CONCLUSION

    Two things I need to point out before getting into the PBlaze7 7940 U.2 drive. First that I re-introduced the Mixed SNIA test in the charts (had removed it along with the 12 hour one but since Gen5 SSDs can finish it I thought it would be nice to have) and 2^nd that I introduced both 3D Mark (storage benchmark) and a 2-hour IOMeter test primarily “tailored” for data center drives (4k random reads). With that out of the way this review makes 2 things clear, 1^st that the PBlaze7 7940 U.2 drive focuses mostly in reads rather than writes (very good read performance which does make sense for such a drive) and second that as expected from an enterprise model it’s massively more durable compared to regular consumer oriented Gen5 SSDs (roughly 1 million hours more and 5 times the total TBW compared to most consumer Gen5 models). Basically, placing the PBlaze7 in the same charts as commercial Gen5 SSDs may not be ideal but until more such drives arrive in the lab (at which point I will introduce new charts) I thought it would be better to have a comparison in place. Last but not least with a power consumption surpassing 22W while at load (25W reported by Memblaze so more or less accurate) the PBlaze7 7940 U.2 is almost twice as power hungry compared to for example the T705 4TB by Crucial (review soon – around 12W during IOMeter Mixed testing) but this is to be expected for one such drive.

    At the time of this review availability for the PBlaze7 7940 3.84TB U.2 Gen5 SSD by Memblaze is far from great, at least outside Asia (where it retails for just over USD900 - far from affordable for most people, although not for large companies). Of course, such drives are bought in large quantities by enterprises and well, to date Memblaze has sold well over 150.000 of them all over the globe. At the end of the day thanks to both its performance and durability the PBlaze7 7940 3.84TB U.2 is ideal for enterprise use and yes, even very demanding professionals and consumers and that’s why it gets the Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Quality
- Top Performance (Up To 14000MB/s)
- 2.5” Aluminum Enclosure (Low Temperatures)
- DirectStorage Improvements
- Available Form Factors
- Available Capacities
- Technologies / Features
- Endurance / Durability (2.5 Million Hours MTBF / 7000 TBW)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Current Availability
- Writes (For Some)