INTRODUCTION

   The SSD market is currently divided into 3 price/performance segments basically, 2.5", mSATA and M.2 SATA based models that offer speeds of up to around 550MB/s, M.2 PCIe Gen3 (NVMe) models which can go all the way up to 3500-4000MB/s and M.2 PCIe Gen4 (NVMe) models which currently enjoy speeds of up to 7500MB/s. Needless to say M.2 PCIe Gen4 models are beginning to become the number 1 choice for enthusiasts and professionals alike and so as expected most manufacturers have thrown extra weight on the design and manufacture of such drives. Mushkin is one such manufacturer and today I’ll be testing the 1TB variant of their latest GAMMA model.

   For over 25 years, Mushkin has been dedicated to helping Gamers, digital artists, IT managers and professionals alike enhance their computing experience by providing reliable, high-performance products. Mushkin’s products include a complete selection of USB, SSD and Memory Module upgrades for both the consumer and enterprise industries. Since the company’s founding in 1994, Mushkin has received numerous awards and commendations for quality, reliability and technical excellence.

   Just like with most M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD models in the market today the GAMMA line by Mushkin (currently available in 1/2/4TB) is based on the E18 (PS5018-E18) NVMe v1.4 NAND flash controller by PHISON which they've paired with Micron's B27B 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash together with DDR4 cache by SK Hynix (looks like just 512MB at 2666MHz for the 1TB model, always according to the module's serial - will update this if wrong when i hear back from Mushkin). With numerous features like PHISON's 4th Gen LDPC engine (low-density parity check) along with end-to-end data path protection, wear levelling, thermal throttling (70 degrees Celsius limit), TRIM, bad block management, dynamic range SLC cache and SmartECC (RAID ECC) the PS5018-E18 8-channel tri-core (32-bit ARM Cortex R5 CPUs) NAND flash controller can help the GAMMA 1TB variant achieve read and write speeds of up to 7150MB/s and 5600MB/s respectively (7175MB/s-6800MB/s for the 2TB variant and 7200MB/s-6890MB/s for the 4TB variant). As for endurance numbers Mushkin reports an MTBF (meantime between failures) of 1.6 million hours for the entire line, 700TBW for the 1TB variant (1400TBW for the 2TB and 3000TBW for the 4TB models) and covers all 3 models with a 5-year limited warranty (TBW or warranty, whichever gets reached 1st).