Lexar has been making flash storage since 1996 – in reality, their ‘JumpDrive’ USB sticks had been synonymous with the format for a decade or extra – however over the previous few years they’ve switched to producing high-end NVMe SSDs, together with our present greatest low-cost PCIe 4.0 SSD choose: the Lexar NM790.
Immediately you’ll be able to choose up the huge 4TB measurement of this high-end PCIe 4.0 SSD for simply £170.97, a pleasant low cost from the next-best worth (Amazon, £187) and a sizeable departure from its unique UK RRP (£199) by utilizing code TECHDEAL10 on the checkout.
This drive is one which we have advisable fairly just a few occasions up to now, so let’s let {hardware} massive egg James do the honours this time round. He calls the NM790 “certainly inexpensive”, whereas praising it for “delivering efficiency near that of high-end PCIe 4.0 fashions just like the WD Black SN850X”. That is our prime PCIe 4.0 choose general, and for context it prices a mighty £310 in its 4TB incarnation!
The NM790 is rated for sequential speeds of 7400MB/s and 6900MB/s for reads and writes respectively, whereas random I/O efficiency can be spectacular at 1.0M IOPS reads and 0.9M IOPS writes. That is among the many very quickest speeds we have seen on this class, solely actually coming behind the perfect drives just like the aforementioned SN 850x or Samsung’s 990 Professional.
The distinction between the NM790 and people drives is sort of minor – each use TLC NAND reminiscence with fashionable PCIe 4.0 controllers, however the WD and Samsung drives use DDR4 DRAM as an opportunity, whereas the NM790 depends on the host laptop’s reminiscence as a substitute (a expertise referred to as HMB). This makes sustained efficiency higher on these DRAM-equipped drives, however for normal on a regular basis use you are unlikely to search out any efficiency deficit by going with this drive – even in the event you use it as your main OS or sport storage drive. The one actual factor I would advocate a DRAM-equipped drive for is sustained write eventualities, eg capturing 4K 60fps video footage repeatedly.
Total then, the NM790 is an superior worth on this measurement and capability, and I am truly fairly tempted to select one up provided that I paid greater than this for a 4TB SATA drive only a 12 months or so in the past. Nonetheless, with Amazon Prime Day 2: Electrical Boogaloo on the Horizon, maybe it is higher to attend to see if even crazier offers are unfurled..?
