INTRODUCTION

    With consumer oriented Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSDs still nowhere near to what they should had been by now (not only in terms of available models but also sales) it's no wonder that most storage media manufacturers are still supporting the release of new Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSDs. This doesn't mean all of them follow the same course however, some have decided to update their product lines with entirely new models while others have chosen to increase the capacity of their current models. BIWIN belongs in the latter group of manufacturers and today with me I have no other than the 4TB variant of their Acer Predator GM7 Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD.

    Predator branded storage products are designed and manufactured by BIWIN Storage Technology company, a leading maker of quality flash memory, DRAM memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). Delivering premium products for serious gamers and overclocking enthusiasts looking for the ultimate experience, our mission is to provide best-in-class memory modules and solid-state drives that enhance overall system performance and gameplay. Defined by faster speeds and gaming-inspired design, these Predator storage products are built to be the Number One choice for gamers worldwide.

    Just like the 1TB variant of the Acer Predator GM7 family of SSDs which I reviewed early last year (review here) the brand new 4TB variant is also based on the DRAM-less MAP1602 12nm quad-channel (R5) NVMe 2.0 NAND flash controller by MaXio (F3C version as opposed to the F2C of the former) which this time over BIWIN has paired with 2400 MT/s 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash (X3-9070) by YMTC (128-layer for the former). The MAP1602 12nm quad-channel NAND controller by MaXio also packs quite a few features including advanced wear leveling algorithms, Host Memory Buffer (HMB) architecture (uses a fraction of your PC's system memory to cache mapping tables), pseudo SLC cache, bad block management strategy, hardware error-correction, L1.2 ultra-low power state and sudden power-loss protection, TRIM, NCQ, hardware support for AES256/SM4 encryption and support for TCG OPAL2.0. Once again BIWIN covers the entire Predator GM7 line with a 5-year limited warranty and in terms of durability they report a TBW (terabytes written) of 300 for the 512GB model, 600 for the 1TB model, 1200 for the 2TB model and 2400 for the 4TB model.