Silicon Power UD70 2TB M.2 PCIe Gen3x4 SSD Review

One of the most practical upgrades you can do to a computer these days is a storage upgrade. We don’t have to tell you that file sizes keep increasing, almost daily. Every update and patch, every ‘too good a deal to pass up” new game you barely play, every picture and video saved off your phone all take a toll on your available space. Having a lot of space is good, but having it be fast enough to keep up with your daily demands is even better. Silicon Power’s new UD70 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD might just be the upgrade you’ve been looking for. Sporting up to a massive 2TB of space with speeds approaching 3.4GB/s, the UD70 is big enough and fast enough for even the most demanding user. With its ability to stay cool under pressure, and a wallet-friendly price tag, it really doesn’t get any better than this! PC Test Bench would like to thank Silicon Power for sending us the UD70 SSD drive over to check out! Silicon Power’s take on the UD70 M.2 PCIe Gen3x4 SSD: With 3D QLC NAND storage technology, the UD70 PCIe Gen 3x4 incorporates a much higher memory cell density, allowing for greater storage capacity on a smaller footprint – up to 2TB. Plus, NVMe 1.3 support, read speeds up to 3,400MB/s, and write speeds up to 3,000MB/s make this M.2 2280 SSD a force to be reckoned with. As an overall cost-efficient option, the UD70 is truly an all-around performer that's perfect for DIY system builders, casual gamers and video editors, and simply those who are looking to upgrade their PC. Keep It Cool: Dual Self-Cooling System The UD70 is specially engineered with a dual self-cooling system that operates via active state power management (ASPM) and autonomous power state transition (APST). In addition, thermal throttling effectively monitors and controls the temperature to prevent sudden speed drops or damage of stored data caused by high temperature. With these advanced mechanisms in place, the UD70 will keep its cool to sustain a safe and optimal level of performance at all times, which translates to a longer and more reliable lifespan. Powered By Multiple Technologies For Optimum Performance The UD70 supports SLC Caching and DRAM Cache Buffer to improve sequential read/write and random read/write performance. Built-in low-density parity-check (LDPC) coding, End-To-End (E2E) data protection, and RAID engine data protection all work to provide enhanced data transmission accuracy and access reliability, while AES 256-bit encryption ensures data security. A System Upgrade With Room For More With an M.2 2280 (80mm) form factor, the UD70's compact size allows for easy installation in laptops, small form factor PC systems, and some ultrabooks. And with 3 different capacity options (500GB, 1TB, 2TB), it's an easy upgrade that can greatly expand your system's storage potential based on your needs and budget, while also saving space for other components. Features PCIe Gen 3x4 interface with read speeds up to 3,400MB/s and write speeds up to 3,000MB/s NVMe 1.3 support allows for higher performance, lower latency, and lower power consumption Equipped with 3D QLC NAND storage technology for larger capacity and higher performance on a small form factor Available in 3 storage capacity options: 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB Supports SLC Caching and DRAM Cache Buffer to improve sequential read/write and random read/write performance Dual self-cooling system via active state power management (ASPM) and autonomous power state transition (APST) Built-in thermal throttling effectively monitors and regulates the temperature to keep it in the normal range for greater system reliability and data integrity Engineered with low-density parity-check (LDPC) coding to ensure accuracy of data transmission and reliability of data access Built-in E2E data protection for enhanced data transfer integrity Adopts AES 256-bit encryption to ensure data security Small form factor M.2 2280 (80mm) allows for easy installation in laptops, small form factor PC systems, and some ultrabooks Specs Capacity 500GB, 1TB, 2TB Dimensions 0mm x 80.0mm x 3.5mm Weight 8g Interface PCIe Gen 3x4 Performance Read(max.) up to 3,400 MB/s* Performance Write(max.) up to 3,000 MB/s* MTBF (est) 1.8M hours Operating Temperature 0°C - 70°C Shock Resistance Test 1500G/0.5ms Warranty 5 years A Closer Look Silicon Power’s UD70 comes in a small black box similar to some of their other models. Basic specs can be found on the back in several languages. A clear window in the front lets you see the drive The UD70 is your standard 2280 sized M.2 M-Key drive. It comes with a blue PCB with a sticker covering most of the front. The back is not black, it’s the same dark blue as the front, but for some reason, we had a hard time getting a good picture of it. There is little to see on the back, the 2TB model doesn’t come populated, but there are contact pads for four more DRAM modules as well as a NAND flash module. On the front, four QLC 3D NAND flash modules make up the 2TB of capacity. We weren’t able to find a spec sheet for these specific modules. Closer to the connector we find a Phison E12 controller which is a recent high-performance 8-channel controller that Phison says is capable of up to 600k IOPS. Cache is handled with a Kingston 512MB DDR3L module running 1866 Mbps. Configuration and Software CPU: Intel Core i9-9900KS Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming RAM: 16GB G.Skill TridentZ RGB 3200Mhz GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080Ti FE Drive: Silicon Power UD70 2TB OS: Windows 10 Professional (2004) Silicon Power SP Toolbox SP Toolbox was developed for use with SP SSDs and Industrial Flash products and provides multiple ways for users to obtain disk information, and to change settings easily. Additionally, it is an advanced and user-friendly software that makes it easier than ever to maintain a healthy and efficient device. The useful features include: View Drive Information, View S.M.A.R.T. Status, Wear Out Count, Block Information, Diagnostic Scan, Performance Test, and Secure Erase. Toolbox has a few less things for this drive than some of its other drives, but you still get the basics. The first button gives you this page where you can see all the important information at a glance. You shouldn’t need to spend much time on the health tab early on, but you can keep an eye on drive health here. Since some space is reserved for wear leveling and you can keep tabs on that here. On the last tab, you can do a quick or a full scan of the drive to detect errors or bad sectors. Testing Initialized as GPT and formatted as NTFS in windows, we get a useable space of 1.81TB. CrystalDiskInfo CrystalDiskInfo shows our drive connecting to the system at its full PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth using NVMe 1.3. Sequential Testing – Variable Queue Depth One of the downsides of QLC memory is low performance at low queue depths at the physical level, once you fill the 512MB of cache. Random Testing – Variable Queue Depth The 8 channel controller and DRAM cache lend themselves to very high random write performance but reads and mixed doesn’t climb quite as quickly with queue depth. CrystalDiskMark 7.0 “CrystalDiskMark is designed to quickly test the performance of your hard drives. Currently, the program allows measuring sequential and random read/write speeds." Silicon Power claims the UD70 has read performance up to 3400MB/s and write performance up to 3000MB/s and judging by CrystalDiskMark it seems to fall right into that range. PCMark 10 Storage Test PCMark 10 introduces a set of four storage benchmarks that use relevant real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to fully test the performance of the latest modern drives. The Full System Drive Benchmark uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to fully test the performance of the fastest modern drives. The Data Drive Benchmark is designed to test drives that are used for storing files rather than applications. You can also use this test with NAS drives, USB sticks, memory cards, and other external storage devices. ATTO Disk Benchmark ATTO shows the UD70 ramp up to full speed about the 128KB block size, and maintain a pretty steady 3.1GB/s read and 2.8GB/s write speed. Anvil's Storage Utilities Anvil gives us a score of almost 15,300 points. Max read and write speeds in this test top out just over 2500MB/s. latencies look decent, and we hit a pretty impressive 472k IOPS on writes. Black Magic Disk Speed Test Disk Speed Test is an easy to use tool to quickly measure and certify your disk performance for working with high-quality video! Simply click the start button and Disk Speed Test will write test your disk using large blocks of data, and then display the result. Disk Speed Test will continue to test writes and reads from your disk so you can evaluate both performance and readability over time. Black Magic’s Disk Speed test is less about raw speed than stability while streaming data in both read and write as media work would demand. In this case, the UD70 is more than capable of handling anything out there and would provide a good video editing experience. Final Thoughts and Conclusion Silicon Power’s UD70 M.2 drive provides a high-performance storage solution for a budget price. With a street price of about $190, the 2TB model of the UD70 is one of the cheapest 2TB M.2 drives out there but delivers the performance of drives costing 50% more. QLC memory does incur a performance penalty if you write to the drive continuously long enough to saturate the cache, but most users won't be able to do this with typical desktop use. As Silicon Power touts good thermal control of the UD70, we left the motherboard heatsink off the drive and tested it as is. We hit a maximum temperature of 67C under sustained stress testing which did not cause the drive to throttle. With most desktop motherboards now providing at least one heatsinked M.2 slot, this isn’t terribly important for most desktop users. For those of you who intend to use the UD70 in a laptop or small form-factor build, this is a very good thing and something that many M.2 drives struggle with. If you are looking for your next storage upgrade, look no further. The price to performance to capacity ratio of the UD70 is unmatched! Great job Silicon Power!

Silicon Power UD70 2TB M.2 PCIe Gen3x4 SSD Review

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