Team Group T-Force Vulcan 500 GB SSD

W1zzard · Dec 20, 2019

The Team Group T-Force Vulcan SSD is priced extremely competitively with $50 for 500 GB, yet delivers outstanding performance. What's surprising is that the drive comes in both TLC and MLC variants, at the same price, but there's no way to know before buying. We tested both models in our review, with surprising results.

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jabbadap · Dec 20, 2019

Uhm that is seriously quite good for the money. But that odd MLC/TLC lottery is seriously bizarre. Is this the first third party ssd drive using Samsung flash?

I would be a bit more picky about that warranty time though; competing drives have 5 year warranties.

FreedomEclipse · Dec 21, 2019

And when it dies.... You can say that it took one for the team

Ruru · Dec 21, 2019

Pretty nice price/capacity ratio there. Finally for me the prices are cheap enough to dump HDDs finally from my main PC. 2x256 + 240 + 2x480GB SSDs now, but I still need a HDD for media and other crap.

FreedomEclipse said:
And when it dies.... You can say that it took one for the team

Good one!

W1zzard · Dec 21, 2019

jabbadap said:
lottery

is it a lottery if there's no significant difference between outcomes?

jabbadap · Dec 21, 2019

W1zzard said:
is it a lottery if there's no significant difference between outcomes?

Not necessary... But they could really make more premium drive from those MLC NANDs, I bet those would sell quite well. Though now that I remembered it's Samsung; so are you even sure they really are 2-bit MLC or Samsung's 3-bit "MLC".

W1zzard · Dec 21, 2019

jabbadap said:
I bet those would sell quite well

agreed, even if it's just for the apparent value

jabbadap said:
so are you even sure they really are 2-bit MLC or Samsung's 3-bit "MLC".

100%. After some back and forth Team Group confirmed

jabbadap · Dec 21, 2019

W1zzard said:
agreed, even if it's just for the apparent value

100%. After some back and forth Team Group confirmed

Hmm so they are probably the V-NAND chips used on 960 Pro. Are you sure you got them in the right order in Packaging & The drive page? Text on whole PCB pictures does not correspond to the rest of the chips pics.

Ruru · Dec 21, 2019

jabbadap said:
Hmm so they are probably the V-NAND chips used on 960 Pro. Are you sure you got them in the right order in Packaging & The drive page? Text on whole PCB pictures does not correspond to the rest of the chips pics.

Yeah they're mixed up there, the black PCB is the MLC version.

Chrispy_ · Dec 22, 2019

Both controllers are 4-channel designs, and Samsung's 64-layer TLC is rated at 108MB/s per channel. (860MB/s per 8-die package) That means the sustained write speed for the TLC drive is exactly what we should expect from that controller/NAND pairing.

The real question, is why doesn't the MLC variant hit the 530MB/s write bottleneck? It could be the controller. Both of those controllers are designed for TLC, according to SM's product pages.

W1zzard · Dec 22, 2019

jabbadap said:
Text on whole PCB pictures does not correspond to the rest of the chips pics.

Fixed

Processor	Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory	48 GB
Video Card(s)	RTX 4080
Storage	2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s)	30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software	Windows 10 64-bit

System Name	WorkInProgress
Processor	AMD 7800X3D
Motherboard	MSI X670E GAMING PLUS
Cooling	Thermalright AM5 Contact Frame + Phantom Spirit 120SE
Memory	2x32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO DDR5 6000 CL32
Video Card(s)	Asus Dual Radeon™ RX 6700 XT OC Edition
Storage	WD SN770 1TB (Boot)\|1x WD SN850X 8TB (Gaming)\| 2x2TB WD SN770\| 2x2TB+2x4TB Crucial BX500
Display(s)	LG GP850-B
Case	Corsair 760T (White) {1xCorsair ML120 Pro\|5xML140 Pro}
Audio Device(s)	Yamaha RX-V573\|Speakers: JBL Control One\|Auna 300-CN\|Wharfedale Diamond SW150
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus GX-850 80+ GOLD
Mouse	Logitech G502 X
Keyboard	Duckyshine Dead LED(s) III
Software	Windows 11 Home
Benchmark Scores	ლ(ಠ益ಠ)ლ

System Name	4K-gaming / console
Processor	5800X @ PBO +200 / i5-8600K @ 4.6GHz
Motherboard	ROG Crosshair VII Hero / ROG Strix Z370-F
Cooling	Alphacool Eisbaer 360 / Alphacool Eisbaer 240
Memory	32GB DDR4-3466 / 16GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	Asus RTX 3080 TUF OC / Powercolor RX 6700 XT
Storage	3.5TB of SSDs / several small SSDs
Display(s)	4K120 IPS + 4K60 IPS / 1080p60 HDTV
Case	Corsair 4000D AF White / DeepCool CC560 WH
Audio Device(s)	Sony WH-CH720N / TV speakers
Power Supply	EVGA G2 750W / Fractal ION Gold 550W
Mouse	Razer Basilisk / Logitech G400s
Keyboard	Roccat Vulcan 121 AIMO / NOS C450 Mini Pro
VR HMD	Oculus Rift CV1
Software	Windows 11 Pro / Windows 11 Pro
Benchmark Scores	They run Crysis

Processor	Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory	48 GB
Video Card(s)	RTX 4080
Storage	2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s)	30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software	Windows 10 64-bit

Processor	Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory	48 GB
Video Card(s)	RTX 4080
Storage	2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s)	30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software	Windows 10 64-bit

Team Group T-Force Vulcan 500 GB SSD

W1zzard

Administrator

jabbadap

FreedomEclipse

~Technological Technocrat~

Ruru

S.T.A.R.S.

W1zzard

Administrator

jabbadap

W1zzard

Administrator

jabbadap

Ruru

S.T.A.R.S.

Chrispy_

W1zzard

Administrator

System Name	Bragging Rights
Processor	Atom Z3735F 1.33GHz
Motherboard	It has no markings but it's green
Cooling	No, it's a 2.2W processor
Memory	2GB DDR3L-1333
Video Card(s)	Gen7 Intel HD (4EU @ 311MHz)
Storage	32GB eMMC and 128GB Sandisk Extreme U3
Display(s)	10" IPS 1280x800 60Hz
Case	Veddha T2
Audio Device(s)	Apparently, yes
Power Supply	Samsung 18W 5V fast-charger
Mouse	MX Anywhere 2
Keyboard	Logitech MX Keys (not Cherry MX at all)
VR HMD	Samsung Oddyssey, not that I'd plug it into this though....
Software	W10 21H1, barely
Benchmark Scores	I once clocked a Celeron-300A to 564MHz on an Abit BE6 and it scored over 9000.