PNY CS3150 XLR8 2 TB RGB

[W1zzard]

The PNY CS3150 XLR8 SSD features ARGB illumination and is the first PCIe 5.0 solid-state-drive on the market that includes a temperature controlled active cooling solution. Its idle-fan-stop feature will bring the fans to a complete halt when the drive is not in use or is under light load, and users can adjust the fan curve manually through software.

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[Bruno_O]

totally worth it to load games 0.1 second faster while adding 2 whiny fans to your build

 

[Nostras]

Honestly not the biggest fan of this solution. Now it requires software to run.
Still a lot better than just sending it all the time, but still suboptimal.
I'm curious if there's some kind of possibility where the fan can connect to the SSD, something like the GPU fans for example.
Bonus points for being able to store a custom fanprofile on the controller.

 

[mama]

This is an impressive drive. I think Gen. 5 is maturing. As an aside, I note that one of the better Gen. 4 drives is not in your test suite: SK Hynix P41 Platinum (only the older Hynix Gold). Any plan to add it?

 

[Ferrum Master]

not the biggest fan

That's for sure here.

 

[Ravenmaster]

Oh hell no. I am not touching gen5 m.2's until they can be cooled passively and efficiently. Screw tiny high-pitched annoying fans.

 

[Chaitanya]

Without that "aesthetic" crap on top of heatsink temps could be quite a bit better. I hope one of the SSD makers will go ahead and use Thermalright heatsink instead of these bottom of barrel heatsinks with fans used to "cool".

 

[chrcoluk]

Another rushed to market drive, 2TB being the only capacity gives that away.

They need to wait until is a gen5 controller thats under 3w at load.

All these drives are doing is providing me confirmation i was right to not be bothered about gen 5 nvme connectivity.

 

[Dammeron]

Almost 2 years ago I suggested my friend to buy KC3000 - still thinking it's the best deal out there.

 

[MachineLearning]

Two things that bother me about this drive

1. Should use regular 4-pin fan connector for control, therefore no need for software and can be done in BIOS

2. Design clearly does fine for cooling the drive. Still, design could absolutely be improved by rotating both fans horizontally + slightly changing finstack, so they blow through the fins instead of having such a small area just below them

I still don't like how hot this controller gets and can't imagine buying a 1st gen PCIe 5.0 drive as a result

 

[W1zzard]

Now it requires software to run.

It works perfectly fine without software, but will use the default fan curve only

I'm curious if there's some kind of possibility where the fan can connect to the SSD, something like the GPU fans for example.

Yeah would be nice if Phison thought of including fan control logic in their controller and a GPIO to control a fan, but they didn't..

I note that one of the better Gen. 4 drives is not in your test suite: SK Hynix P41 Platinum (only the older Hynix Gold). Any plan to add it?

Solidigm P44 Pro is the same drive, and I picked it because it's more popular than the Hynix P41 (or is it?)

Should use regular 4-pin fan connector for control, therefore no need for software and can be done in BIOS

As mentioned in the conclusion, your approach does not allow temperature control, because the BIOS doesn't know the SSD temperature

 

[GhostRyder]

I am still gonna wait on these for a bit longer before jumping onto them mostly due to high early adopter price and premature software/designs. I would not mind water cooling a Gen 5 PCIE M.2 in the future over fans in my next build once they work out the kinks on these (Although I am not sure if I like the idea of requiring that on my SSD lol).

 

[zlobby]

What is the noise from those 2 screechers when drive is under sustained writing?

 

[Vario]

Unrelated but the Dark Flash Case looks like a better O11. I wasn't familiar with this model or manufacturer, thanks for showing it in the review.

 

[wolf]

I don't quite understand how the hsf works.. There are two fans, looking like they are both intake, however there are no exhausts? Or if they ar eexhiast fans, where does it draw cool air from? It's getting on in a Friday arvo so maybe my brain is cooked Rn and I can't see it right, but as someone who's done dozens of cooling mods over the years, I just don't quite get this design.

 

[sLowEnd]

I don't quite understand how the hsf works.. There are two fans, looking like they are both intake, however there are no exhausts? Or if they ar eexhiast fans, where does it draw cool air from? It's getting on in a Friday arvo so maybe my brain is cooked Rn and I can't see it right, but as someone who's done dozens of cooling mods over the years, I just don't quite get this design.

Seems pretty straightforward to me.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
2tb m.2's are just so blah
That cooler though is

 

[zlobby]

It's retarded, unoptimized, and noisy. Hard pass.

 

[OliverQueen]

PNY not willing to release VBIOS updates for their 30xxti range of cards to enable Resizable Bar on them has put me off totally from buying any of their products ever again. They could be the fastest cooling running thing on the market but because it is from them, I would prefer to not use them in case needed support from them (their customer support is basically 'tough sh1t, you bought it now you are stuck with it but you can send it in for RMA only for us to tell you there is nothing wrong with it')

 

[cst1992]

No one gives a shit for the environment these days it seems - 12W for an M.2 drive?! 3.5" drives used to consume 6-9W of power back in the days.

 

[kapone32]

Nice review. One thing I would like to see is if you took that heatsink and put it on the MP700 would you get the same results? The MP700 comes with a heatsink that is the same as the MP600.

 

[67Elco]

This does not look like it will fit under some existing motherboard cover plates.