Performance

Consumer Grade M.2 NVMe SSD

For the consumer-grade scenario, we tested the Teamgroup MP34 NVMe SSD in three scenarios within the Silverstone PS14-E chassis. To establish a baseline, the first had it mounted directly on the motherboard, as would be the classic use case. Next, the drive was benched inside the EZConvert MB705M2P-B and treated like a 2.5" U.2 drive, subjected to the same 15 minute sustained write test. Lastly, it was installed inside the ToughArmor MB601VK-1B, and the same benchmark was run one last time.


As you can see, the drive gets pretty warm here, climbing to a little over 70°C, which is not enough to make the unit throttle, although it is pretty close to that 80°C throttling mark. Thus, it is able to sustain the expected 2 GB/s performance.


Simply throwing it into the EZConvert MB705M2P-B drastically dropped temperatures, so much so that the drive barely broke the 50°C mark, which really shows how much of a difference the heatsink makes.


While placing it inside the ToughArmor MB601VK-1B resulted in slightly raised temperatures, these can be considered negligible overall. It is obvious that the EZConvert housing is easily able to handle the drive in general.

Enterprise Grade U.2 2.5" SSD

The Intel Optane SSD 905P is one beast of a drive. Its storage density means Intel has thrown a big heatsink on the drive already, but even so, it tends to run hotter than any classic consumer-grade drive. This means that those who want performance and durability will have to use the 905P with potent active cooling, translating into one aspect worth mentioning: overkill. While installing a $2000 enterprise-level SSD is certainly a scenario that is realistic, subjecting it to a long-term, sustained write scenario like this in a passive, enclosed environment may not be unless you are in dire need of the data within that system and have absolutely no other storage options. That said, it is nice to be able to see how far the ToughArmor MB601VK-1B can be pushed.


To establish a baseline, we installed the Intel Optane SSD 905P into the Silverstone PS14-E as if it were a normal drive. With this limited cooling setup, the drive almost does not make it 15 minutes without hitting that 80°C barrier when it starts throttling. That alone shows that the 905P needs to be actively cooled for healthy sustained use.


Now for the fun part. Sliding the Intel Optane SSD 905P into the ToughArmor MB601VK-1B and firing up the same benchmark, we see the same temperature ceiling being hit around two-thirds into the benchmark, which has the drive actively throttle to keep from heating up more. This is a great way to show how far you can push the ToughArmor MB601VK-1B in such an extreme scenario and will certainly be of interest if your area of focus is some high-risk, high-stakes industrial, enterprise, or government IT infrastructure environment.