SSD by stefan @ 2023-04-27
The EXCERIA PRO 2TB drive from KIOXIA, even if it does not often hit the rated performance numbers, it is quite speedy overall and should be fine for most applications/games. When stressed, the temperatures did climb up to about 74 degrees Celsius and at that moment the SLC cache got depleted too and we noted gradual drops in performance, to a minimum of about 500MB/s.
At first, we would like to thank KIOXIA for sending us a sample of the EXCERIA PRO NVMe Gen4 2TB SSD for testing and reviewing.
“KIOXIA Europe GmbH (formerly Toshiba Memory Europe GmbH) is the European subsidiary of KIOXIA Corporation, a leading worldwide supplier of flash memory, solid state drives (SSDs) and software solutions. We are uniquely positioned with our broad product range to enable our customers to really drive their storage transformation. By working together with our customers across all growing markets like mobile, edge, cloud, data center and automotive, we provide our leading memory technology and are able to help accelerate the development of transformational solutions that really add value to end-users, creating new ways for them to interact and benefit from this technology, and create uplifting experiences that ultimately help to change the world.
From the invention of flash memory in 1984 to today’s breakthrough BiCS FLASH 3D technology, KIOXIA continues to move the industry forward and has carved out a path to a new era. Whatever the digital future demands, we will keep developing the right solutions for our customers.
KIOXIA Europe GmbH maintains offices in Germany, France, Spain and Sweden.”
Game-Changing Performance
Imagine up to 7,300 MB/s of sequential read speed and up to 6,400 MB/s sequential write speed, and you have the KIOXIA EXCERIA PRO Series. Designed to reduce game loading, video editing and graphic rendering time, the EXCERIA PRO Series helps your content creation or gaming environment excel.
Small and Compact for an Easy Upgrade
Featuring a thin, single-sided M.2 2280 form factor, the EXCERIA PRO SSD series plugs directly into the motherboard, reducing additional cable clutter for a sleeker and an easy system upgrade.
PCIe® 4.0 Technology
This “hero” class KIOXIA SSD delivers powerful performance utilizing the PCIe® 4.0 and NVMe™ 1.4 technology. EXCERIA PRO SSD series push the boundaries of flash storage technology, offering enhanced real-world performance that will blow away hardcore gamers and content creators.
Cutting-Edge 3D Flash Memory
Each EXCERIA SSD is built with BiCS FLASH™ and a vertically stacked cell structure, delivering a cutting-edge storage experience.
SSD Utility Management Software
The SSD Utility management software was designed to help your KIOXIA drive thrive and lets you be in control of maintenance, monitoring, SSD tuning and more!
Capacity: 2TB
Form Factor: M.2 Type 2280-S2-M
Interface: PCI Express® Base Specification Revision 4.0 (PCIe®)
Flash Memory type: BiCS FLASH™ TLC
Interface Maximum Speed: 64 GT/s (PCIe® Gen4x4)
Dimension (Max: LxWxH): 80.15 x 22.15 x 2.23 mm
Interface Command: NVM Express™ Revision 1.4 command set
Weight: 2TB: 8.0 g (typ.)
Performance:
Max Sequential Read Speed - 7,300 MB/s
Max Sequential Write Speed - 6,400 MB/s
Max Random Read Speed: 800,000 IOPS
Max Random Write Speed: 1,300,000 IOPS
Endurance: 800 TBW
MTTF: 1.5 million hours
Operating Temperature: 0 degrees Celsius (Ta) to 85 degrees Celsius (Tc)
Storage Temperature: -40 degrees Celsius to 85 degrees Celsius
Shock Resistance: 9.806 km/s2 {1,000 G} 0.5 ms half sine wave
Vibration: 196 m/s2 {20 G} Peak, 10~2,000 Hz, (20 min / Axis) x 3 Axis
Supply Voltage: 3.3 V ±5 %
Power Consumption:
PS3: 50 mW (typ.)
PS4: 5 mW (typ.)
Power Consumption (Active): 8.9 W (typ.)
Compatibility: PCI Express
Compatible with PCI Express® Base Specification Revision 4.0 and NVM Express™ Revision 1.4 command set
Connector Type: M.2 M key Socket
Target Applications:
Client desktops and laptops
Others
5-year manufacturer's warranty
Performance Optimization: TRIM, Idle Time Garbage Collection
From KIOXIA we have recently received a new PCIe 4.0 SSD in the form of the EXCERIA PRO 2TB. The product is oriented at gamers, operating on the PCIe Gen4 x4 bus, supporting NVMe 1.3 standards and with a five-year warranty.
The drive is shipped inside a compact cardboard enclosure and right from the frontal area we will note a photo of the product, the capacity, rated read performance but also the size (format which is 2280):
On the back, KIOXIA noted the product internal code name, its manufacturing date, but also some serial numbers:
After unsealing the box, we will note inside a small leaflet which informs the user regarding the procedure of unpacking the product, the drive secured by a transparent plastic compartment but also the Quick Start Guide:
Besides installation information, we will receive info on disposal and FCC:
The top part of the PCB does include a sticker which does not cover the last NAND IC; this is no problem, since the supplied sticker is only esthetic and does not act as a heatspreader:
The back side of the PCB does not contain other components, but only an additional sticker, which notes the product code name, the manufacturing date, the power rating but also the supported standards:
After removing the top sticker, we will note two NAND ICs on each side, while in the middle we do have the controller and a DRAM cache chip:
The EXCERIA PRO integrates KIOXIA’s 112-layer BiCS5 3D TLC NAND ICs:
The SK Hynix DRAM IC for storing the mapping tables is of DDR4 nature and functions at 3200MHz; the total capacity is 2GB:
As noted by AIDA64 as well, the KIOXIA controller is a rebranded Phison E18, which is a high-end SKU with eight channels, uses 5 Arm Cortex R5 cores and is produced on TSMC’s 12nm process:
The test system did incorporate a AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 6-core CPU, a Sabrent Rocket 2x16GB DDR5 4800MHz C40 memory kit, a PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 5700 video card but also a Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus NVMe 4.0 2TB SSD; all these were connected to the BIOSTAR X670E VALKYRIE AM5 motherboard. As a power supply we have chosen a Cooler Master 850W non-modular and the system was running the latest Windows 11 OS build as well.
The drive has arrived unformatted, but for testing purposes, we have formatted it NTFS:
With the help of AIDA64, we could extract more information regarding the drive:
Quick System Drive Benchmark
Blank SSD
Quick System Drive Benchmark
Blank SSD
Blank SSD
To begin the second stage of the tests, we needed to fill the drive over 50% and we have done that by writing continuously to the drive to monitor its behavior. The IDLE temperature we have recorded was 41 degrees Celsius:
The transfer speed remained optimal after writing about 20GB to the drive:
The conditions remained similar even after writing about 205GB:
The temperature has raised at this moment to about 61 degrees Celsius:
The first performance dip we have observed after 220GB of data written:
The temperature continued to raise but remained at optimal levels:
The speed remained the same, between 950MB/s and 1.1GB/s for most of the time:
We have recorded a maximum temperature of 74 degrees Celsius:
In the last part of the test, the speed varied between 500 and 600MB/s:
With the SLC cache filled, we noted that the drive temperature dropped again a bit to around 67 degrees Celsius, but then climbed back up to 73 degrees Celsius:
Quick System Drive Benchmark
Filled SSD
Quick System Drive Benchmark
Filled SSD
Filled SSD
Filled SSD
The EXCERIA PRO 2TB drive from KIOXIA, even if it does not often hit the rated performance numbers, it is quite speedy overall and should be fine for most applications/games. When stressed, the temperatures did climb up to about 74 degrees Celsius and at that moment the SLC cache got depleted too and we noted gradual drops in performance, to a minimum of about 500MB/s.
The performance did not drop further thanks to the use of BiCS5 TLC NAND instead of the cheaper TLC, while the rated endurance of about 800TBW does mean that it is suitable even when working with video projects having hundreds of GBs, which imply lots of data writes, for years to come!
The HD Tune Pro Write workload does show how the drive does behave, when using the available caching methods:
This is a drive meant for desktop machines which feature an integrated SSD cooling system on the motherboard, to avoid throttling and keep the drive healthy for a long period of time.
The EXCERIA PRO 2TB can be found online for about 225 Euros, around the price with drives that can drive similar performance.
We would like to thank again to KIOXIA for making this review possible!