PNY has announced new PCIe 5.0 M.2 NVMe SSDs that strike an interesting balance between speed, reliability, and value. Starting at $100, the PNY CS2150 M.2 SSDs are more affordable than other PCIe 5.0 offerings right now, but will only be available later this month, which we’ll dive into in a moment. While these are not the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSDs on the market, they boast impressive read and write speeds of up to 10,300 MB/s and up to 8,600 MB/s respectively, and come in two storage capacities.
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PNY CS2150 PCIe 5.0 M.2 NVMe SSDs: Specifications and Features
PNY has its CS3150 series of high-performance M.2 2280 PCIe 5.0 SSDs selling across retailers, but as the name may suggest, the CS2150 is more budget-friendly but, interestingly, offers very similar speeds to the CS3150 SSDs. They come in two sizes: 1TB and 2TB, both of which are backed by PNY’s five-year limited warranty. The only difference between the two, besides the capacity, is that the 1TB model is slightly slower.
These do not have heatsinks pre-installed, and there is no version that comes with a heatsink. You will have to step up to the CS3150 series to get a PCIe 5.0 SSD with a heatsink.
Buy the CS3150 1TB PCIe 5.0 SSD at Amazon
Coming to performance, the PNY CS2150 SSDs boast up to 10,300 MB/s read and up to 8,600 MB/s write speeds for the 2TB model and up to 10,200 MB/s read and 8,300 MB/s write for the 1TB model. As mentioned earlier, this is comparable to the more expensive CS3150 series, which is capable of up to 11,500 MB/s read and up to 8,500 MB/s write speeds. For reference, the PCIe 5.0 standard is capable of much higher read and write speeds, as offered by the MSI SPATIUM M580 PCIe 5.0 FROZR 2TB drive, which clocks in with up to 14,600 MB/s read and up to 12,700 MB/s write speeds. Of course, it costs a lot more as well, at over $300, typically.
Buy MSI SPATIUM M580 PCIe 5.0 FROZR on Newegg for $50 Off
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The CS2150 drives use 3D NAND Flash and have all the major certifications, including BSMI, CE, FCC, KCC, REACH, RoHS, and VCCI. They are highly durable with an MTBF or Mean Time Before Failure of 1,500,000. They also have ECC or Error Correcting Code in the form of LDPC or Low Density Parity Check, a form of code used for transmitted data that is subject to errors before reception.
Along with error correction, the CS2150 SSDs also have S.M.A.R.T or Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology, which detects and reports on the status of the drive, including reliability and possible imminent failures. On top of that, the data is protected by TCG OPAL 2.0, an integrated encryption for improved security with minimal performance impact.
PNY CS2150 PCIe 5.0 M.2 NVMe SSDs: Price and Availability
This offering from PNY undercuts the Corsair MP700 Elite SSDs that were launched early last month. The MP700 Elite SSDs offer the same speeds as the PNY CS2150s, but start at $145 (though they are currently out of stock).
The 1TB model of the PNY CS2150 is priced at just $100, making it one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs on the market. The 2TB model is priced at $179 and, according to PNY, these SSDs will go on sale via Amazon and other retailers later this month. The Amazon listings are already live for the two drives, but the shipping estimates are for mid-January next year.
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