Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology (MZ-V7S2T0B/AM)

Product Information

The XS70 is designed with PS5 compatibility in mind so the heatsink isn’t as bulky as some others you might come across. It really does look good. Admittedly I'm talking about an SSD here, and its not the kind of thing you'll spend time looking at, but Silicon Power's designers deserve credit. The XS70 is priced well for a high-performance 2TB SSD, but there's fierce competition from other third-party SSD makers in this price range.The Silicon Power XS70 2TB SSD is a 2280 (80mm length) M.2 PCIe NVMe drive. It combines Micron 176-Layer TLC NAND with a Phison PS5018-E18 controller and 2GB of DDR4 RAM. That combination is common to many of the best SSDs, including the highly regarded Seagate FireCuda 530 and Kingston KC3000.

The Patriot Viper VP4300 is a major contender for the best SSD crown with its impressive sequential and random speeds, fast copy operations, and low operating temperature. But most of all, this SSD is built for the long haul with a best-in-class 1000TBW endurance rating for a 1TB drive, and a 2000TBW rating for a 2TB one.Give it up for the new SK Hynix Platinum P41 2TB. If that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, it also doesn't help that SK Hynix isn't the most familiar brand regarding the sort of consumer-focused clobber that's aimed at gamers, including SSDs. The Corsair MP600 Pro LPX made waves in the SSD market when it launched with competitive pricing and unparalleled speeds, and that remains the case today. Its PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 SSD credentials deliver lightning-fast speeds, outshining cheaper, slower PCIe 3.0 alternatives, and keeping up with the very best SSDs on the market. Some PCIe Gen 4 drives might appear similar in value but fall short in maximizing the bandwidth that the MP600 Pro LPX exploits.

Now, to reiterate an important point: A drive may come in the M.2 form factor, but that says nothing about the bus that it makes use of. Determining that is just as important as making sure it fits. Rather more specific to this WD drive is the latest 2.0 version of the company's Game Mode drive management software. WD claims it improves game loading times courtesy of a so-called "read look-ahead" algorithm, which predictively caches game data. It now runs automatically, detecting when games are loaded. How much that kind of feature actually makes a difference in the real world is notoriously difficult to pin down. But it's unlikely to be revolutionary. It's slightly more expensive than similar capacity SSDs, but it definitely compensates for this with its performance and durability, as well as the included "heatshield" options. These work exceptionally well, and this SSD has the lowest recorded max temperature (about 57℃) of any of the high-end PCIe 4.0 SSDs we've tested recently, including those on this list.In need of a lot more storage capacity? Look no further than the Lexar NM790. Available with up to four terabytes of storage, there's really no need to worry about your burgeoning Steam library any longer with one of these installed in your PC. Of course, to show off the lighting, you will need to have an open-frame rig, or one with a see-through case. If you've already RGB'd your keyboard, mouse, video card, motherboard, case, and headphones, and are at a loss for what's left, the Spectrix S40G makes enough sense both in performance and looks to belong in any lighting-obsessed custom PC builder's arsenal. Finally, we use the drive as our primary SSD in our workstation PC (and video game console, if appropriate) to assess the real world use of the drive.