INTRODUCTION

   Even though consumer oriented PCIe Gen 5 M.2 NVMe SSDs are already here (alas in extremely low numbers) and PCIe Gen 4 models have been around for just over 3 years now it’s a fact that due to their wider system compatibility PCIe Gen 3 models are still ahead across the globe in sales. This is enough incentive for some manufacturers to keep updating their Gen 3 lines and SK Hynix with the 2TB variant of their P31 Gold model is one of them.

   SK hynix Inc., headquartered in Korea, is the world’s top tier semiconductor supplier offering Dynamic Random Access Memory chips (“DRAM”), flash memory chips (“NAND flash”) and CMOS Image Sensors (“CIS”) for a wide range of distinguished customers globally. The Company’s shares are traded on the Korea Exchange, and the Global Depository shares are listed on the Luxemburg Stock Exchange. Further information about SK hynix is available at www.skhynix.com, news.skhynix.com.

   The 2TB variant of the P31 Gold series of M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen3x4 SSDs was announced in August last year and is the highest capacity model of that line currently (also available in 500GB/1TB capacities). Needless to say, that just like the 1TB variant which I reviewed a while back (review here) this is also based on SK hynix's very own ARM 4-channel CEPHEUS PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe v1.3 NAND flash controller which they’ve paired with their 6th gen 128-Layer 3D TLC NAND flash and a 2GB LPDDR4 2133MHz DRAM module (512MB for the 500GB model and 1GB for the 1TB model). Not much is known about the specifications of the CEPHEUS other that it does support technologies like Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC), SMART, secure erase, TRIM, device sleep, AES 256-bit encryption (Pyrite 2.0 support - this was probably added after my 1TB review) and SK hynix’s HYPERWRITE hybrid SLC cache which basically includes two different SLC cache types (fast and slow dynamic) for optimal write results. Finally, SK hynix covers the entire P31 Gold line with a 5-year limited warranty and as for endurance numbers they report a TBW of 500 for the 500GB model, 750 for the 1TB model and 1500 for the 2TB model.