INTRODUCTION

   PCIe 5.0 Gen5 M.2 NVMe solid state drives (SSDs) may have finally hit 14.000MB/s in reads and writes (not sustained obviously) but be it due to system compatibility, cost or needs for the vast majority of people PCIe 4.0 Gen4 models still represent the best price/performance ratio. Because of that it's no surprise that pretty much all semiconductor and storage media manufacturers are focused in the design and release of Gen4 NAND flash controllers and drives respectively. Silicon Power somewhat recently updated their PCIe 4.0 Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD lines to include their latest US75 model and today I’ll be testing the 2TB capacity variant.

   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 our own state-of-the-art production site in Taipei, we have become a leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, portable hard drives, solid state drives, DRAM modules and industrial-grade products. As an international player with four branch offices around the globe, we continuously strive to offer the perfect data storage solution for all requirements of modern digitalized life. With a strong focus on combining innovative technology and award-winning design, we live up to our brand promise to reliably preserve and protect your most valuable data. Because memory is personal.

   The US75 line of PCIe 4.0 Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSDs by Silicon Power is currently available in 500GB/1TB/2TB/4TB capacities and is actually the 6th model to arrive in the lab featuring MaXio's DRAM-less MAP1602 12nm quad-channel (R5) NAND flash controller which this time over is paired with YMTC's very first 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash. Again, the MAP1602 12nm quad-channel NAND controller by MaXio packs quite a few technologies including advanced wear leveling algorithms, Host Memory Buffer (HMB) architecture (uses a fraction of your PC's system memory to cache mapping tables), pseudo SLC cache, bad block management strategy, hardware error-correction, L1.2 ultra-low power state and sudden power-loss protection, TRIM, NCQ, hardware support for AES256/SM4 encryption and support for TCG OPAL2.0. Silicon Power covers their entire US75 line with a 5-year limited warranty and reports an MTBF of 1.5 million hours for all variants and a TBW (terabytes written) of 300 for the 500GB model, 600 for the 1TB model, 1200 for the 2TB model and 2400 for the 4TB model.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE US75 2TB

Once again Silicon Power chose to go with a blister package for their US75 which allows you to actually see the entire drive from the front.

Contact information about Silicon Power and numerous certifications are all printed at the rear.

At the top of the drive Silicon Power has placed a somewhat thick sticker (doesn’t seem to be out of copper or aluminum however) which has their logo, drive name, capacity, serial number and barcode on it.

The opposite side of the PCB is empty so the front is more than enough for even the 4TB model.

Underneath the front sticker we find the MaXio MAP1602 controller along with 4 YMTC 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash modules.

SP TOOLBOX

With the toolbox software by Silicon Power, you can closely monitor your SSD in regards to TB written, health, errors and even available space but you can also run a diagnostic and check its current firmware version.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Not long after I first started testing SSDs back in 2008, I 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 the 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 they get repeated 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 the 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.
*** As of January 2021 for Gen 3x4 models I’ll be using the Core i9-7980XE test rig (after numerous tests the up to 6% difference in read & write performance compared to the i7-6700 system simply wasn’t enough to justify having an extra test rig around).
**** Since February 2022 M.2 NVMe Gen3 and Gen4 SSD drives are placed in different charts.

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

   DRAM-less SSDs have always been considered to be inferior to DRAM models due to their less than remarkable performance and well that does hold true not just for the US75 but also many others based on NAND controllers like the MaXio MAP1602. The thing however is that from synthetic benchmarks to real world performance things change a lot and so for most consumers out there it will not really matter if they have a DRAM or a DRAM-less SSD installed in their systems. Now it’s clear from the charts that the US75 exchanges blows with the FX700 model by HP and well, that’s good especially when you take into account that other models with the same NAND flash controller produce much worse numbers. By using YMTC's 232-layer 3D TLC NAND Silicon Power also reports much higher TBW numbers compared to all the others using their new 232-layer 3D QLC NAND and well, this should make a huge difference to most consumers and even professionals out there.

   Currently retailing for USD125.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 140.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the US75 2TB by Silicon Power is priced relatively well. Overall, I have nothing “bad” to say about the US75 2TB, performance is very good across the board for a DRAM-less drive and the brand new 232-layer 3D TLC NAND by YMTC clearly offers much higher endurance compared to its QLC brother and so the Golden Award is obviously in order.

PROS

- Good Overall Performance (For a DRAMLess Drive)
- Up To 4TB Capacity
- Endurance Numbers (TBW)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- None