Lexar NM790 4TB overview: A strong PS5 SSD

Seeking to bump up your storage? The Lexar NM790 4TB would possibly simply be the drive you’re in search of. I examined out the drive on each a PC and PS5.

I beforehand took a take a look at Lexar’s NM790 NVMe SSD earlier this 12 months and thought it was a well-accomplished drive that supplied heaps of efficiency at a aggressive worth. Now kitted out in a 4TB variant with a heatsink, does this new mannequin match as much as my expectations of what’s been examined earlier than, or are there extra kinks to iron out?

The drive includes a DRAM-less design, which may be a dealbreaker for some, as sustained write efficiency can undergo. However, will the NM790 nonetheless make for a wonderful drive, contemplating there’s a much less complicated NAND flash construct concerned, which might prevent some valuable pennies.

Key specs

• Capability: 4TB
• Kind issue: M.2 2280
• Max sequential learn: 7400 MB/s
• Max sequential write: 6500 MB/s
• Guarantee: 5 years
• Value: £219.99

Design

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Kicking off with the precise bodily design of the Lexar NM790 4TB, the PCI4x4 NVMe SSD sports activities a utilitarian look, with a blocky heatsink masking the PCB of the SSD. This appears slick and would possibly provide sufficient cooling efficiency for the drive whereas it’s being harassed underneath load.

The SSD additionally sports activities a DRAM-less design. What this successfully means is that it’ll function at a decrease wattage, along with ending up being a bit less complicated to assemble than the likes of drives just like the Samsung 990 Professional. The draw back is that writing caches on to the flash can improve the damage and tear of the system.

The NM790 seeks to as a substitute use an HMB to put in writing DRAM instantly onto your system, with an SLC cache. The drive can be rated for as much as a complete of 3000 TBW, so the drive will doubtless have a protracted life, even if you’re an influence person.

The system snugly slots right into a PS5’s SSD slot, which means that if you happen to’re in search of a drive that may carry out within Sony’s newest console, then this heatsink-equipped design also needs to do sufficient to chill the drive down when enclosed in Sony’s SSD coffin, which by some means has no airflow operating over it in any respect. Perhaps one thing to repair for subsequent time, Sony?

Efficiency

As a PCIe Gen 4 drive, the NM790 4TB will provide super-fast speeds with out breaking the financial institution, as some Gen 5 drives do. With so many units now supporting the Gen 4 slot, drives are quicker and extra inexpensive than ever earlier than. Lexar charges the NM790 4TB for as much as 7400 MB/s reads, and 6500 MB/s reads, so we put the drive to the take a look at in CrystalDiskMark.

CrystalDiskMark outcomes

• Max sequential learn: 7064 MB/s
• Max sequential write: 6500 MB/s

Curiously, on this artificial efficiency take a look at, the drive solely managed to achieve a most of 7064 MB/s reads, which is barely lower than what’s listed on the field. After some retesting, we got here up with related outcomes. This finally ends up being barely disappointing, as lacking out on round 400 MB/s of learn speeds just isn’t an insignificant quantity. Nevertheless, write speeds to the system carried out admirably, maxing out the SSD’s score general.

Actual-world utilization

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Monitoring the drive by HWInfo exhibits us that the SSD manages to carry out nicely, attaining round 7110 MB/s learn fee, whereas the write fee exceeds synthetics at 6526 MB/s, which is spectacular. When slotting the drive right into a PS5, there have been no points relating to fitment or compatibility with the console, which signifies that it’s very a lot a set-and-forget drive, if you happen to’re simply trying to improve your console.

Thermals

Close to thermals, we set the SSD to switch over a big Steam recreation set up of Baldur’s Gate 3, which was accomplished in simply over a minute, which isn’t any small feat for a title that finally ends up being over 100GB. I noticed that the drive’s thermals spiked to round 56 levels celsius, which is greater than secure for operation.

In a extra taxing load, the place I transferred over 300 GB of knowledge by copying my Steam folder over, the drive did spike to round 69 levels celsius, which is simply inside secure operation ranges, and inside spec for the drive, in addition.

Sustained writes

With the NM790’s SLC cache, you need to have ample room to hit these most switch speeds pretty frequently. Simply remember that the drive’s efficiency can drop off of a cliff when you give it a sufficiently big sustained write. I did this when making an attempt to clone from one other drive in Macrium, the place I noticed that speeds plummeted after round 700 GB had been transferred. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever have to do that except you clone a drive or make huge file transfers.

Must you purchase it?

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The Lexar NM790 4TB SSD is a no-frills affair. It affords stage of efficiency at a aggressive worth level, and whereas it does have some weaknesses. However, its funds worth level makes it probably the most compelling choices on the market, particularly for these trying to slot the drive right into a PS5.

The decision: 4/5

The Lexar NM790 solely ever falters relating to sustained write speeds. Whereas it doesn’t have additions like {hardware} encryption and a DRAM-less design, it needs to be ok for most individuals to pop into their PCs or PlayStation 5 consoles with out having to suppose an excessive amount of bout the general tech specs of the drive itself.

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