SSDs have become faster over the years and leading the charge are a new wave of PCIe-based, NVMecompliant SSDs. Here are four of the latest M.2 form factor PCIe SSDs to hit the market.
SSDs have become faster over the years and leading the charge are a new wave of PCIe-based, NVMecompliant SSDs. Here are four of the latest M.2 form factor PCIe SSDs to hit the market.
ADATA XPG SX8000
The brand ADATA might not be familiar with you, but it is one of the world’s largest purveyors of flash memory devices. The company’s roots are in DRAM modules, but it has recently made huge inroads in manufacturing USB flash drives, memory cards, and both internal and external SSDs.
The XPG SX8000 is the company’s latest flagship drive and it is special because it is one of the first drives outside of Samsung to use 3D MLC NAND. Unlike Samsung, ADATA does not produce its own NAND memory, and so it has to source its 3D MLC NAND from Micron, one of the world’s largest providers of NAND memory.
The controller is Silicon Motion’s high-end SM2260 SSD controller, one of the new breed of controllers that was designed to take advantage of the enhanced performance and reliability of 3D NAND.
Like the rest of the drives featured here, the XPG SX8000 supports the fast PCIe 3.0 x4 interface and the new NVMe protocol. ADATA is also claiming read speeds in excess of 2GB/s, and write speeds beyond 1GB/s. The XPG SX8000 also features SLC caching, which dedicates a portion of its memory to work in a single-level cell mode to boost performance. This is the same caching technique that many entrylevel TLC NAND SSDs use to boost read and especially write speeds. It has proven to be very effective, but how does it fare on the XPG SX8000?
While sequential read and write speeds were suitably high, its random 4K read and write performance was quite disappointing. Even SLC caching cannot save the XPG SX8000 from being outclassed by the competition when it came to random data and smaller data blocks.
If it’s any consolation, the XPG SX8000 is the most affordable SSD we have rounded up here by a good margin. It is only available in the M.2 2280 form factor and is offered in four capacity points: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
+ Decent sequential read and write speeds, and the most affordable of the bunch.
- Disappointing random read and write performance.
OCZ RD400
The RD400 is powered by a Toshibabranded controller, and naturally uses Toshiba’s own 15nm MLC NAND. Endurance is suitably high, with the 512GB variant rated good for 296TB written or roughly 162GB of writes a day. This is well above the 10GB to 30GB of writes that most users will rack up in a single day of usage.
The RD400 stands out for its outstanding warranty program. Though it has a 5-year warranty like most drives, it is far more comprehensive. Called the Advanced Warranty Program, OCZ aims to reduce the hassle of drive replacements by sending affected customers a replacement drive first. Users can then send their faulty unit back using the mailer that came with the replacement. It also shows just how confident OCZ is of their drives.
The RD400 is available in two form factors: as an M.2 2280 drive as seen here, and also as a PCIe AIC for motherboards without M.2 slots. Available capacities are 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB.
+ High write speeds, very good all-round performance.
- Extremely pricey.
PLEXTOR M8PE
Plextor is favored brand amongst many enthusiasts, but like its rivals, it has taken Plextor awhile to enter the market with competitive PCIe-based SSD. Its last flagship, the Plextor M6e Black Edition was an attractive drive with loads of features, but only supported the slower PCIe 2.0 x4 interface.
The new M8Pe SSD is the company’s latest flagship SSD and it is also its first to support PCIe 3.0 x4 interface and NVMe. However, since Plextor isn’t an integrated SSD manufacturer, unlike Samsung and OCZ, it relies on Marvell’s new 88SS1093 SSD controller and Toshiba’s 15nm MLC NAND.
In terms of speed, the Plextor M8Pe proved to be a very good performer. Sequential reads and writes were high and consistent, but 4K performance was a little underwhelming. Overall, it was quicker than the ADATA SPG SX8000, and about on a par with the OCZ RD400. But it was no match for the blazing quick Samsung SSD 960 Pro.
One of the reasons why Plextor SSDs are loved by enthusiasts is because of their rigorous inspections. Pre-production units of Plextor’s SSDs are tested to ensure they perform without a hitch before they can be approved for retail. This includes a 100% burn-in and aging test; a 48-hour long sustained read and write test; 250 times boot cycle test; and a 4000 time idle recovery test.
Amidst reports of M.2 SSDs throttling performance whenever they get too hot, Plextor has taken cooling very seriously. The M8Pe we tested came with a large anodized aluminum heatsink that helps keep the drive cool during heavy operation. It also looks pretty cool.
Obviously, the large heatsink can make installation in notebooks tricky, so Plextor has another version of the M8Pe in the M.2 2280 form factor but without the heatsink called the M8PeGN. And for users without an M.2 slot on their motherboards, there’s a PCIe AIC version of the MP8e called the M8Pe(Y). So in total, there are three variants of the M8Pe drive. Available capacities are 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB.
+ Available in lots of form factors, compe ve performance and price.
- Slow at handling smaller data blocks.
SAMSUNG SSD 960 PRO
Samsung has released a new flagship consumer SSDs every year for the past few years, and 2016 is no different. Their new flagship SSD is the SSD 960 Pro and it is remarkable because of its performance.
Like other drives in this shootout, the SSD 960 Pro supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and the NVMe protocol. In our tests, we found the SSD 960 Pro to be an absolute beast. Read and write speeds were generally amongst the quickest, and it was the only drive that could hit data transfer speeds of over 3GB/s. However, it wasn’t perfect, because it was inconsistent on some workloads, especially when it came to smaller 4K data blocks. That said, it is the fastest drive we have ever tested, and by a good margin.
When quizzed, Samsung said that the dramatic improvements in performance can be attributed to the company’s new Polaris controller. The Polaris controller features five(!) ARM cores and has a single core dedicated solely to host communication. This controller also supports 256-bit AES hardware encryption and TCG Topal for security.
As for memory, Samsung is using its own latest 48-layer MLC V-NAND, based on a 3D NAND architecture. 3D NAND differs from regular planar NAND in that its memory cells are stacked upon on another. This gives it two critical advantages over traditional planar NAND: memory density and endurance. The 512GB version of the SSD 960 Pro we are testing is rated good for up to 400TB written, that’s about 200GB of writes a day, which is well above the average user workload of 30GB writes a day.
The SSD 960 Pro’s predecessor was said to be prone to thermal throttling, where it would cut back on performance if it should get too hot. To overcome this, the SSD 960 Pro features an adhesive label with a thin piece of copper, which improves thermal capacity by 30%.
One thing to note about the drive is that is only available in the M.2 2280 form factor. There are no plans for a PCIe add-in card version, but Samsung did say that if there is demand, they will certainly consider offering it. Available capacities are 512GB, 1TB and 2TB.
+ The fastest drive by a good margin.
- Pricey, performance can be a li le erratic.
3D NAND: THE FUTURE OF NAND MEMORY
To make SSDs more affordable, SSDs manufacturers have been focused on increasing memory density - the amount of memory you could get from a single chip. There are two ways to achieve this: use smaller manufacturing processes or increase the number of bits per cell. The former meant making cells smaller so that they could cram more memory cells onto a single chip. The latter, on the other hand, meant storing more bits of data per cell.
However, we are fast approaching the limits of smaller manufacturing processes. Since each cell has to hold a charge, there’s a limit to how small you can make individual cells before interference from neighboring cells corrupt data. We could store more bits of data per cell, but that comes at the cost of performance and endurance, something that most users do not like.
The solution to this is 3D NAND, and it is an elegant solution whereby memory cells are stacked on top of each other. By stacking cells, there is a lot more “space” and there’s no longer the need to cram memory cells so close together. As a result, memory manufacturing can go back to less extreme manufacturing processes, which boosts performance and endurance.
