SSD by stefan @ 2024-03-31
The DRAMless KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G3 mainstream drive does deliver good performance and comes with great durability numbers (1200 TBW for the 2TB variant). It houses the Phison PS5021-E21T main controller and BiCS5 HDR type, TLC, 112-layer NAND, and the mean transfer rate won’t drop under 400MB/s even when the pSLC cache has been fully filled.
At first, we would like to thank KIOXIA for sending us a sample of the EXCERIA PLUS G3 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.”
Welcome to the World of PCIe 4.0
Designed to deliver an enhanced PC experience, the EXCERIA PLUS G3 SSD series is compatible with PCIe® 4.0 and delivers exceptional transfer speeds of up to 5,000 MB/s for sequential reads and 3,900 MB/s for sequential writes. Whether you are gaming or video editing, this new series will provide the performance needed.
Storage Slimmed Down
Featuring a space-saving, single-sided M.2 2280 form factor, the EXCERIA PLUS G3 SSD series is compatible with a wider range of devices. These compact SSDs plug directly into the motherboard, removing cable clutter for a sleeker and an easy system upgrade.
Speed Ahead with PCIe 4.0
The EXCERIA PLUS G3 SSD series delivers improved performance without cutting corners. Supporting PCIe 4.0 and NVMe 1.4, these SSDs take mainstream to the next level and offer an upgraded computing experience for gamers and video editors.
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 and more!
We highly recommend you install and update to the latest version to maximize your drive’s performance and check its Percentage Life Left using the health gauge.
Capacity: 2TB
Form Factor: M.2 Type 2280-S4-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 2.63 mm
Interface Command: NVM Express Revision 1.4 command set
Weight: 2TB: 7.4 g (typ.)
Performance
Max Sequential Read Speed: 5,000 MB/s
Max Sequential Write Speed: 3,900 MB/s
Max Random Read Speed: 680,000 IOPS
Max Random Write Speed: 950,000 IOPS
Endurance: 1200 TBW
MTTF: 1.5 million hours
Operating environment / protection performance
Operating Temperature: 0 deg Celsius (Ta) to 85 deg Celsius (Tc)
Storage Temperature: -40 deg Celsius to 85 deg Celsius
Certification: RoHS compliant
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): 5.3 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
Services and Support: Up to 5-year manufacturer's warranty
Performance Optimization: TRIM, Idle Time Garbage Collection. Host Memory Buffer
Another mainstream SSD from KIOXIA has arrived to our labs, carrying the EXCERIA PLUS G3 name. It comes with BiCS FLASH, supports PCIe Gen4 bus and was built on a 2280 form factor. The manufacturer has rated the drive with a maximum sequential read of 5000MB/s and write of 3900MB/s, and regarding capacity the product is available with 1TB and 2TB.
The drive is shipped inside a compact cardboard enclosure with the usual KIOXIA box art, showing the SSD in the frontal area, together with the drive capacity and the maximum rated sequential speed:
On the back, we will note the drive internal serial number, the manufacturing date, but also some product highlights:
The drive is held secure inside via a cardboard enclosure, but it is also additionally wrapped inside a transparent plastic film:
We will also receive some Safety Instruction documents, along with a short Installation Guide:
The drive is covered almost entirely by a sticker on the frontal area of the PCB; the sticker does also warn us that the surface is really hot and we should not touch it by mistake:
On the back, we will note that there are no other components available, but only a smaller sticker with the product code name, firmware, serial number, power rating, supported standards but also the drive capacity:
After removing the top sticker, we will note four NAND packages and a central controller:
The main controller is a Phison PS5021-E21T, a 4-channel controller built on TSMC’s 12nm process technology, using single-CPU architecture with built-in ARM Cortex-R5. The controller does only support DRAMless implementations, while in terms of NAND support, it can go with either 3D TLC or QLC:
The NAND packages do carry the TH58LKT2Z25BA8K code name and are of BiCS5 HDR type, TLC, 112-layer:
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
In order to continue with the second part of our tests, we have had to fill up the drive over 50%; during this process, we have monitored the transfer rates and temperatures, in order to analyze the drive behavior.
In IDLE, the drive presented itself with great temperatures:
The write workload has started at optimal speeds:
The speed did not drop even after having written over 110GB of data:
The drive temperature has raised this time to about 52 degrees Celsius:
The first notable drop has occurred after having written about 450GB of data, which gives us a rough estimation on the available pSLC cache size:
The drive did remain quite cool even all this stressful workload:
Till the end of our test, the drive did maintain the write speeds between 400 and 500MB/s, which is great for a mainstream drive and this proves the advantages of TLC NAND!
Quick System Drive Benchmark
Filled SSD
Quick System Drive Benchmark
Filled SSD
Filled SSD
Filled SSD
The DRAMless KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G3 mainstream drive does deliver good performance and comes with great durability numbers (1200 TBW for the 2TB variant). It houses the Phison PS5021-E21T main controller and BiCS5 HDR type, TLC, 112-layer NAND, and the mean transfer rate won’t drop under 400MB/s even when the pSLC cache has been fully filled.
After running the HD Tune writes workload, we will note how fast the drive can recover when the caches are filled up, in order to deliver a good sustained performance:
The drive performs great as well in terms of temperatures, not exceeding 56 degrees in continuous write testing, so it can be easily installed in systems with less than ideal airflow enclosures such as laptops.
The EXCERIA PLUS G3 2TB price has dropped significantly since the launch and now we will be able to find it online for as low as 110 Euros!
We would like to thank again to KIOXIA for making this review possible!