Fun fact: The Alienware 17 R5 has 3 M.2 SSD slots: - First is PCIe Gen 3x4 only (2280) - Second is either PCIe Gen 3x4 or SATA III (2280) - Third is PCIe Gen 3x4 (2242) There aren’t many 2242 drives that go past 1 TB, but Sabrent happens to distribute 2 TB drives in the 2242 form factor. I happen to have one installed in my 17 R5 along with a 2 TB Samsung 970 Evo, a 2 TB WD Blue M.2 SATA SSD, and a 4 TB Micron 5100 Eco 2.5” SSD. Yeah, I was on a bit of a storage binge with that laptop -.-
What an interesting device. Definitely of most interest to SIs and OEMs (I can't think of any end user with a PC or Laptop that accepts a standard sized NVMe M.2 putting one of these in a system).
Love your channel and work, amazing and more importantly quality, informative content without silly shenanigans. Kudos. I recently got Lenovo Yoga 7i and it came with this exact type, BG4. I created an Veracrypt volume of 720GB and it went so smoothly, I didn't know it was using RAM. I was sure no SLC can sustain 720 at a single stretch without slowing down as once SLC is full speeds used to slow down in the drives I've used thus far. This got me researching and found that RAM can be used as cache. Amazing stuff in such a tiny package.
I've been searching for a drive like this to upgrade the 128GB 2230 ssd in my Surface Laptop 3, glad to find a review before so I can be confident about buying one
@@CampGareth I'm getting the 64GB model as well. however, I am willing to wait. Linux memory management system is extremely efficient so even if your eMMC drive is slow, it will keep your OS and most of your favourite applications in-memory unless the data is truly required by another process. This is why Linux always felt very snappy even with old computers and mechanical harddrives (as long as you had plenty of RAM). I have a 256GB MicroSD laying around, because of this I am willing to wait, and honestly I am not that serious on taking AAA games on the go, I look forward to play indies, retrogames as well as old backlog games. So basically Monsterboy, Streets of Rage 4, Hades, Owlboy, Dishonored, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, Gamecube, Dreamcast games etc. :) All of those will run perfectly of an SD card or eMMC. :)
@@PixelShade That's a good point, for those types of games smaller storage will be fine and I could certainly pick up a big microSD card while looking for a drive, they're cheap. Eventually I would want to play heavier and larger games like cyberpunk and gta5 and those will want faster, larger storage.
@@CampGareth I Honestly think GTAV will run great on SD card. Cyberpunk on the other hand is a beast! incredibly beautiful but it does require a lot of hardware. SSD in particular because of the heavy use of streaming in the game (and the amount of detail is staggering, I zoomed in on a vending machine just to witness intricate detail on a PCB with wires and solder points next to a coin slot when zoomed in. like why even have that amount of detail!?) do you have a gaming PC as well? another option is to play those heavy games on a more powerful PC or when connecting the Steam Deck to a dock. that way you can just add a cheaper SSD. This is what I love with the PC, so many options to tailor a product for your needs. :) there will probably come a nvme usb-c acessory in the future as well 😅
@@PixelShade I do have a separate gaming PC with a gtx 1070. I've also got a GPD Win 1 with an old atom quad core that I use for game streaming from stadia or geforce now. Point is I've got options but still usually prefer to render on the device closest to me unless it's not capable of running the game. Latency and the occasional video artifact mean that will usually be better, unless we're comparing ultra low local to ultra high remote.
Gotta love the breakneck pace at which tech advances, where 1 GB/sec sequential write times on a drive the size of a postage stamp can be called "bleak" haha. USB 3.0 thumbdrives to this day are still stuck in this balancing act of speed vs turning into a fireball and destroying all your data. There isn't a single one on the market that doesn't speak of dying in 1-2 years. I don't think any of the original models in 2016 are even sold anymore, as they all turned into fireballs or went into "data protection mode" within minutes. I wouldn't mind a NVME based usb drive that's detuned a bit. They have enclosures, but they run at read speeds of around a GB/min and get screaming hot. I'd be perfectly okay with dropping that rate down to 250 MB or 100 MB/sec and keeping things cooler.
I thought you said that TLC has a lot more write endurance? I always thought that SLC was the one that has the best write endurance. Of course SLC if you can find it is much more expensive per GB or TB than any other NAND flash memory. SLC is also supposed to be the fastest but because of its significantly higher price you will never see it in any store such as Walmart. People who shop in those places I would not expect to know all of the differences between all of these things, they usually just want the lowest price and are often not concerned about the performance of it. There is a flash memory called Pseudo SLC which is essentially MLC or TLC in SLC mode and I have tried a memory card based on that and it did not once disappoint me. That was just a MicroSD card BTW, I imagine an NVME drive made with that would be fun to try out!! That is when you consider it won't have to run slower due to speed limitations of USB. Pseudo SLC seems to have been developed to give performance more like SLC but without such a high price tag attached to it.
You mentioned that they sell the chip itself to solder to the board. Really, I think that having it be not upgradeable is a horrible idea. I am one of those people who won't buy computer if I suspect that the RAM or storage is soldered into it. I instead would look for teardown vid or set of pics and see for myself if it is upgradeable. Even if there is no room for upgrades, it would still allow replacement of a bad module easily. For example if I had a bad stick of RAM or a bad SSD, I would want to replace those things unless the computer is so old I am better off with a newer one.
Nice review with a great details and useful info. I tried to buy one of these but l can't find it anywhere Amazon, eBay Aliexpress. I believe that getting drugs is easier than finding this ssd.
@@TechteamGB unfortunately the price has increased due to Covid. I hope the Nvidia handheld will increase the demand for the 2230 form factor. My goal is to install this drive into a laptop that has a 2230 as well as a 2280 slot. Do you think we will also get higher capacity 2230 drives soon?
I love the looks of those tiny drives
Fun fact: The Alienware 17 R5 has 3 M.2 SSD slots:
- First is PCIe Gen 3x4 only (2280)
- Second is either PCIe Gen 3x4 or SATA III (2280)
- Third is PCIe Gen 3x4 (2242)
There aren’t many 2242 drives that go past 1 TB, but Sabrent happens to distribute 2 TB drives in the 2242 form factor. I happen to have one installed in my 17 R5 along with a 2 TB Samsung 970 Evo, a 2 TB WD Blue M.2 SATA SSD, and a 4 TB Micron 5100 Eco 2.5” SSD.
Yeah, I was on a bit of a storage binge with that laptop -.-
What an interesting device. Definitely of most interest to SIs and OEMs (I can't think of any end user with a PC or Laptop that accepts a standard sized NVMe M.2 putting one of these in a system).
Love your channel and work, amazing and more importantly quality, informative content without silly shenanigans. Kudos.
I recently got Lenovo Yoga 7i and it came with this exact type, BG4. I created an Veracrypt volume of 720GB and it went so smoothly, I didn't know it was using RAM. I was sure no SLC can sustain 720 at a single stretch without slowing down as once SLC is full speeds used to slow down in the drives I've used thus far. This got me researching and found that RAM can be used as cache. Amazing stuff in such a tiny package.
I've been searching for a drive like this to upgrade the 128GB 2230 ssd in my Surface Laptop 3, glad to find a review before so I can be confident about buying one
Steam Deck though. ;)
Heck yes, show me where to buy a 1TB m.2 2230 drive! I reserved the 64GB model with a plan to upgrade as soon as I can find one.
@@CampGareth I'm getting the 64GB model as well. however, I am willing to wait. Linux memory management system is extremely efficient so even if your eMMC drive is slow, it will keep your OS and most of your favourite applications in-memory unless the data is truly required by another process. This is why Linux always felt very snappy even with old computers and mechanical harddrives (as long as you had plenty of RAM). I have a 256GB MicroSD laying around, because of this I am willing to wait, and honestly I am not that serious on taking AAA games on the go, I look forward to play indies, retrogames as well as old backlog games. So basically Monsterboy, Streets of Rage 4, Hades, Owlboy, Dishonored, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, Gamecube, Dreamcast games etc. :) All of those will run perfectly of an SD card or eMMC. :)
@@PixelShade That's a good point, for those types of games smaller storage will be fine and I could certainly pick up a big microSD card while looking for a drive, they're cheap. Eventually I would want to play heavier and larger games like cyberpunk and gta5 and those will want faster, larger storage.
@@CampGareth I Honestly think GTAV will run great on SD card. Cyberpunk on the other hand is a beast! incredibly beautiful but it does require a lot of hardware. SSD in particular because of the heavy use of streaming in the game (and the amount of detail is staggering, I zoomed in on a vending machine just to witness intricate detail on a PCB with wires and solder points next to a coin slot when zoomed in. like why even have that amount of detail!?) do you have a gaming PC as well? another option is to play those heavy games on a more powerful PC or when connecting the Steam Deck to a dock. that way you can just add a cheaper SSD. This is what I love with the PC, so many options to tailor a product for your needs. :) there will probably come a nvme usb-c acessory in the future as well 😅
@@PixelShade I do have a separate gaming PC with a gtx 1070. I've also got a GPD Win 1 with an old atom quad core that I use for game streaming from stadia or geforce now. Point is I've got options but still usually prefer to render on the device closest to me unless it's not capable of running the game. Latency and the occasional video artifact mean that will usually be better, unless we're comparing ultra low local to ultra high remote.
Thank you for making this video. This is so expensive still.
Gotta love the breakneck pace at which tech advances, where 1 GB/sec sequential write times on a drive the size of a postage stamp can be called "bleak" haha.
USB 3.0 thumbdrives to this day are still stuck in this balancing act of speed vs turning into a fireball and destroying all your data. There isn't a single one on the market that doesn't speak of dying in 1-2 years. I don't think any of the original models in 2016 are even sold anymore, as they all turned into fireballs or went into "data protection mode" within minutes.
I wouldn't mind a NVME based usb drive that's detuned a bit. They have enclosures, but they run at read speeds of around a GB/min and get screaming hot. I'd be perfectly okay with dropping that rate down to 250 MB or 100 MB/sec and keeping things cooler.
Looks like the perfect fit for a steam deck
Where did you buy it??? I am trying to find pne but I always ended up nothing...
can you shove it on an msATA slot or it should be M.2?
SFF PCs may trade a Wi-Fi card for this thing though.
I thought you said that TLC has a lot more write endurance? I always thought that SLC was the one that has the best write endurance. Of course SLC if you can find it is much more expensive per GB or TB than any other NAND flash memory. SLC is also supposed to be the fastest but because of its significantly higher price you will never see it in any store such as Walmart. People who shop in those places I would not expect to know all of the differences between all of these things, they usually just want the lowest price and are often not concerned about the performance of it. There is a flash memory called Pseudo SLC which is essentially MLC or TLC in SLC mode and I have tried a memory card based on that and it did not once disappoint me. That was just a MicroSD card BTW, I imagine an NVME drive made with that would be fun to try out!! That is when you consider it won't have to run slower due to speed limitations of USB. Pseudo SLC seems to have been developed to give performance more like SLC but without such a high price tag attached to it.
You mentioned that they sell the chip itself to solder to the board. Really, I think that having it be not upgradeable is a horrible idea. I am one of those people who won't buy computer if I suspect that the RAM or storage is soldered into it. I instead would look for teardown vid or set of pics and see for myself if it is upgradeable. Even if there is no room for upgrades, it would still allow replacement of a bad module easily. For example if I had a bad stick of RAM or a bad SSD, I would want to replace those things unless the computer is so old I am better off with a newer one.
if there by a chance I could get CONVERTER for this so I use it as internal ssd please????asap!!!
Got a WD SN530 for the steam deck. I think it's similar to these drives.
Is it still running good? Im also thinking of upgrading to 1tb. I have a 1tb micro and the 512 model but its going to get full soon😅
is this cute bug work in wlan slot? my wifi card is 3165ngw, form factor m2 2230.
where can i get this cheapest and worldwide
Nice review with a great details and useful info. I tried to buy one of these but l can't find it anywhere Amazon, eBay Aliexpress. I believe that getting drugs is easier than finding this ssd.
Reminds me of the drive that is in the Xbox Series X
I'm about to slot one in mine
If only an enclosure could be had for one. I've no knowledge in board design.
How would this perform as an OS drive?
Yes it would work fine as your OS drive! It doesn't have any DRAM, but for most people that isn't too much of a problem.
@@TechteamGB unfortunately the price has increased due to Covid. I hope the Nvidia handheld will increase the demand for the 2230 form factor. My goal is to install this drive into a laptop that has a 2230 as well as a 2280 slot. Do you think we will also get higher capacity 2230 drives soon?
I am only waiting for cheap 16TB m.2 nvme SSDs... ;)
So Good Price 😄😄😄😄😄
Second here
Give it a fortnight before it fails