INTRODUCTION

    Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSD sales may have received a significant boost with all the new Gen5 compatible motherboards by both AMD and Intel but it will be a while before they can actually compare with those of Gen4 models. This is also why most storage media manufacturers are focusing their resources on the design and release of Gen4 SSDs and well, that's fine in my book since they still deliver very good read & write performance and endurance levels (and Gen5 models haven't been exactly free from issues). Netac launched their NV7000-Q 1TB Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD earlier this year and that's what I have here with me today.

    Started in May 1999, Netac Technology (Stock Code at Shenzhen Exchange: 300042) is a leading flash memory manufacturer based in Shenzhen. Through more than ten years' growth, Netac was successfully listed in Growth Enterprise Market in January 2010, becoming the first listed removable storage supplier in China. Netac is the trademark used for our USB flash memory products. As the inventor of flash memory and a leading new-generation storage product manufacturer, Netac possesses the first generation of USB-based flash memory technology in the world. We focus on manufacturing of flash memory products, such as USB flash storage, portable hard drive and solid state disk, especially on security and encryption of USB flash storage and portable hard drive. We have a wholly owned production base for processing of all flash storage products. At present, Netac Technology (Hong Kong) Limited and Leapro Technology Co., Ltd. are two fully subsidiary companies of Netac Technology Co., Ltd. Leapro Technology Co., Ltd is the holder of the SD-3C license.

    The NV7000-Q Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD line is currently available in 1/2TB capacities (2TB capacity seems to be available in online stores like Amazon but not on their website) and is based on the DRAM-less MAP1602-F3C 12nm quad-channel (R5) NVMe 2.0 NAND flash controller by MaXio (although it's used as v1.4) which Netac has paired with YMTC's 232-Layer 3D QLC NAND flash by YMTC. 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. As for warranty Netac covers the NV7000-Q Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD line with a 5-year limited warranty and in terms of durability they report a TBW of 640 for the 1TB model.