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This has over double the TBW of the SN850x with the same 5 year warranty.Write speeds are also higher on paper, but less so in real world tests.I'd say this is the better option, if we're only comparing those two drives.
yeah I noticed that with the tbw value, but it concerns me that MSI is not exactly known for making drives. so I have to wonder, how are their specs so good, and who's making the drives for them...? I'm still learning about all this though.
PHISON E18 - isn't this the one that requires some critical firmware update? That TBW is great though. I'd imagine it'd be useful for surveillance use where there's constant writing.
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from wherestheanykey
:
This has over double the TBW of the SN850x with the same 5 year warranty.Write speeds are also higher on paper, but less so in real world tests.I'd say this is the better option, if we're only comparing those two drives.
this or WD_BLACK 1/2TB SN850X for similar price on Amazon...
I'd pick the SN850X, it's less of a gamble.
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from sdaddict001
:
PHISON E18 - isn't this the one that requires some critical firmware update? That TBW is great though. I'd imagine it'd be useful for surveillance use where there's constant writing.
Yes, there are some concerns with the E18 firmware. The TBW isn't much higher than most other drives. SD keeps posting numbers not applicable to the drive the deal is for.
I'm seeing 1400 for the 2TB and 700 for the 1TB (for the MSI).
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from MultiMatrix
:
yeah I noticed that with the tbw value, but it concerns me that MSI is not exactly known for making drives. so I have to wonder, how are their specs so good, and who's making the drives for them...? I'm still learning about all this though.
Their TBW values are only slightly above average. The wrong numbers keep getting posted with these deals. Keep in mind, TBW specs are primarily for warranty purposes. Don't take them as a reliable indicator of drive quality or actual lifespan.
While I don't know for certain, I have a suspicion their SSDs might be manufactured by Phison. All the ones I've seen have Phison controllers and DON'T get hardware swapped, which is very unusual these days.
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yeah I noticed that with the tbw value, but it concerns me that MSI is not exactly known for making drives. so I have to wonder, how are their specs so good, and who's making the drives for them...? I'm still learning about all this though.
I'd imagine it works very similarly to how certain graphics card manufacturers use a reference card design to produce cookie cutter replicas.
A company like Phison creates the original and licenses it out to MSI, who just follows the recipe like Lego.
Why would Phison do this when they could just sell their own drives?
Well, they do, under Nextorage. But their real bread and butter is selling their controllers to companies like MSI or WD.
Apparently the TBW rating was overstated for this capacity, though. So the specs are about even. I guess synthetic benchmarks would be the tiebreaker.
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Aug 20, 2025 7:41 AM
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I have this drive it worked great in the beginning and came with Eifm31.6 firmware, but now has degraded read performance, and msi has not released a firmware update tool for this drive while most other companies that are using phison controllers have released. Also its also discovered MSI have been using 2 different suppliers for nand flash for this specific drive, so you can't expect same performance as review data, better drive has 176L Micron nand, and other version has 112L Toshiba/Kioxia nand
I have this drive it worked great in the beginning and came with Eifm31.6 firmware, but now has degraded read performance, and msi has not released a firmware update tool for this drive while most other companies that are using phison controllers have released. Also its also discovered MSI have been using 2 different suppliers for nand flash for this specific drive, so you can't expect same performance as review data, better drive has 176L Micron nand, and other version has 112L Toshiba/Kioxia nand
this or WD_BLACK 1/2TB SN850X for similar price on Amazon...
i use a bunch of these and they are excellent, if there is a phson firmware update incoming (msi reports there is) then it should be one of the best deals on an nvme currently
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Write speeds are also higher on paper, but less so in real world tests.
I'd say this is the better option, if we're only comparing those two drives.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank tanginator
While I don't know for certain, I have a suspicion their SSDs might be manufactured by Phison. All the ones I've seen have Phison controllers and DON'T get hardware swapped, which is very unusual these days.
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A company like Phison creates the original and licenses it out to MSI, who just follows the recipe like Lego.
Why would Phison do this when they could just sell their own drives?
Well, they do, under Nextorage. But their real bread and butter is selling their controllers to companies like MSI or WD.
Apparently the TBW rating was overstated for this capacity, though. So the specs are about even. I guess synthetic benchmarks would be the tiebreaker.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.ph...st-2349934
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7CKV...=UTF8
$69
https://us-store.msi.com/SPATIUM-...Me-M.2-1TB
$4 more for the next gen
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