INTRODUCTION
In 2020 a proper Solid State Drive as the main boot drive is a must have. Even if you’re on a super tight budget there are still amazing opportunities on the market to enhance your daily experience using your PC. With a SSD and in particular with M2 NVMe drives you will see massive improvements in loading times, overall snappiness ad better overall usability.
Usually a SSD and HDD combination is recommended but for better speeds and to reduce the occupied space to the minimum you can also use only M2 SSDs.
UNBOXING AND FIRST LOOK
Usually high capacity M2 NVMe SSDs come at a high price, but some brands are less expensive than others and still offer great performances.
Today we have in the office the Emtec X300 Power PRO M2 NVMe 1Tb SSD for some testing. Out of the box it offers read and write speeds up to 2000MB/s, but will these speeds be reflected in the data from our testing? Let’s find out!
The SSD comes in a small box with a cardboard blister and an anti-static bag with the SSD in it. This package is more than enough to provide the SSD support, stability and damage protection.
| Interface | NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 x 4 |
| Warranty | 5 years |
| Dimensions | 123,82mm x 48,61mm x 10,24mm |
| Life expectancy | 2 million hours |
| Memory management | ECC, Static and dynamic wear leveling Bad block / TRIM / SMART / Over-Provision |
| Form factor | M.2 2280 80mm (L) x 22mm  x 2mm (H) |
The SSD is as expected, there’s a thermal sticker on top of it that’s not to be removed in case you’re using it with an external heat-sink like we did. You just have to apply the thermal pad on top of it and apply the cooler if it’s the case. There’s no need for extra cooling as the SSD stays cool enough at around 45° – 50° C during normal use and stress (Temperatures has been taken in an optimal airflow scenario).
TESTING
In order to test the modules we used the following applications: ATTO Disk Benchmark, Crystal DiskMark, Aja System Test and HD Tune Pro.
To test this drive properly we used our workstation so performances related to cooling should be in line with every used with an optimal cooling configuration. The test system has the following specifications:
– CPU – AMD Ryzen 3900X
– RAM – Hyper X Predator RGB 3600Mhz
– Motherboard – Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Impact
– Video card – EVGA RTX 2070
– Power Supply – BeQuiet SFX L Power 500W
For detailed test results refer to the images below.
Analyzing the results we can clearly see that the data not only respects the expected read and write and read speeds but easily go over them reaching speeds up to 3 GB/s. Different tests reflect slightly different results, that’s why we always test with multiple benchmarks to have a more objective idea on the product.
With Aja System Test and HD Tune Pro we measure the consistency in write and read. In both tests the drive manages to keep very consistent speeds during the whole runs. Both tests were more likely to a real use scenario so we were very happy to see how the product performed here.
CONCLUSIONS
Considering what we stated with our tests we can say that the Emtec X300 Power PRO M2 NVMe 1Tb SSD is a very interesting product. In addition Emtec ensures a 5 years warranty for the SSD and that’s a very big plus. We did a quick research through the leading vendors’ websites and the price point for this SSD is set at around 150 euros if you’re in Europe and 150 dollars if you’re in the USA. That’s in line with other products with similar performances so 10 euros less would be appreciated in order to justify the buying. By the way the performances speak for themselves and if you’re looking forward to buy a high capacity M2 NVMe SSD the Emtec X300 Power PRO would be a solid choice.
Read more about the Emtec X300 Power PRO M2 NVMe 1Tb SSD:
http://www.emtec-international.com/en/ssd/internal/x300-m2-ssd-power-pro
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