MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD Review

The MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD is a new fast, small, portable SSD based on a 20Gbps USB Type-C interface that can be magnetically attached to devices from MSI. The name of the game with this external SSD is portability and fast performance at up to USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 2 (20Gbps) USB-C on a Type-C port, delivering NVMe SSD performance for devices.

The specifications are rated at 1600MB/s read and 1500MB/s write (1.6GB/s read and 1.5GB/s write) and the interface is capable of up to 20Gbps via USB 3.2 Gen 2×2. We are reviewing the 1TB DATAMAG 20Gbps model (MS-8Z0H) for review today. Pricing is TBD.

Primary use cases for this external portable SSD are devices like phones (iPhone, iPad, Android), even cameras, as well as gaming consoles like the PlayStation 5 (PS5), and of course laptops and PC. It supports Windows PCs, Macs, Android devices, laptops and gaming consoles.

With its magnetic attachments, it can attach to devices like phones, very easily for storage on the go. Think about storing ProRes/RAW 4K video from your iPhone, it can support that. It fully supports the iPhone 15 Pro (MAX) at up to 1000MB/s read/write performance. The MSI DATAMAG will have 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacity versions, for an incredible amount of storage on a mobile device.

The MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD is plug & play, and completely powered off of the USB Type-C port, no extra power is needed. The entire chassis is made from an aluminum alloy and dissipates heat, with built-in fins. The entire device is pocked-sized and weighs a light 81g, and only measures 6cm across and only 1cm in thickness. MSI will also offer a 5-year Warranty on the device, which is great to see for an SSD.

We are no strangers to MSI discrete storage devices on the PC, we have reviewed the: M470, M480, M570, and M580 SSDs. Each one has performed very well and remained cool while doing so, with no thermal throttling. We are going to focus our tests on the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD on the PC, to isolate the SSD and test its full potential, without bottlenecks.

Our evaluation today is focused on testing the device itself, and not on the use cases, we are focused on the hardware and how well it works so that you can see if it will apply to your situation, and stand up to heavy usage in the field. How well does it work? Let’s find out. We are testing the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD on an ASRock X870E Taichi Motherboard with an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X connected via the USB4 40Gbps Type-C connector.

The MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps comes in a box with clearly labeled capacity, and maximum interface speed, however it does not list the actual SSD performance on the box. It clearly labels the accessories in the box, which include: 2x Metal Rings for attaching, a Long and Short USB-C cable, and a USB-C to A Adapter. The devices, and components are securely held in the box, and it has a very clever release mechanism to release them from the packaging.

There is a short Type-C cable and a long one, you can use the short one to connect to a mobile device, like a phone, and then attach the magnetic ring to the device and then to your phone. The longer cable can be used for a PC or laptop, or you can continue to use the short one, we like the option for both lengths. It is also great to see a Type-A adapter, for if you do not have a Type-C but have USB 3.2 Gen 2 support or lower.

As we detailed above, the unit itself is quite small, and light. It feels solid in the hand and should withstand outdoor use quite well, on the go. It also has a keyring attachment, or for some sort of cord if you wish to attach it that way. The rubber pad on the bottom keeps it from sliding on your desk, and it works very well, keeping it from sliding on different surfaces that we tested it on, including cloth, wood, and metal.

It is important to know that the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD comes out-of-the-box pre-formatted and ready to go with a partition, you will not need to partition it. Its default partition is an IFS partition formatted in exFAT format.

We are testing the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD on an ASRock X870E Taichi Motherboard with an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X connected via the USB4 40Gbps Type-C connector, therefore we know our interface has maximum bandwidth potential. We are showing two results of CrystalDiskMark above due to the fact that we tested the SSD on both USB4 Type-C ports, just to make sure we were receiving consistent results. Our results were very consistent run-to-run, across two different USB4 ports.

The MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD has a specified read speed from MSI of 1600MB/s read and 1500MB/s write. According to our CrystalDiskMark testing, we are hitting just above the specified and rated speeds of this portable SSD. We achieved a 1681MB/s read speed and 1521MB/s write speed in SEQ1M Q8T1, as the highest results for read and write, performing at or above its specification. We also found strong SEQ128K Q32T1 performance, which matched SEQ1M Q8T1, showing that in sequential performance, whether a small queue depth or a large one, this SSD performs at its full specification’s speed.

In the RND4K Q32T16 testing, this SSD performed stronger in write performance than read and was around 322MB/s on read and 447MB/s on write performance. As expected, the random performance with a large queue depth, and high threads, does lower performance. This is about double the loss we see on discrete PCIe Gen4 SSDs, or roughly an 80% reduction in performance, in random reads and writes with a high queue depth. The RND4K Q1T1 performance is around 35MB/s on read and 85MB/s on write, again showing that random read/write performance with a small queue and thread can take quite a toll.

In ATTO Disk Benchmark, the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD actually performed much better in these results in the write performance, compared to CrystalDiskMark. Here, we are seeing 1.67GB/s on read performance and up to 1.82GB/s on write performance with a smaller file size. This shows excellent potential sequential write performance.

In PassMark’s PerformanceTest we ran the Drive Performance benchmark and are showing both MB/s and IOPS. As we saw from CrystalDiskMark, the 4K read and write performance takes a toll, but 512K is at NVMe speeds, and the actual throughput is quite good.

In the first screenshot, we are copying a 50GB file from the primary (C:) drive (a Gen5 SSD), to the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD, this tests the write performance and time of the device. We ran the test 3 times, back-to-back. You can see the transfer rate of each test at around 1100-1152MB/s, writing to the device, which was consistent. The fastest time this took was 44 seconds, and the slowest time was 46 seconds, so it is safe to say around 45 seconds to transfer a 50GB file to the device.

In the second (middle) screenshot, we are copying the 50GB file from the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD to our primary (C:) Gen5 SSD, so this tests the read speed of the device, and the time it takes. We ran the test 3 times. We can see that the transfer rate was around 1289-1293MB/s for read. The time it took was 39.5-39.6 seconds, so this was very consistent across 3 runs. It did take slightly longer to write than to read.

In the last screenshot (right), we are copying the 50GB file from the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD to the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD, in the same volume, this simulates a large file copy on the device itself. The transfer rate doing this drops to around 466-479MB/s. This means it takes between 1.7-1.8 minutes to copy a large file on the device itself, of 50GB. Since this has a 1TB capacity, larger files will take several minutes if doing that.

In AS SSD, the ISO speed test results in 972MB/s, the Program file copy results in 310MB/s, and the Game copy results in 689MB/s. Note that upon running these tests, we ran it multiple times, and the results were very consistent in each run, with little variance. We also ran AS SSD’s Compression Benchmark, and we can see read performance starting at 1000MB/s and works its way up to above 1454MB/s. The write performance starts off at 1362MB/s and has a few dips during the run, but for the remainder of the test is consistent and ends up at 1728MB/s.

Since the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD is built for video on mobile, we ran AJA’s System Test at the default settings in the first screenshot above (left). As you can see, we saw a read speed of 1380MB/s and a write speed of 1565MB/s. In the second screenshot (middle) we changed the settings to a ProRes codec type at 4K resolution. As you can see, the read speed is 1230MB/s and the write speed is 1582MB/s. Finally, in the third screenshot (right) we have changed the format to AJA RAW 10-bit DNG at 4K, and you can see the read speed is 1480MB/s and the write speed is 1576MB/s. This shows the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD is capable of performing well with each codec.

As you can see from the temperature result in HWiNFO64, the internal temp sensor of the device registered a maximum temperature of 64c during this 30-minute constant run of read-and-write performance testing. We also took a reading of the surface temperature on the front and back with a temperature gun. Our front reading was 33.6c and our back reading was 33.4c.

With these numbers, our overall sense is that this is a rather cool running device, and doesn’t reach the kind of temperatures that would thermal throttle the performance. It also means it won’t make your phone, console, or laptop, extra hot either. It also will not burn your hands, or make holding it uncomfortable, it was warm to the touch, but not hot.

We tested the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD in a scenario that gave it maximum potential, to find the limits of the SSD. We ran it across a USB4 40Gbps Type-C connector to eliminate bottlenecks on a PC with a Gen5 SSD. In our testing, we found that the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD provides a sequential read/write speed of around 1680MB/s (read) and 1520MB/s (write). The SSD is rated at 1600MB/s|1500MB/s, so our testing showed consistent results that matched what it should be performing at. It did not underperform at all.

At the speeds shown, it is not maxing out the full USB-C 20Gbps interface connection speed, which has a maximum theoretical limit of 2500MB/s. However, USB 10Gbps would have been too slow for this device (1250MB/s) as it can clearly surpass USB 10Gbps performance. The MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD is more like a 15Gbps device, though of course no USB 15Gbps interface exists, so it had to be 20Gbps. In terms of performance, the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD is about on par with the slowest M.2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs, which isn’t bad considering how small and portable the unit is.

In all of our testing today, the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD performed as specified, and seems to be able to handle the different video codecs very well for mobile devices. It’s going to provide good read-and-write performance with different queue depths and threads in sequential performance. If performing random reads and writes, it will slow down a bunch more, about to the level of a SATA SSD.

If you are using the drive as a storage device for video storage on the go, you are probably writing more consent sequential data to and from the device. In this scenario, the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD did well copying large files to and from the drive. If you copy files across the drive, it will slow down quite a bit, so best to use it as a storage medium and reading medium.

In terms of temperatures, the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD remains cool. This SSD does not get hot to the touch, it will warm up, but not hot. Its internal temperatures indicate it shouldn’t thermal throttle out in the field. It won’t get hot and melt your phone, and it won’t burn your hand. The shell is designed well to dissipate the warmth.

The MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD has a very rugged build. Its solid aluminum construction gives it heft and a feeling that the unit is solid in your hands. If you use this device outdoors, or on the go in a mobile situation, it should stand up to the rigors of outdoor activity. of constantly being shuffled in a bag to hitting it a little too hard as you place it down on a table, or bang it against something on your way to plugging it in. Though, if you use the clever magnetic attachment, you can just magnetically stick it to your phone or device, and always have it connected with the provided shorter USB-C able.

Overall, the MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD is an excellent portable SSD, as well as a great, tiny, and small external SSD for a game console (PS5) for game storage, or laptop usage, or even a PC. It is very small, and won’t get in the way, and does not require external power as the USB-C port will provide all the power it needs, so it’s a one-cable deal.

The MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD also has several capacity options, 1TB, 2TB, and up to 4TB, so it packs a lot of space in a tiny package. It also operates silently, no fans, no fuss. The MSI DATAMAG 20Gbps Magnetic Portable SSD is one to look out for if you need a lot of storage in a small space, and want high-speed 20Gbps performance.