The Kingston KC3000 is built using the Phison E18 controller and Micron's best 176-layer TLC NAND flash. In our performance testing, the drive can beat the Samsung 980 Pro and is the fastest SSD we ever tested. It shares that performance throne with the WD Black SN850.
The Crucial P5 Plus is the latest flagship SSD from Crucial. It is built using a new in-house PCI-Express 4.0 controller made by Micron, paired with the company's state-of-the-art 176-layer 3D TLC NAND flash. At $180, the Crucial P5 is priced similarly to the offerings of WD and Samsung, but does it have the performance to match?
The Kioxia Exceria is the new price/performance king in our SSD reviews. This Phison E12-based drive is priced at just 9 cents per GB, yet offers performance besting most value solid-state drives. This is the drive you want if money is tight.
The MSI Spatium M390 is based on the brand-new Phison E15 controller, which offers excellent performance while being cost-efficient to manufacture. It's one of the first drives I'd call "DRAM-less done right." With $110, the MSI Spatium M390 is priced very competitively and has the potential to kill all the QLC drives out there.
The Kioxia Exceria Plus G2 offers excellent real-life performance that rivals the best PCIe Gen 3 SSDs out there, but it's unfortunately not available in the US. Priced at around $270, the 2 TB drive in our review is quite affordable, too, and definitely worth considering when looking for a high-performance 2 TB M.2 NVMe SSD.
The Acer Predator GM7000 is a high-end SSD that's competing with the Samsung 980 Pro, WD Black SN850, and Corsair MP600 Pro. Powered by an Innogrit IG5236 controller paired with 96-layer TLC NAND from Micron, the Acer Predator GM7000 achieved excellent performance results in our review.
The SanDisk Ultra 3D is the most affordable 4 TB SSD available, currently selling for only $390. In terms of performance, it's nearly as fast as other high-end 2.5" SATA drives, and write speeds are sustained very well since there's no TLC write hole.
Finally! The Hynix Gold P31 SSD is available as a 2 TB version. Built exclusively with Hynix in-house components, the Gold P31 achieves impressive performance results, making it the fastest PCIe 3.0 SSD we ever tested. It's actually even faster than some PCIe 4.0 models, and much more affordable.
At $300 for the reviewed 2 TB version, the ADATA XPG Gammix S70 Blade is one of the most affordable PCIe 4.0 SSDs available today. Despite its low price, it offers compatibility with Sony's PlayStation 5, and performance is comparable to the Samsung 980 Pro, WD Black SN850, and Corsair MP600 Pro.
With $220 for the 2 TB version, the Neo Forza eSports NFP075 is a well-priced SSD based on the trusty combination of the Phison E12S controller and 96-layer 3D TLC NAND from Toshiba. In our performance tests, it achieved good performance comparable to the Crucial P5, Samsung 970 EVO, HP EX950, and Kingston A2000.
The Team Group MP34Q is a QLC-based M.2 NVMe SSD that uses the PCIe 3.0 interface, Phison's highly popular E12 controller, and 96-layer 3D QLC NAND from Micron. In our testing, we saw good performance results, but price/performance suffers due to the high price.
The MSI Spatium M480 is a flagship SSD based on the Phison E18 controller, featuring support for the fast PCI-Express 4.0 interface. Inside the box, you'll find a heatsink that looks fantastic and very sleek to provide cooling for this 7 GB/s monster.
With the Spatium Series, MSI is entering the highly competitive SSD market. The Spatium M470 uses a Phison E16 controller paired with 96-layer TLC flash from Toshiba, which makes it one of the fastest drives we ever tested, also thanks to support for the PCI-Express 4.0 interface.
With the Cardea Zero Z44Q, Team Group is exploring the possibility of QLC NAND on PCI-Express 4.0 powered by a Phison E16 controller. Included with the drive are two heatsinks: a flat foil for laptops and a full-sized heatsink for desktop. We test thermals of all three cooling configurations to see how much of a difference they can make.
The Sabrent Rocket Q4 is a PCI-Express 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD that uses QLC NAND flash paired with a Phison E16 controller. Performance, especially in synthetic tests, is good, and the super-large SLC cache is able to soak up even the largest bursts of write activity. A very decent heatsink is included, too.
Priced at just $80 for the reviewed 1 TB version, the Neo Forza NFS01 2.5" SATA SSD is one of the most affordable drives on the market. While it won't break any speed records, its performance is good enough for many use cases, and the price point is very convincing.
The Samsung 980 is the company's first attempt at releasing a DRAM-less SSD for the consumer market. While such designs usually are slow and have terrible random write rates, Samsung has found a way around that. Our Samsung 980 review confirms that this is one of the fastest SSDs you can buy.
The SK Hynix Gold P31 M.2 NVMe SSD achieves truly impressive performance thanks to its Hynix "Cepheus" controller, which is paired with 128-layer NAND flash. It is the fastest PCIe Gen 3 drive we ever tested, beating even some Gen 4 drives, at a much better price.
The Addlink S95 is based on the ultra-fast Phison E18 controller paired with Micron 96-layer 3D TLC flash. Support for the PCI-Express 4.0 interface means that this drive is fast. In our testing, we saw transfer rates of up to 7 GB/s, making the S95 one of the fastest SSDs we ever tested.
Phison has improved their E18 controller to work with Micron's new 176-layer 3D TLC NAND. The result is an SSD that's faster than even the Samsung 980 Pro in both real-life and synthetic testing. What's even more impressive is that sustained write rates finally beat the MLC-based Samsung 970 Pro.
The Silicon Power XD80 uses a Phison E12 controller paired with 96-layer TLC flash from Toshiba. In our testing, the drive reached performance levels similar to the best PCIe Gen 3 SSDs. Priced at $240 for the 2 TB version, the Silicon Power XD80 is quite affordable, too.
The Acer FA100 solid-state drive is an entry-level M.2 NVMe SSD. In our extensive testing, we saw decent performance that matches competing SSDs. The SLC cache is also big enough to soak up the largest write bursts, and there's no thermal throttling.
Priced at only $210 for the tested 2 TB version, the Silicon Power UD70 is highly affordable, yet offers good performance thanks to the combination of Micron 96-layer QLC flash and Phison E12 controller. Unlike some competing value-oriented drives, a DRAM cache is included, too.
The Lexar NM620 uses a custom DM620 flash controller from Lexar. In our real-life performance testing, we saw good performance results despite the lack of a DRAM cache chip. With over 200 GB, the pseudo-SLC cache is also large enough to handle all bursts in write activity.
The Team Group T-Create Expert comes with 12 years of warranty and a mind-boggling 12,000 TBW endurance rating. That's 12 Petabytes, probably more than all the data you've consumed in your life up to this point. We take a closer look at the chips they use and run it through our extensive real-life testing suite.
