INTRODUCTION

    Even though growing up in the 80/90's means i spent quite a bit of time in the arcades and even owned some game consoles I never did warm up to next generation ones by Nintendo, Microsoft (Xbox) or Sony (PlayStation). Still although the same applies even today there's simply no way for me to ignore that countless people do enjoy using gaming consoles and yes, that includes even handheld models. The arrival of current generation handheld models like the ASUS ROG Ally and Steam Deck has brought M.2 2230 NVMe SSDs back to the spotlight and today with me I have one of the latest models released primarily for consumers looking for fast storage media, the Gen4 UD90 2TB by Silicon Power.

    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.

    Just like the M.2 2280 series I reviewed back in 2022 the M.2 2230 UD90 is available in 500GB/1TB/2TB capacities and is once again based on the 4-channel (ARM Cortex-R5 single processor) PS5021-E21 NVMe v1.4 DRAM-less NAND flash controller by PHISON paired with Micron's 176-layer 3D QLC NAND flash (N48R). Again, the PS5021-E21 NAND flash controller by PHISON features their 4th Gen LDPC engine (low-density parity check) along with end-to-end data path protection, Host Memory Buffer (HMB) architecture support (uses a fraction of your PC's system memory to cache mapping tables), wear levelling, low power mode, thermal throttling (70 degrees Celsius limit), TRIM, bad block management, static/dynamic range SLC cache and SmartECC 2.0 (RAID ECC) and fully supports AES-256bit hardware encryption along with TCG Opal 2.0 and Pyrite. Silicon Power covers the entire UD90 line of M.2 NVMe Gen4 SSDs with a 5-year limited warranty and regarding durability they report an MTBF (meantime between failures) of 1.5 million hours and a TBW of 300 for the 512GB model, 600 for the 1TB model and 1200 for the 2TB model. So, time to see just what you can expect from the "cut down" version of the popular UD90 M.2 NVMe SSD by Silicon Power.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE UD90 2TB M.2 2230

Silicon Power uses the same black and red blister package to ship the UD90 M.2 2230 in which allows you to see the drive.

The NVMe version along with contact information for Silicon Power, 2D barcode and numerous certifications are printed at the rear.

Unlike the sticker used with the M.2 2280 models of the UD90 line which was made of thin graphene the one used with the M.2 2230 models is just a plain sticker (probably because handhelds will be using this in Gen3 mode instead of Gen4).

A sticker with the product capacity and a 2D barcode is located on the other side.

Underneath the sticker we find the PS5021-E21 NAND flash controller together with a single 176-layer 3D QLC NAND flash module by Micron.

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

    The UD90 2TB M.2 2230 NVMe SSD by Silicon Power may not be among the fastest PCIe 4.0 Gen4 models out there (although it did surpass most in HD Tune Pro and HD Tach RW) but it doesn’t really have to be since currently available gaming handhelds use the PCIe 3.0 interface. So, performance for a Gen3 interface is actually very good and should satisfy even the most demanding of users. Durability might not be the greatest since we're talking about QLC NAND flash but i seriously doubt this would pose an issue for handheld use (even if it did it would be years until that happens). Unfortunately, due to current technology limitations squeezing 4TB on a single sided M.2 2230 SSD (double sided wouldn’t be compatible with some handhelds) might take a while and well, it is what it is.

    Currently retailing for USD143.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 202.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Silicon Power UD90 2TB M.2 2230 NVMe Gen4 SSD is priced well, at least on the other side of the Atlantic. Looking at reddit and some online forums it seems that many gaming handheld owners are content with lower cost and performance M.2 2230 models so once again at the end of the day it all comes down to what you’re after and if that’s performance the UD90 delivers exactly that which is why it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Performance
- M.2 2230 Form Factor (Gaming Handhelds)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty
- Price (USA)

CONS

- Price (EU)
- 2TB Maximum Capacity (Current M.2 2230 Limitation)