2TB PNY CS900 3D NAND 2.5" SATA III Internal SSD Solid State Drive Expired

Outside of the vertically integrated companies (Samsung, Crucial/Micron, WD/SanDisk, SK Hynix/Solidigm/Intel) I don't think there are many companies that actually manufacture SATA SSDs. Of the four budget SATA SSDs bought this year, there were only two distinct designs. The PNY CS900 and Team Group CX2 were virtually identical. Same Phison S11 controller, PCB, passives, and casing. The Silicon Power A55 and Team Group Vulcan Z were of similar design and both sported the SMI 2259XT controller. The only thing unique to each drive was the NAND (not that that's unimportant).

Of the Phison drives, the PNY CS900 (96-layer Kioxia TLC) generally outperformed the Team Group CX2 (96-layer Micron TLC). These drives have a very small static pSLC cache (~7-20GB). Once the pSLC was filled, sequential writes dropped to ~81MB/s and 71MB/s respectively.

Of the SMI based drives, the Team Group Vulcan Z (112-layer SanDisk TLC) greatly outperformed the Silicon Power A55 (144-layer Intel QLC). These drives have a massive dynamic pSLC cache that uses the entirety of the free space (so, 1/3 of the free space for TLC or 1/4 for QLC). Once the pSLC was full, sequential writes tanked to an average of ~55MB/s and 38MB/s respectively. Both drives spent periods writing at only 6MB/s but occasional spikes brought up the average. I also noticed something interesting with these SMI based drives. It appears they may not begin to flush the pSLC cache until it reaches roughly 80%+ full, even if the drive is given ample idle time. I wonder if leaving the drive empty enough (no more than 1/4 full for TLC or 1/5 full for QLC) would result in it functionally acting as a pSLC drive.

If I had to pick a favorite of the four, I'd probably pick the PNY CS900. It had the best direct-to-TLC writes and I've previously had good luck with these drives that pair the Phison S11 with Kioxia/Toshiba NAND. I've installed a number of these drives (sold under the Inland/Micro Center brand) and they've been operating as system drives for years, without issue. In contrast, I've had several issues with drives using SMI controllers, worst of all the Crucial BX500.

But neither those recently established companies nor PNY make their own controller chips or flash chips -- only a handful of companies make those things. If you buy SK Hynix or Solidgem or Crucial or Samsung, you know you are getting a brand that has components in it that were made in factories controlled by that brand, so that is why a brand name should matter, but once who go beyond that, you are getting a combo of whatever is on the market in quantity and cheap that is thrown into an enclosure and has a logo printed on it. My point is, unless PNY is known for honoring warranties in a reasonable and easy way, then there is no reason to pick them over any other brand with a just as crappy warranty procedure.

tl;dr -- if you aren't getting the real 'name' brand, choose on warranty and customer service, not familiarity.

PNY has terrible warranty support. They've stopped honoring their warranty on the flash drives they sell.
The controller seems to be faulty on a lot of their products.
The price is right, but the reputation is not.