First glance at the SSDs passing through my hands. This is not a replacement for reviews and not even a complete addition – just briefly on the hardware configuration and features (when available). Firstly, because some people are only interested in this, and secondly, so that later it would be easier to remember: what and when it changed (more precisely, it was noticed). Before the review is released, sometimes for various reasons, a lot of time passes, and this can be done right away. Well, something coming out of the format is occasionally possible … if necessary.
Gen 3 SSDOn the drive itself it is written that it is A60 – usually on the company’s website and in price lists indicate P34A60. In this case (as with other Silicon Power products), P34 is PCIe 3.0 x4, i.e. (almost) the fastest and most “fashionable” interface. It’s a budget line based on the “bufferless” Silicon Motion SM2263XT controller and Intel’s 64-layer 3D TLC NAND memory. In the 1 TB model, there are 16 crystals of 512 Gbit each. Packed in four chips, all together with the controller are located on one side and covered with a metallized sticker. “Low profile” in our time is a plus – it will fit into any M.2 slot. Judging by the back of the board, it applies to the entire line from 256 GB to 2 TB.
The typical problem of all Silicon Motion bufferless controllers is visible. More precisely, preferably, their firmware – regardless of the memory used, they can “write” data exclusively through the SLC cache, under which up to 12% of free capacity is allocated. When it “ends”, you have to overwrite already recorded data in TLC mode and somehow accept new ones, so the speed drops below the capabilities of SATA, not to mention PCIe. However, 60 minutes 37 seconds for a full terabyte recording is about 300 MB / s, which is 2.5 times faster than SSDs on QLC-memory or SATA-models on Silicon Motion controllers with the same caching strategy. So at comparable prices with the latest prices, a more meaningful purchase.
What happens when the cache is not enough can be seen on the third and fourth lines – in a state where about 100 GB is free on the drive, you can quickly write only 12 GB, not 32, as you need in these tests. Compared with an almost empty device (first and second lines), the speed drops five times from the maximum. The latter (including for reading) is about 1.5 GB / s, i.e. only about half the interface. The reason is apparent – for four-channel controllers (SM2263XT in particular, but not exclusively) and the existing PCIe 3.0 x4 flash on the market is not needed – two lines would be enough. However, those accustomed to SATA will not disappoint. After hard drives – even more so.
In general, a typical budget model – and at the same price. Until the last currency and quarantine dances, a terabyte modification cost about 10 thousand rubles, at the time of publication in many Moscow stores it was still sold, so this is one of the cheapest terabytes. An additional plus is a rare five-year warranty in this class with the possibility of replacing “by” the store (but by agreement with the manufacturer’s support and sending the device, of course). The total recording volume is limited to 600 TB (for a given capacity – proportionally for the rest), which, when used as intended, will not become a problem. For large recording volumes, it’s better to “look after” something else – not so “dropping” its speed. But it will cost more. And for a gaming PC, for example, the reasonable option – modern games of 100+ GB sometimes take
