SK hynix Announces PCI-Express 4.0 Platinum P41 Solid State Drives

[btarunr]

SK hynix today unveiled the Platinum P41, the fastest M.2 NVMe SSD under the NAND flash and DRAM manufacturer's own marquee. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive is targeted at the DIY PC enthusiast segment, and is the company's first client-segment drive to take advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface. The drive combines an in-house controller design by the company, codenamed "Aries," with the company's latest 176-layer 3D NAND flash, and a DDR4 DRAM cache.

The SK hynix Platinum P41 comes in three variants based on capacity—500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB. All three feature a compact design. The company didn't release variant-specific performance numbers, but made broad performance claims for the series. It offers sequential reads of up to 7,000 MB/s, with up to 6,500 MB/s sequential writes, up to 1.4 million IOPS 4K random reads; and up to 1.3 million IOPS 4K random writes. The endurance claims for the 500 GB variant are 500 TBW, for the 1 TB are 750 TBW, and for the 2 TB variant are 1,200 TBW. The drives are backed by 5-year warranties. The company will release pricing and availability later into Q1 2022 (before April).

Update Jan 4th: Additional technical details on the 176-layer NAND flash can be found here and here.

Hynix also confirmed to us that the Platinum P41 uses Hynix components exclusively: "The P41 uses TLC, SK hynix Aries controller, SK hynix NAND & DRAM." This also clarifies that the drive is TLC, so there's no chance for stealth component changes to QLC like on some other vendors.



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[Selaya]

Nice. Maybe this is the dealbreaker 4.0 drive (price and/or performance wise) we've been waiting for.

 

[Minus Infinity]

I hope the price is good as it sounds like a great SSD. Almost bought the P31 earlier this year.

 

[enzolt]

Cant wait! Love the P31 and S31 lines!

 

[InVasMani]

If it's anything like the Gold I expect nice things with a name like Platinum! I'll be a bit disappointed if SK Hynix doesn't follow up with a equally compelling drive after the great success they had with the former.

 

[WhoDecidedThat]

Here is the specifications comparison:

Metric	Gold P31	Platinum P41
Sequential Read	3500 MB/sec	7000 MB/sec
Sequential Write	3200 MB/sec	6500 MB/sec
Random Read	570k IOPS	1400k IOPS
Random Write	600k IOPS	1300k IOPS

Both drives have identical endurance ratings.

Fun Fact - P31 stands for PCIe 3.0 1st generation and P41 stands for PCIe 4.0 1st generation

Source of fun fact and Gold P31 numbers - https://ssd.skhynix.com/gold_p31/

 

[natr0n]

I have a gold p31 I lost somewhere in my house.

 

[DrCR]

Fun Fact - P31 stands for PCIe 3.0 1st generation and P41 stands for PCIe 4.0 1st generation

Wow, that’s surprisingly rational nomenclature.

 

[enzolt]

Any idea how many layers the NAND they are using are? I am assuming its their 176

 

[prtskg]

Any idea how many layers the NAND they are using are? I am assuming its their 176

Yes, it's written in article

 

[Armari17]

Let's hope these are as good value as their P31 counterparts but have black PCB's for all capacities. (I know I'll not be able to see it under a heat spreader, but I'll know if it's black or not!).

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I like the look, and the specs, but its a shame that after moving to 176 layer TLC we still get limited to 2TB capacities. Sabrent has offered a 4TB TLC drive for almost a year now, and nobody else seems to bother making one. Competition is gud. Really hope we get a 4TB P41.

 

[jeremyshaw]

I like the look, and the specs, but its a shame that after moving to 176 layer TLC we still get limited to 2TB capacities. Sabrent has offered a 4TB TLC drive for almost a year now, and nobody else seems to bother making one. Competition is gud. Really hope we get a 4TB P41.

SK Hynix did launch the P31 with just 1TB max, so there is some hope they will increase capacity down the line. But I do agree, 2TB is just holding the line.

 

[Chris_Ramseyer]

I like the look, and the specs, but its a shame that after moving to 176 layer TLC we still get limited to 2TB capacities. Sabrent has offered a 4TB TLC drive for almost a year now, and nobody else seems to bother making one. Competition is gud. Really hope we get a 4TB P41.

Sabrent just announced another 8TB M.2 drive, this one built on the E18 controller.

 

[Minus Infinity]

The 1TB limit on the P31 is the main reason I didn't buy it.

 

[jeremyshaw]

The 1TB limit on the P31 is the main reason I didn't buy it.

They did eventually release a 2TB version with a black PCB.