KLEVV Announces CRAS C925 M.2 Gen 4 NVMe SSD

[btarunr]

KLEVV today announced the CRAS C925 line of mid-range M.2 NVMe SSDs. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, these drives take advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface, to provide sequential transfer speeds of up to 7400 MB/s reads, and up to 6500 MB/s sequential writes, depending on the model. There are three of these based on capacity—500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB. All three offer up to 7400 MB/s sequential reads, while the maximum write speeds are up to 6200 MB/s for the 500 GB model, up to 6300 MB/s for the 1 TB model, and up to 6500 MB/s for the 2 TB model. Both the 500 GB and 1 TB models offer up to 670,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 980,000 IOPS random writes; while the 2 TB model does up to 700,000 IOPS random reads, with up to 1 million IOPS random writes.

The KLEVV CRAS C925 combines a MaxioTech MAP1602 DRAMless controller with an unspecified brand of 3D TLC NAND flash memory. The drive features a single-sided design, in that even the top 2 TB model has all its components on one side of the PCB. You can use the included aluminium heat-spreader that reduces temperatures by 12%, or the heatsink your motherboard includes. KLEVV rates the write endurance of these drives at 600 TBW for the 500 GB model, 1,200 TBW for the 1 TB model, and 2,400 TBW for the 2 TB model. The company is backing the drives with a 5-year warranty. The company didn't reveal pricing, but mentioned that the drives will be available from May 2024.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Chaitanya]

Max capacity peaks at 2TB is underwhelming along with lack lustre availability. TBW ratings look quite decent.

 

[Chrispy_]

Who are KLEVV, again?

I vaguely remember them being related to Hynix, but Hynix make their own-branded SSDs - unless it's like the Crucial/Micron brand relationship.

 

[bonehead123]

Dramless = y/A/w/N....

2TB max = even moar bigger y/A/w/N.....

I don't remember their origins either, but most of their products are aesthetically pleasing, and from what I've read elsewhere, seem to be of really good quality too, albeit a tad more $$ than most other average, everyday brands

 

[mechtech]

2400TBW seems pretty high for 2TB drive. Kc3000 sits at 1600TBW for 2TB drive?!?

 

[SomeOne99h]

Who are KLEVV, again?

I vaguely remember them being related to Hynix, but Hynix make their own-branded SSDs - unless it's like the Crucial/Micron brand relationship.

According to anandtech(dot)com,
"SK Hynix is owned by SK Group (SK C&C), which acts as an umbrella firm over many individual companies. SK Group created a new firm, Essencore, to help bring to market some of the DRAM and NAND capabilities directly to the end-user rather than through their ICs being sold on the open market. Essencore thus created KLEVV to cover the DRAM side of the equation, kind of making KLEVV a customer/vertical integration partner of SK Hynix, although the two are separate entities under the same umbrella, SK Group. This allows SK Hynix to have more control over their better components coming out of the fabs and sell direct. KLEVV is, on paper at least, another Crucial-like player in the space, and another soon-to-be important DRAM module manufacturer."

Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/8927/new-challenger-klevv-dram-modules-house-brand-of-sk-hynix

 

[Chrispy_]

OK so it is SK Hynix retail brand, the same way Crucial is Micron's retail brand.

Marketing misstep for sure. Hynix is one of the most recognisable RAM manufacturers on earth, and they've gone and given it a godawful, unrelated, dumb-sounding name and then spent a big fat zero on marketing effort.

SK > Hynix > Essencore > KLeVV

Shell companies and name obfuscation usually go hand-in-hand with tax-dodging, fraud, and repeat bankruptcy. Not sure what SK was thinking here but it hasn't worked postively on me, that's for sure...

 

[Minus Infinity]

As soon as I see max capacity 2TB I stop reading anything else about the drive.