INTRODUCTION

   After almost a decade in the consumer marker solid state drives have become mainstream and so with that in mind it's no wonder that the "compact" M.2 form factor has gained serious support by mainboard manufacturers and is now available in most if not all current models. Size however is not the only thing the M.2 form factor has over SATA and even PCIe since thanks to the latest NVMe standard you can now expect data transfer speeds exceeding 3000MB/s for read and 2000MB/s for write from some enthusiast and enterprise grade models. Still not everyone is willing to spend a good deal of money to get to those performance levels so many manufacturers have instead focused in releasing budget-friendly M.2 NVMe drives aimed towards casual users, gamers and even professionals. One such model is the latest Z280 M.2 2280 SSD by Apacer and today we're checking out the 240GB capacity variant.

   Apacer is a world-leading supplier specializing in the research and development, design, manufacturing, and marketing of industrial solid-state drives (SSD), consumer digital products, and memory modules. Since its establishment in 1997, Apacer has developed innovative products and services based on its commitment to helping customer “access the best”. Our customers include global distributors, equipment manufacturers, and retailers. We offer high-performance, high-reliability, and high-value memory modules and flash memory products for the industrial control market; for consumers, we design innovative digital storage and peripheral products for everyday use in the recording, storing, and sharing of digital data.

   For the Z280 M.2 2280 solid state drive Apacer decided to go with the PS5007-E7 Phison’s first NVMe Gen 3.0 x4 PCIe controller (supports TRIM, advanced garbage collection, static and dynamic wear-leveling, bad block management, SmartECC, SmartFlush, GuaranteedFlush, end to end data path protection and AES 256-bit encryption) which they paired with 15nm MLC NAND flash by Toshiba and an 128MB LPDDR3 RAM module by Nanya (almost like the Hellfire series by Patriot Memory). The Z280 M.2 2280 SSD is currently available in 120/240/480GB capacities and always according to Apacer it offers sequential data read performance of up to 2300/2750/2750 MB/s and sequential data write performance of up to 1450/1500/1500 MB/s (along with random write IOPS performance of up to 160.000/160.000/175.000). Apacer covers all models with a three-year limited warranty and reports endurance numbers of up to 175TBW (Terabytes Written) for the 120GB variant, 349TBW for the 240GB variant and 698TBW for the 480GB variant.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE Z280 240GB

Apacer packs the Z280 inside a very small box from where you can actually see the drive from its front.

A product description, compatible operating systems, serial number and barcode are all printed at the rear.

Being an M.2 2280 form factor SSD the Z280 measures 22mm in width and 80mm in length.

On the top side of the PCB we find the 128MB LPDDR3 RAM module by Nanya right next to the PS5007-E7 controller and two 15nm MLC NAND flash modules by Toshiba (each 64GB in capacity).

On the opposite side we find two more 64GB MLC NAND flash modules by Toshiba.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   After roughly 9 years of testing solid state drives we've 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 our 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 we repeat them 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 with every update installed up to July 12th 2017.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

TEST RESULTS – AS SSD / IOMETER

TEST RESULTS – IOMETER SNIA

CONCLUSION

   It’s been a while since we last had anything from Apacer in our lab so the arrival of the Z280 made it possible for us to see just how they’ve been doing recently. The Z280 may not be the fastest M.2 NVMe SSD in the market today (double the DDR3 RAM would probably improve things quite a bit) but with performance easily surpassing 2000MB/s in read and 1000MB/s in write (in our tests always) we think that most users will be delighted to have such performance levels in their systems. Unfortunately as many of you are well aware M.2 drives have issues with overheating and the same applies for the Z280. Now we didn’t measure its exact temperature during out tests (we just ordered equipment just for that) but it was very hot to the touch (just like the Hellfire and the 950 Pro before that). To this day we haven’t figure out why most if not all SSD manufacturers don’t offer heatsinks with their M.2 models (not like they cost much) but luckily cooling manufacturers like EK waterblocks do make such products so if you wish to keep your drive cool we really suggest getting one.

   So just how much will the Z280 M.2 240GB SSD by Apacer set you back? Well currently the 240GB variant of the Z280 M.2 NVMe SSD retails for just USD135.99 inside the USA (Newegg) and for just 127.90Euros inside the EU (Alternate) a price tag which we feel is extremely balanced and fair. At the end of the day the Z280 M.2 NVMe 240GB SSD by Apacer has it all, very good read & write performance, high-end features and a very tempting price tag and we all feel these are more than enough for it to get our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Read & Write Performance
- 349 TBW
- M.2 NVMe / PCIe Solution
- 3 Years Warranty
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Heat Buildup
- Current Availability