Silicon Power P34A80 M.2 SP512GBP34A80M28 512 GB

Not a workhorse, but a thoroughbred stallion

Silicon Power P34A80 is the most affordable NVMe SSD with impressive speed ratings, full DRAM buffer and 3-bit memory. Of the NVMe SSDs, either drives based on QLC 3D NAND memory or bufferless SSDs will be cheaper. This was done thanks to the new Phison PS5012-E12 controller, which is already trying to impose competition on controllers from first-tier brands like Samsung. It is based on a dual-core ARM processor with a frequency of 667 MHz, offers eight channels for connecting flash memory, supports four PCI Express 3.0 lanes, and is also equipped with a DDR4 / DDR3L interface for implementing an internal buffer.

Not without a fly in the ointment

Let's say right away that the miracle did not happen and the savings in money were reflected in performance. For example, during read operations, instead of 3400 MB / s, the CrystalDiskMark benchmark showed 2156 MB / s. With external recording, instead of 3000 MB / s, we got 2123 MB / s. On the one hand, this seems to be a minus, on the other hand, even taking into account such “unreliability”, the external speed of this SSD turns out to be higher than that of NVMe competitors based on other inexpensive controllers from Silicon Motion. And it lags behind the reference models quite a bit.

SLC cache

Among other advantages of the model, we note a capacious SLC cache with a write speed of 2000 MB / s, no freezes after deleting large files, and moderate speed drops when copying large files in steady state. In this case, stable 600 MB / s come out, which cannot be called low speed. The main thing when buying, pay attention to the location of the M.2 port on your motherboard — if it does not have cooling, and the slot itself is located close to the graphics card, then the Silicon Power P34A80 may be too hot. Fortunately, the manufacturer provides the device with a proprietary 5-year warranty.