INTRODUCTION

   Even though it took 2.5" SATA solid state drives roughly 8 years to establish themselves as the go to storage for high performance it took less than 2 years for M.2 NVMe SSD models to become just as popular, if not more. Yes, to date they may not enjoy the same compatibility levels as 2.5" SATA models with older systems but for pretty much every system (motherboard) released since 2018 their impressive read and write numbers are without match, not currently anyways. On top of that add the fact that SSD prices have dropped considerably over the last few months and it's very easy to understand why these drives enjoy such high popularity levels among enthusiasts, gamers and professionals alike. The UD70 is the latest high-end M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen3x4 model by Silicon Power and today I’ll be testing the 2TB 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 UD70 M.2 NVMe SSD is currently available in 500GB/1TB/2TB capacities and is based on the rather popular E12 high performance controller by Phison (PS5012-E12S / Gen3x4 NVMe 1.3 interface) which Silicon Power has paired with Micron's 96-layer QLC NAND flash and 2GB DDR3L 1866MHz SDRAM by Kingston allowing the drive to hit read and write numbers of 3400MB/s and 3000MB/s respectively. The Phison PS5012-E12S controller features a total of eight NAND channels with 32 CE targets, supports up to 8TB of NAND and packs several interesting technologies aimed at both high performance and reliability including SLC caching, StrongECC, SmartRefresh, SmartFlush, LDPC (low density parity check), end-to-end data protection, thermal monitoring, AES-256 encryption and TCG Pyrite/OPAL support. In terms of endurance Silicon Power reports an MTBF (meantime between failure) of 1.8 million hours and as for warranty once again they cover the UD70 line with a 5-year limited one.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE UD70 2TB

The UD70 2TB arrived inside a small box that has an opening at the front from where you can see the drive (the drive capacity, interface and 5-year warranty are also printed at the front).

The supported interface is also printed at the rear right next to several certification logos and above contact information for Silicon Power.

Just the UD70 M.2 NVMe SSD is located inside the box.

Under the long sticker at the top we find the Phison PS5012-E12S NAND controller, 4 NAND flash modules (256GB in capacity each) and the 2GB DDR3L SDRAM module.

The opposite side of the PCB is empty and could easily be populated with 4 more NAND flash modules and a second DDR3L SDRAM module.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   After over 12 years of testing solid state drives, i’ve 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 our 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 we repeat them 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 our 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.

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

   The UD70 arrived shortly after I finished the US70 review so I was very curious to see how this model would perform (being an Gen3x4 one) and as you can see from the charts, I wasn’t disappointed. As a matter of fact, the UD70 outperformed most models in the charts with pretty much only the US70 clearly ahead (and that only when used with a Gen4 motherboard). Of course, I can’t really claim/conclude that the UD70 is the best Gen3 M.2 NVMe SSD out there (since I haven’t tested every model in the market) but it certainly comes very close to that (slight thermal throttling was also observed during the 12 hour tests). As for durability well at 1.8 million hours it doesn’t get much better than this and the same applies for the 5-year limited warranty.

   Even though the UD70 is a brand new line of M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen3x4 SSDs it’s priced quite aggressively and so the 2TB variant currently retails for just USD191.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 243Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Yes, the UD70 2TB is far from the lowest cost M.2 NVMe SSD in the market to date but considering it goes up against the fastest models of its tier and that in most cases it comes up on top I’d say that Silicon Power did a very good job (some may even call it cheap). All said and done the UD70 2TB is without doubt among the fastest Gen3x4 models in the market today aimed towards demanding users and for that it gets the Platinum Award.

PROS

- Among the Fastest Gen3x4 Models in The Market Today (Up To 3400MB/s Read & 3000MB/s Write)
- Impressive Mixed SNIA Performance Levels
- 1.8 Million Hours MTBF
- 5 Years Warranty
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Thermal Throttling