which will offer that performance that you sorely need and more importantly, are relatively affordable as well.
In our lineup today, we have three SDDs from Dynabook, previously known as TOSHIBA, to test out. Namely, the Dynabook Boost AE100, AX3600 and the AX5600, all in their highest capacities of 960GB, 1TB and 2TB respectively.
We begin with the entry-level Boost AE100 2.5-inch SATA III SSD. Much like many other 2.5-inch SSDs out there, the design is minimalistic and will fit right in any PC builds. In our CrystalDiskMark test, we observed very typical data transfer speeds of about 560 MB/s sequential read and 500 MB/s sequential write, as expected of a SATA III interface. If you were running Windows on an HDD before then this will feel like an exponential upgrade in terms of boot times.
| Sequential Read | Sequential Write | Random Read | Random Write |
AE100 | 561.08 MB/s | 509.70 MB/s | 459.72 MB/s | 495.99 MB/s |
For S$135, the AE100 is priced really competitively. To add on, if you would like to give your PS4 or PS4 Pro a much-needed boost as well, no pun intended, this would be the option to consider.
On the other hand, if you’re running a desktop PC or perhaps a laptop, just topping up an additional S$15 will get you the Boost AX3600. This comes in at S$150 for 1TB in capacity. For those who are already in awe of the speed jump going from an HDD to the AE100, this M.2 based AX3600 takes it a step further and quadruples that jump with sequential read and write of up to 2,300 and 2,000 MB/s respectively.
| Sequential Read | Sequential Write | Random Read | Random Write |
AX3600 | 2,341.22 MB/s | 2,037.97 MB/s | 826.88 MB/s | 1,818.10 MB/s |
This translates to a significant decrease in load times for games and file transfers, recommended for daily use with occasional gaming thrown in! Do remember to check that your motherboard or laptop supports M.2 and PCIe Gen 3 standards before you pull the trigger on the AX3600!
Last but not least, if you have done your due diligence on checking your device’s M.2 compatibility and you want the best that PCIe Gen 3 has to offer, the higher tier in Dynabook’s lineup is the Boost AX5600. While it is significantly pricer than the AX3600 at S$385, it does feature yet additional increase in sequential read and writes speeds of 3,400 and 3,100 MB/s respectively. Simply put, that's about a 1.5 times jump from the AX3600 and a whopping 6 times the speed of the AE100!
Sequential Read | Sequential Write | Random Read | Random Write | |
AX5600 | 3,406.33 MB/s | 3,108.09 MB/s | 1,787.41 MB/s | 2,775.98 MB/s |
If you’re a creative professional who frequently deals with large media files or perhaps you’re an avid gamer who wishes to have instant access to all your games, the AX5600 is certainly the SSD to consider.
Now, we understand that it's a little hard to make sense of the read and write numbers and how it applies in real-world scenarios. Therefore we've also included the average time taken for each SSD to perform a simple 100GB file transfer containing videos, images and music.
| AE100 | AX3600 | AX5600 |
100GB Transfer | 4 Mins 18 Secs | 2 Min 37 Secs | 1 Min 28 Sec |
While the jump from the AE100 to the AX5600 isn't exactly 6 times what you see from the benchmark numbers, there is still a very large gap between the 2.5-inch AE100 and M.2 models. Hopefully, this puts the real-world performance into perspective if you are planning to pick one up for yourself.
With PCIe Gen 4 standards already available in the market these Gen 3 drives certainly aren't the cream of the crop, but if you are limited by the compatibility of your hardware then the Boost AX3600 and AX5600 are certainly worth considering due to their competitive price points against other brands. For those who are planning to upgrade your PS4 or older laptop which only supports 2.5-inch drives, then the AE100 is pretty much the only choice you have here.
Should you already own a device capable of Gen 4 speeds, you may still consider the Boost lineup as value options as PCIe versions are backwards compatible. So even if you upgrade your desktop or laptop down the line you can still reuse your Boost SSDs as supplementary drives.
The Dynabook Boost AE100 starts from S$45/S$79/S$135 for its 240/480/960GB capacity and the AX3600 runs for S$55/S$85/S$150 for its 256/512GB/1TB capacity, finally, the AX5600 are priced at S$175 and S$385 for its 1TB and 2TB versions respectively. The M.2 AX3600 and AX5600 come with a 5 years warranty while the AE100 only comes with 3 years.
If you are interested to learn more or pick one up do check out Dynabook's website and e-commerce platforms at Shopee and LAZADA.
This content is brought to you in partnership with Dynabook Asia.