The Team Group Z540 is the fourth M.2 NVMe PCIe 5.0 SSD that we've reviewed. Just like the Corsair MP700, ADATA Legend 970 and SSTC Tiger Shark Elite it is based on the Phison E26 controller, paired with Micron 232-layer TLC NAND. Actually, these four drives all use the exact same PCB design and components. What makes the Z540 and Tiger Shark Elite stand out is that they are rated for transfer rates of up to 12 GB/s, whereas the ADATA and Corsair drives top out at 10 GB/s. While the controller is identical, this requires faster NAND chips that are rated for 2000 MT/s instead of 1600 MT/s as on the 10 GB/s drives. Unlike some other drives, the Team Group Z540 isn't sold with a heatsink at this time, but Team Group has realized that giving people a heatsink option is a good idea, which is why they are coming out with a bundle of the Z540 and AirFlow cooler very soon. As expected, a DRAM cache chip is included, 4 GB DRAM on a 2 TB-class drive is surprising, usually, especially on Phison, we're used to seeing 1 GB DRAM per 1 TB of NAND. More is better of course, so no complaints here.

Synthetic performance results of the Z540 are very impressive, especially when it comes to sequential transfers. We can confirm that Team Group's "up to 12 GB/s" claim is accurate (for sequential writes at QD2 and higher). Compared to the Corsair MP700 with slightly older firmware, the Z540 does a bit better in mixed IO at high queue depths, all the other results are within margin of error. Marketing materials for Gen 5 all focus on blazing fast sequential transfers. The reason is that random IO performance is virtually identical to the results of PCIe Gen 4 drives, like the Phison E18-based Kingston KC3000.

Phison has a long history of optimizing their controllers for typical synthetic reviewer workloads on an empty drive. That's why it's important to also include real-life testing. We're even running those tests with the drives filled to 80% capacity, not empty. This approach puts additional pressure on the various algorithms and the SLC cache, just like in real-life. In this testing the Z540 does very well, too, and comes out as the fastest SSD we've ever tested. Compared to the MP700 it has a 1% lead on average, with the biggest gains seen in tests that move lots of data around in a fairly linear fashion. Compared to Gen 4 SSDs, the performance uplift is around 5-10%, which is a repeat of what we've seen from the first Gen 4 drives, when compared to Gen 3 SSDs.

Team Group's drive comes with an SLC cache size of 33% or 200 GB, which is enough to soak up all bursts of write activity, and it has the benefit that sustained rates are much better. The Corsair MP700 has a bigger SLC cache of 600 GB, but fills its whole 2 TB capacity at an average of 1.5 GB/s regardless, whereas the Z540 almost doubles that to 2.8 GB/s—very impressive.

Our power consumption testing shows that the Team Group drive really uses a lot of power. We've measured up to 10 W, which is basically 50% more than what we've seen on Phison's E18 Gen 4 controller. Hitting 10 W is quite rare though, you should rather plan with 5-6 W during typical loads, which is still a lot. Of course you're getting higher performance at the same time, but our numbers show that even when running at only 1 or 2 GB/s, the power consumption is still high. It seems that once the controller goes out of idle, it will always use 4 W at least, no matter how little actual work it does. This suggests that there's still lots of untapped potential in its power optimization. Compared to the MP700 (which has older firmware), we're definitely seeing some optimizations here. Desktop idle power draw is a bit lower, and the drive can now reach its lowest ASPM idle power state in the mobile scenario.

Gen 5 SSDs need serious cooling, which is why Team Group is offering a bundle with the AirFlow cooler. Other vendors include a heatsink that comes with a tiny fan that has no temperature fan speed control and runs at high speed all the time, emitting a high-pitched sound. It's also powered by a SATA cable, instead of taking power from the drive. Team Group's cooler uses a standard fan connector instead, which lets you connect the cooler to the motherboard, resulting in a much cleaner wiring layout. The biggest advantage of this approach is that you can now easily control the fan speed through your motherboard's BIOS. While you can't control the fan speed by SSD temperature specifically, using a temperature source like "chipset" should be good enough. Even a very low fixed speed will work well. In my testing there was absolutely no thermal throttling, so I ran a second test with the fan stopped, and the drive still didn't overheat. Only after several minutes of maximum speed writes there was a little bit of throttling, which is an excellent result. Even at maximum fan speed the fan noise is not nearly as loud as what we saw on other drives. Good job, Team Group! Still, ideally, such a fan would be connected to the SSD and have its fan speed managed the SSD controller, which has all the information available to achieve a low-noise experience.

The Team Group Z540 2 TB without heatsink is currently listed online on Amazon US for $260. The version with heatsink will sell for $300. I find $40 quite a lot of money for an M.2 cooler, especially when you can find the exact same model on Amazon for $28. There's also various other heatsinks available, for less than that, which could be an alternative. Still, I like what Team Group has done, going beyond the stock Phison heatsink. Paying $300 or $260 for a 2 TB SSD is A LOT of money. You can get great 2 TB Gen 4 SSDs for sub-$150 at the moment. Even though it is the fastest SSD we've ever tested I'm not sure if I'd be willing to spend that much for a little bit of extra performance. Compared to other Gen 5 SSDs, Team Group's offering is reasonably priced, especially when you consider the version without heatsink. At its price of $260, it's the second-most affordable Gen 5 SSD, right after the Corsair MP700, which costs $250, but tops out at 10 GB/s. The Gigabyte AORUS 12 GB/s sells for $265, the MSI M570 goes for $270 and both include a heatsink. Crucial's T500 reaches 12 GB/s, too, for $300, $315 if you want a heatsink. Strong competition comes from the various Gen 4 drives, which are extremely affordable right now. For example, the Samsung 990 Pro, the fastest Gen 4 drive we've ever tested sells for just $140—around half the price of Gen 5 drives. WD Black SN770 is only $100, and the various Phison E18 drives even start sub-$100. I'm also surprised that Team Group doesn't offer a 4 TB version, which could be interesting to the ultra-high-end premium audience. Right now only Crucial has such a drive in their lineup. If you absolutely must have the fastest M.2 Gen 5 SSD, then the Team Group Z540 can be a good choice, but consider more affordable alternatives first.