ZDNET’s key takeaways
- PNY 1TB CS3150 M.2 storage drive, obtainable for round $170.
- Total, it is a quick M.2 drive with lively cooling to maintain operating temperatures under the utmost rated temperature.
- The heatsink makes the drive relatively cumbersome, and you’ll need a 4-pin fan header on the motherboard to energy the followers.
Within the not-so-distant previous, the answer for speed-boosting an growing old and sluggish PC was so as to add extra RAM or improve the processor. Now, the best way to sail over that pace bump entails getting a brand new storage drive, and there isn’t any higher storage improve with regards to efficiency than becoming your system with an M.2 drive.
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There’s no scarcity of fantastic M.2 drives on the market, however should you’re searching for high-end efficiency and stability when the going will get powerful, the CS3150 by PNY is nicely price a glance.
What makes this drive particular? Not solely does it have a heatsink, however that heatsink is kitted out with two followers to dissipate the warmth generated throughout use.
How are you aware in case your system can take an M.2 drive? Test the guide on your system or the motherboard it makes use of, do an internet search, or open it up and examine for an M.2 drive slot.
One of many greatest killers of storage drives is warmth. Whereas this is not an issue for many techniques, high-end gaming and content material creation techniques — when pushed to their limits — would possibly hit a degree the place thermal throttling happens (that’s, a deliberate slowing down of the system to permit it to chill down) or — or the warmth would possibly trigger crashes or untimely injury to the drive.
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The sooner the drive, the extra waste warmth it generates.
And the CS3150 is a quick drive. Clocking sequential learn and write speeds of 11,500 and eight,500 MB/s, respectively, it is not as quick — or as costly — because the Essential T705, however that drive would not have an actively cooled heatsink.
Testing the pace of the CS3150, I acquired speeds that have been inside 5 p.c of the specs given by PNY, which is greater than acceptable.
If you wish to get the very best out of this drive, notice that you will want at minimal an Intel Core thirteenth or 14th-gen or AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU on a suitable motherboard with a free Gen5 M.2 slot.
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As for warmth, I stress-tested the drive utilizing CrystalDiskMark and monitored the temperatures utilizing CrystalDiskInfo, and — regardless of my relentless thrashing of the CS3150 — I couldn’t get the temperatures to exceed the 70°C/158°F most working temperatures. It might appear that the lively cooling is doing its job.
It is price making an allowance for that heatsinks and followers transfer the warmth from the drive to the skin air; due to this fact — to keep up the drive’s effectivity — you additionally must be sure that the PC has satisfactory airflow by way of the system. Additionally, the built-in followers on this gadget require a free set of 4-pin fan header pins on the motherboard to work.
The cooler could be very beefy however could be eliminated.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
That is fairly a cumbersome drive. Though it ought to match most M.2 drive slots on PC motherboards, it will not match into exterior drive enclosures until you seize a screwdriver and take away the heatsink. This is not usually really helpful, however should you plan on doing it, watch out separating the aluminum heatsink from the drive’s circuit board, as you do not need to be ripping chips off the board.
Want so as to add a little bit of coloration to your system? There’s additionally a model of this drive with RGB lights constructed into the heatsink.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
I am unable to fault this drive. It is a stable, quick, well-made drive that takes cooling to the following stage with lively cooling for these occasions when the drive is being pushed exhausting.
Whereas the PNY CS3051 is not the quickest drive round, the learn and write speeds are ok to maintain all however probably the most performance-hungry customers blissful.
PNY CS3150 M.2 key specs
- Capability: 1TB
- Type Issue: M.2 2280
- Interface: PCIe Gen5 x4
- Max Sequential Learn Velocity: 11,500 MB/s
- Max Sequential Write Velocity: 8,500 MB/s
- Cooling: Twin-fan plus heatsink
- Imply Time Between Failures (MTBF): 1,600,000 Hours
- Guarantee: 5-year restricted guarantee
