expired Posted by StrifeZero • Jul 30, 2023
Jul 30, 2023 2:41 PM
Item 1 of 5
Item 1 of 5
expired Posted by StrifeZero • Jul 30, 2023
Jul 30, 2023 2:41 PM
1TB Team Group CX2 2.5" SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive $33 & More + Free Shipping
$33
$50
34% offNewegg
Visit NeweggGood Deal
Bad Deal
Save
Share
Leave a Comment
9 Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
This is a steal for a great secondary backup drive as well.
https://www.tomshardwar
https://www.tomshardwar
edit
forget it the mx500 is only 15 more and is much better
It looks like each has slight different Read/Write speeds. Just want to know if they have different SLC Cach sizes to account for the different R/W speeds.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank MWink
https://www.tomshardwar
I tested a more recent version of this SSD and it's a completely different drive. The one I received uses the Phison S11 controller and 96-layer Micron TLC. The pSLC cache is a paltry ~7GB. After it's filled, sequential writes dropped to an average of ~71MB/s.
I also tested the PNY CS900, which is the same drive but with 96-layer Kioxia TLC. It had a larger ~20GB pSLC cache and averaged ~81MB/s once filled. Random I/O was generally a little better on the PNY as well.
If you want a large pSLC cache, an SMI 2259XT based drive may be a better choice. I've seen this controller in recent versions of the Team Group Vulcan Z and Silicon Power A55 (with QLC). These drives seem to use the entirety of the free space as pSLC. So, 1/3 of the free space on a TLC drive and 1/4 for QLC. The downside is, once the pSLC is filled, the write speed tanks far lower. The 2TB Team Group Vulcan Z (with 112-layer SanDisk TLC) averaged ~56MB/s and the 512GB Silicon Power A55 (with 144-layer Intel QLC) averaged ~38MB/s. Both drives would spend periods writing at only 6MB/s but spikes brought up the averages.
On the flip side, high end drives, like the Samsung 870 EVO, may not even show a noticeable drop when the pSLC is filled.
It looks like each has slight different Read/Write speeds. Just want to know if they have different SLC Cach sizes to account for the different R/W speeds.
It looks like each has slight different Read/Write speeds. Just want to know if they have different SLC Cach sizes to account for the different R/W speeds.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
I tested a more recent version of this SSD and it's a completely different drive. The one I received uses the Phison S11 controller and 96-layer Micron TLC. The pSLC cache is a paltry ~7GB. After it's filled, sequential writes dropped to an average of ~71MB/s.
I also tested the PNY CS900, which is the same drive but with 96-layer Kioxia TLC. It had a larger ~20GB pSLC cache and averaged ~81MB/s once filled. Random I/O was generally a little better on the PNY as well.
If you want a large pSLC cache, an SMI 2259XT based drive may be a better choice. I've seen this controller in recent versions of the Team Group Vulcan Z and Silicon Power A55 (with QLC). These drives seem to use the entirety of the free space as pSLC. So, 1/3 of the free space on a TLC drive and 1/4 for QLC. The downside is, once the pSLC is filled, the write speed tanks far lower. The 2TB Team Group Vulcan Z (with 112-layer SanDisk TLC) averaged ~56MB/s and the 512GB Silicon Power A55 (with 144-layer Intel QLC) averaged ~38MB/s. Both drives would spend periods writing at only 6MB/s but spikes brought up the averages.
On the flip side, high end drives, like the Samsung 870 EVO, may not even show a noticeable drop when the pSLC is filled.
The specs on the CX2 and AX2 are the same. I suspect the AX2 is just the Amazon-exclusive version of the CX2. This is speculation but I think there's a good chance that the EX2 is the same drive as the CX2/AX2 but with slightly better tuning and/or NAND. Perhaps it performs similar to the PNY CS900. As noted above, the Team Group Vulcan Z is an entirely different drive, with different (not always better) performance and cache characteristics.
Thanks for the info. There's also the Team Group Vulcan (without the Z), do you know if there is any differences between it and the CX2 or AX2?
It seems to me that the Vulcan line mostly relies on SMI controllers and the CX/AX/EX/GX line may be Phison based. They're completely different drives, with different characteristics, likely made by different companies. Frankly, I think Team Group sells too many different models, which likely have little actual difference between them.
Leave a Comment