INTRODUCTION

   Even though SATA based M.2 SSD models were just introduced into the market as a smaller form factor aimed towards use with compact laptops and didn't really offer any performance improvements over regular 2.5" models the introduction of the PCIe Gen 2 variants changed all that. Now consumers and professionals alike could have read and write performance levels surpassing 1500MB/s (3+ times compared to regular 2.5" models) from tiny drives primarily mounted on PCIe cards. The appearance of the Gen 3 NVMe standard further improved performance and yes system compatibility might have been an issue at first (you could still mount them on certain PCIe cards) but with read and write speeds going all the way up to 3500MB/s (on compatible mainboards) that didn't change anything. Fast forward to today and we now have Gen 4 models which according to manufacturers can hit and even surpass the 5000MB/s barrier and today with me i have one such drive, the US70 1TB by Silicon Power.

   Founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic data storage industry experts, Silicon Power is committed to delivering outstanding product and service quality. Headquartered and with its own state-of-the-art production site in Taipei, SP has become a leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, portable hard drives, solid state drives, DRAM modules and industrial-grade products. Successfully blending innovative technology with award-winning design, the international player with four branch offices around the globe continuously strives for perfection in preserving and protecting your valuable data. Because memory is personal.

   The US70 line of M.2 Gen 4 NVMe SSDs currently includes just two capacities (1/2TB - review soon) and is based on Phison's PS5016-E16-32 NAND flash controller which Silicon Power has paired with BiCS4 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash by Sandisk and two SKhynix 512MB DDR4 SDRAM modules. The PS5016-E16-32 is a dual-core (32-bit ARM Cortex R5 CPUs with CoXProcessor technology), 8-channel NVMe v1.3 NAND flash controller that features Phison's 4th Gen LDPC engine (low-density parity check) along with end-to-end data path protection, wear levelling, TRIM, bad block management, dynamic range SLC cache and SmartECC (RAID ECC) and fully supports AES-256bit hardware encryption and TCG Opal 2.0. Silicon Power covers the entire US70 line with a 5-year limited warranty and as for endurance they report 1.7 million hours for both capacities and a TBW (terabytes written) of 1800 for the 1TB version and 3600 for the 2TB version.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE US70 1TB

Silicon Power has once again used the same box as with their previous SSD models, this time however it's black and gold.

The NVMe v.13 standard is printed at the rear in 12 languages right over contact information for Silicon Power.

The drive follows the typical 2280 form factor (22mm in width and 80mm in length).

Under the top sticker we find the PS5016-E16-32 Gen 4 NAND flash controller along with a single 512MB DDR4 SDRAM module by SKhynix and two 3D TLC NAND modules by Sandisk.

One more 512MB DDR4 SDRAM module by SKhynix is located on the opposite side of the PCB along with two more 3D TLC NAND modules by Sandisk (256GB in capacity each).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   After over 12 years of testing solid state drives, i’ve concluded that it's almost impossible for any single benchmark suite to accurately measure their performance and that's why in certain benchmark suites we see amazing read/write performance numbers with some drives while in others things are quite different. The reason behind this is that some benchmarking suites are configured to read and write random chunks of data while others read and write constant (sequential) ones. So that's why i always use a very wide selection of benchmarking suites including AIDA64, HD Tach RW, HD Tune Pro, Crystal Disk Mark, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, AS SSD, IOmeter and ATTO. To get the most accurate results each test gets repeated a total of 6 times with the average performance numbers recorded into our charts*. Also, as of February 25th 2015 our results will also include the Storage Networking Industry Association’s (SNIA) IOMeter tests. These tests include a 12 Hour write test used to “simulate” performance degradation over time and a mixed workload test which basically shows what you can expect when using an SSD continuously for roughly two hours. Unfortunately, due to the time required for these tests we repeat them a total of 3 times and not 6 as the above.

   Many people have made inquiries about our charts in the past so once again please do keep in mind that the Charts have the average performance numbers of each drive recorded and not the peak (highest) ones. Also, although every single one of these programs can help potential buyers choose the right drive for their needs you should also remember that from any kind of benchmark up to real world usage the gap is not small (and usually most differences will go unnoticed by most people). All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 10 Pro x64 installation complete with every update up to the date of this review.

* Since November 2018 our SSD comparison charts have been divided to 2.5” and M.2 models to reduce their growing size.
** Unless stated otherwise the Ryzen 9 3950x based Test Rig used for M.2 Gen 4 SSD reviews is not located in the lab.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

TEST RESULTS - AS SSD / IOMETER

TEST RESULTS - IOMETER SNIA

CONCLUSION

   It’s no secret that I delayed doing any Gen 4 SSD reviews until my new test rig was up and running but since the Intel Z490 motherboards (or more accurately the new Core i9 CPU’s) don’t support that standard I had to look for a temporary solution and that was using the Ryzen 9 3950x system a graphics designer friend of mine has in his office. Now I may try to make a pretty much identical system for future PCIe 4.0 (and Gen 4 SSD) reviews but since AMD is announcing their new CPU’s in a few weeks I’m waiting to see what those bring to the table. Of course, I doubt the results will vary much between systems but for now do keep in mind that this is not a system located in the lab (and of course also not the same used in my previous M.2 reviews). Moving back to today’s review it’s clear from the charts that Gen 4 M.2 NVMe SSDs offer much better performance levels compared to Gen 3 models, at least in regular tests. The reason I say this is due to throttling which became painfully evident in our SNIAA reviews. Yes, the US70 did surpass every other model in the charts in those too but with a rather tiny margin (compared always to other tests). Out of curiosity I did some tests with our Z170 based test rig as well to see how the US70 performs on a Gen 3 system and well, the results just didn’t do it for me (KC2000/KC2500/EX950 all did better). This obviously means that Gen 4 models weren't designed and developed for use with Gen 3 mainboards/slots and well that actually makes sense.

   Its current retail price of USD164.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 227.23Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) certainly needs some work, at least on this side of the Atlantic (in the USA it’s actually very attractive). With that out of the way the US70 1TB NVMe Gen 4 SSD by Silicon Power delivers on both things that truly matters for storage media, performance and endurance and that’s why it clearly deserves our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Top of The Charts Performance (5000MB/s Read & 4400MB/s Write)
- Endurance (1800TBW / 1.7 Million Hours MTBF)
- 5 Years Warranty
- Silicon Power Software
- Price (USA)

CONS

- Thermal Throttling (During Our SNIA Tests)
- Price (EU)