INTRODUCTION

   There's a wide range of available NAND flash controllers when it comes to PCIe NVMe SSDs, most of which are actually not manufactured by the same SSD manufacturers. Yes, we do have Intel, Samsung, Crucial and even WD all of which have SSD models that utilize their very own NAND flash controllers but for the most part those are manufactured by companies like Marvell, Phison, Silicon Motion, JMicron, Innogrit and Realtek. In regards to PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 M.2 NVMe SSDs Phison and Innogrit are probably outperforming all the other 3rd party manufacturers and having already reviewed many models based on the former i was somewhat surprised to see that the latest Redline Vortex line by Mushkin uses the latter.

   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.

   Currently Mushkin makes their latest Redline Vortex line of PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 M.2 NVMe SSDs available in 3 different capacities (512GB/1TB/2TB) all of which are based on the Rainier IG5236 eight-channel NVMe v1.4 NAND flash controller by Innogrit together with DDR4L DRAM flash by SK Hynix (512MB for the 512GB version, 1GB for the 1TB version and 2GB for the 2TB version) and 176-layer 3D TLC NAND flash by Micron. As mentioned in past reviews the Rainier IG5236 controller sports just about every technology you'd expect by a top-of-the-line consumer model by Innogrit including end-to-end data protection, LDPC (low-density parity check) error-correction with SRAM ECC, programmable RAID, smart cache, AES encryption, SHA, RSA, ONFI 4.1 and Toggle 4.0. Finally, Mushkin covers the entire line with a 5-year limited warranty, reports an MTBF of 1.5 million hours for all 3 models and as for endurance numbers they give 250TBW for the 512GB model, 500TBW for the 1TB model and 1000TBW for the 2TB model.