The realm of laptop storage is witnessing a major transformation with the appearance of PCIe 4.0, a know-how that was first embraced with the Eleventh-Gen intel processor, Ryzen 3000 processor, and gaming consoles just like the PlayStation 5. Nonetheless, the technological panorama is ever-evolving, and the following milestone is PCIe 5.0. This new era of storage know-how guarantees staggering speeds, surpassing the capabilities of its predecessor. One instance and the one we will likely be reviewing is TeamGroup’s T-Drive Cardea Z540 SSD, with an M.2 2280 type issue and utilizing the PCI-Categorical 5.0 x4 interface connection and helps the most recent NVMe 2.0 protocol, it boasts learn and write speeds of 12,400 MB/s and 11,800 MB/s, respectively.
But, with nice velocity comes nice duty, significantly in warmth administration. Players and tech lovers are acutely conscious that the elevated efficiency of PCIe Gen 5 SSDs usually results in vital warmth era. It is a problem that can’t be understated, as typical graphene thermal options might fall in need of successfully managing this warmth. Recognizing this predominant subject, the TeamGroup’s T-Drive additionally has a separate twin cooler heatsink, the T-Drive Darkish Airflow 1 SSD Cooler, complemented by a small fan designed to effectively dissipate warmth, sustaining SSD’s temperature inside optimum ranges and reaching the anticipated velocity efficiency.
The T-Drive Cardea Z540 SSD is priced at $259 for 2TB, and $149 for 1TB. It additionally comes with a 5-year guarantee and has an endurance of 700 TBW, and 1,400 TBW for 1TB, and 2TB, respectively. However, the T-Drive Darkish Airflow 1 SSD Cooler just isn’t but obtainable to the general public.
On this evaluate, we’ll delve into the capabilities of the T-Drive Cardea Z540 SSD, specializing in the 2TB variant. Our purpose is to totally consider whether or not this SSD can ship on its efficiency guarantees whereas sustaining clean operation with none hiccups. Moreover, we may also conduct assessments with out the extra heatsink to find out if the SSD can nonetheless carry out reliably below these situations.
Specification
Interface | PCIe Gen 5 x 4 with NVMe |
DRAM Cache | LPDDR4 (4GB) |
Voltage | DC +3.3V |
Operation Temperature | 0°C to 70°C |
Storage Temperature | 40°C to 85°C |
Sequential Pace Write | 2TB Learn/Write: As much as 12,400/11,800 MB/s |
IOPS | 2TB Learn/Write: As much as 1400K/1500K IOPS Max |
Weights | 13g |
Dimensions | 80 x 22 x 3.7mm (LWH) |
Vibration | 80Hz to 2,000Hz/20G |
Shock | 1,500G/0.5ms |
MTBF | 1,700,000 Hours |
Packaging
To start our evaluation of the T-Drive Cardea Z540 SSD, we’ll first give attention to the packaging. Our evaluate unit arrived in two separate packages, one containing the SSD and the opposite housing the T-Drive Darkish Airflow 1 SSD Cooler. The packaging of the Z540 SSD itself adheres to the distinct Crimson and Black theme that’s per T-Drive’s gaming product line. The entrance of the field options important info just like the visible picture of the SSD, complemented by the presence of a patent seal and the storage capability.
Turning to the again, we discover extra detailed specs together with the anticipated efficiency velocity, the 5-year guarantee, and the Operation temperature which is 0 ºC to 70 ºC. There’s additionally a cut-out gap that permits you to peak the precise SSD.
Inside, the SSD itself is neatly housed in a plastic container, a typical packaging alternative for T-Drive merchandise. Adjoining to the SSD, there’s a clean house within the packaging which is a fairly widespread characteristic in TeamGroup’s packaging design, usually seen of their product vary, and serves as a standardized ingredient, though it’s not used for added elements on this particular mannequin.
Included inside the T-Drive Cardea Z540 SSD packaging is a graphene thermal sticker, an important ingredient for efficient warmth administration. Apparently, this thermal sticker just isn’t pre-installed on the SSD which additionally signifies that the appliance of the thermal sticker is left to the person’s discretion and isn’t a compulsory step tied to the product’s guarantee.
Shifting to the packaging of the T-Drive Darkish Airflow 1 SSD Cooler, it’s offered in a cardboard field, sustaining the signature Crimson and Black theme. The heatsink, named ‘AF1’, sounds generic and will function a common thermal resolution, probably appropriate with a variety of SSD fashions within the T-Drive lineup.
On the again, there are detailed specs, significantly specializing in the scale and dimensions of the heatsink. Essential particulars for customers to find out if the heatsink will match accurately of their system, particularly in relation to their CPU cooler.
Upon opening the field, you might be offered with a number of objects important for organising your SSD with the heatsink.
Included within the bundle is a screw, particularly designed for eradicating the quilt of your SSD slot, facilitating a smoother set up course of.
Essential to the performance of the heatsink are the 2 thermal pads. These pads play an important position in sandwiching the SSD inside the heatsink. For optimum thermal administration, it’s required to place these pads on each the back and front of the SSD making certain efficient warmth dissipation and maximizing the cooling effectivity.
It additionally comes with further SSD screws in case your motherboard doesn’t include an easy-snap SSD.
The T-Drive 5Z40
Shifting on to the SSD itself, the again contains a label in black and white, detailing the product specs. Apparently, the SSD just isn’t single-sided as there are elements on the again as effectively.
The absence of a pre-installed thermal sticker permits for an unobstructed view of those elements, which we’ll discover in additional element within the subsequent part of our article.
Making use of the graphene thermal sticker enhances the SSD’s aesthetic attraction. It contains a modern black matte end with placing gold copper textual content, including a contact of class to its design.
The T-Drive Darkish Airflow 1 SSD Cooler is provided with a single fan, consisting of 9 copper blades that play an important position in cooling the heatsink’s two particular person tube traces.
On the alternative facet, there isn’t a fan, which is deliberately designed for the outflow of air from the fan.
Trying on the prime of the heatsink, the T-Drive emblem is prominently displayed, alongside a superbly crafted design that includes 4 tube pipe ends. This design not solely aids in environment friendly cooling but additionally provides a visible attraction to the heatsink. The wire connection is conveniently made for CPU traces.
The underside a part of the heatsink homes the quilt, which must be unscrewed to put in the SSD. This cowl additionally performs a job in securing the SSD, sandwiching it between the 2 thermal pads talked about earlier. A possible concern arises when re-screwing the quilt, as there’s a threat of by chance hitting the SSD elements if not finished rigorously. A suggestion for T-Drive could possibly be to incorporate a reminder or guideline for customers to train warning whereas securing the quilt.
Upon eradicating the quilt, we get a better take a look at the 2 particular person pipes and the copper elements, that are essential for absorbing warmth from the SSD. This intricate design highlights the cautious consideration given to each performance and aesthetics within the heatsink’s building.
Options or Elements
As for the options, we’ll talk about right here the elements that energy the T-Drive Cardea Z540 SSD, specializing in its technical capabilities and digital structure.
The T-Drive Cardea Z540 is powered with the Phison PS5026-E26-52 SSD controller. This controller is constructed on a 12nm course of and is an ARM 32-bit Cortex-R5 processor, that includes 5 cores that’s accountable for the next-gen velocity. A major side of this controller is its inclusion of a DRAM Cache. Which means that the Z540 just isn’t a DRAMless SSD, the DRAM Cache makes use of the SK hynix (H9HCNNNCPUMLXR-NEE), a famend producer within the reminiscence chip trade. This chip gives 4GB of LPDDR4-4266MHz cache DRAM Reminiscence that gives substantial buffer for knowledge processing and excessive frequency to deal with massive volumes of information shortly and efficientlly. Relating to the ability management of the SSD, it makes use of the Phison PS6121-45 (UG2324C2 QTP96). Nonetheless, detailed details about this particular energy controller just isn’t available.
The storage functionality of this machine is powered by chips from Micron, particularly the 3PC2D NY181 (511-230823086) mannequin, which is a 232-Layer TLC NAND. In our check unit, there are 4 such chips, collectively offering a complete storage capability of two,000GB.
On the reverse facet, there are two extra chips, an identical to those talked about.
On one other nook of the SSD’s bottom, there are extra chips. Whereas these won’t seem significantly particular, they’re important digital elements that contribute to the general performance of the SSD.
Efficiency
To guage the efficiency of this SSD, we’ll topic it to a sequence of benchmark assessments utilizing our lineup of benchmarking applications. This may assist us decide whether or not the SSD lives as much as its guarantees and establish any potential issues which will come up. Initially, we’ll check the SSD with out the put in heatsink fan to evaluate its dealing with and thermal efficiency on this baseline situation. Ought to the SSD wrestle or fail on this situation, we’ll forego additional assessments with out the heatsink and as a substitute focus our benchmarking efforts on the SSD with the heatsink put in. Under are the main points of the check setup we will likely be utilizing:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12-Core Processor with Inventory Cooler
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE X670 GAMING X AX
- RAM Reminiscence: T-Drive Delta Alpha RGB DDR5-6000 Gaming Reminiscence
- Working System: Home windows 11 Professional
The testing atmosphere is at room temperature of 31°C with out air-con however cooled solely by a normal fan.
With out the T-Drive Darkish Airflow I SSD Cooler
Earlier than commencing our assessments, we’ll test the preliminary temperature of the SSD. As noticed, the beginning temperature is comparatively excessive, standing at 52°C. Nonetheless, this temperature continues to be inside the operational limits for this SSD, which vary from 0°C to 70°C.
Throughout our testing with Crystal Disk Mark, the SSD initially carried out as anticipated, reaching the anticipated learn and write speeds whereas sustaining a temperature inside operational limits. Nonetheless, in subsequent assessments, the temperature of the SSD started to rise considerably, finally exceeding the protected operational threshold of 70°C. This extreme warmth led to a noticeable drop in efficiency. To forestall potential harm to the SSD, we abruptly halted the benchmarking course of.
This subject of overheating below heavy hundreds just isn’t distinctive to the T-Drive Cardea Z540 SSD alone; it’s a standard downside amongst many PCIe 5 SSDs. In our assessments with out the heatsink, it struggled to handle warmth successfully, with temperatures hovering as excessive as 83°C. This clearly signifies that the SSD just isn’t geared up to deal with intense workloads with out sufficient cooling. Due to this fact, in case you are contemplating buying the T-Drive Cardea Z540 SSD PCIe 5.0, it’s extremely advisable to go for the model bundled with the heatsink. This extra cooling resolution is crucial to make sure steady efficiency and to forestall overheating throughout demanding duties.
Nonetheless, it’s noteworthy that below regular workload situations, the T-Drive Cardea Z540 SSD maintains a way more steady temperature vary. The SSD operates between 52°C to 60°C, which is effectively inside the protected operational limits.
With Combo T-Drive Darkish Airflow I SSD Cooler
After making use of the T-Drive Darkish Airflow I SSD Cooler heatsink, the preliminary temperature started to point out its magic, the preliminary temperature is at 37°C.
CrystalDiskMark Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark is a widely known benchmarking device used for testing the efficiency of solid-state drives (SSDs) and onerous disk drives (HDDs). Famend for its simplicity and accuracy, this device measures the sequential and random learn/write speeds of the storage machine. It’s also generally used because the benchmarking rating for a lot of the manufacturer-rated velocity.
The SSD confirmed exceptional efficiency throughout a variety of duties. For sequential reads and writes for big information (1MB at queue depth 8 and thread depend 1), it achieved learn speeds of 12,378.19 MB/s and write speeds of 11,820.96 MB/s. This efficiency was constant for sequential operations with reasonably massive information (128KB at queue depth 32 and thread depend 1), the place it recorded learn speeds of 12,341.10 MB/s and write speeds of 11,822.22 MB/s. Within the random learn/write check with smaller information (4KB) at excessive queue depth (32) and a number of threads (16), it scored 5,229.49 MB/s for learn and three,512.87 MB/s for write, indicating strong efficiency below extra demanding situations. Lastly, within the check simulating typical person situations (random 4KB information at a single queue and thread), it delivered learn and write speeds of 88.92 MB/s and 317.07 MB/s, respectively, showcasing its effectiveness in on a regular basis computing duties.
AS SSD Benchmark
The AS SSD Benchmark is a specialised device designed completely for testing the efficiency of Stable State Drives (SSDs). In contrast to different benchmarking software program that is likely to be appropriate for numerous varieties of storage gadgets, AS SSD Benchmark focuses on the distinctive traits and efficiency metrics pertinent to SSDs. It measures the sequential and random learn/write speeds, in addition to the entry time of the SSD, offering a complete overview of its efficiency.
The AS SSD benchmark revealed the SSD’s efficiency in numerous learn and write situations. For sequential operations, which measure massive file switch speeds, the SSD achieved a learn velocity of 9,169.06 MB/s and a write velocity of 10,055.14 MB/s. Within the 4K check, designed to judge efficiency with small information, it scored 80.37 MB/s for learn and 277.37 MB/s for write. The 4K-64Thrd check, assessing the drive’s capability to deal with a number of small file requests concurrently, yielded learn and write speeds of three,196.77 MB/s and 4,445.68 MB/s, respectively. The SSD additionally demonstrated distinctive entry instances, with 0.014 ms for reads and 0.041 ms for writes. General, the SSD amassed a complete rating of 12,104, with particular person learn and write scores of 4,194 and 5,729, highlighting its sturdy efficiency throughout several types of knowledge operations.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
ATTO Disk Benchmark assess the efficiency of each conventional onerous drives and solid-state drives (SSDs). Its major operate is to measure the information switch charges of storage gadgets throughout numerous file sizes and lengths, offering an in depth efficiency profile.
The SSD demonstrated a progressive enhance in efficiency throughout numerous file sizes. Beginning with a small file measurement of 512 bytes, it achieved a velocity of 15.38 MB/s. Because the file measurement elevated, there was a notable climb in velocity, reaching a major milestone of 1.85 GB/s for 32KB information. The SSD reached its peak efficiency with file sizes of 128 KB for write operations, reaching speeds round 10.97 GB/s, and for learn operations, it peaked at file sizes of two MB, hitting speeds of roughly 11.19 GB/s. Notably, each learn and write speeds stabilized and maintained their most charges at file sizes of two MB, demonstrating the SSD’s capability to deal with bigger knowledge transfers effectively.
3D Mark Benchmark
3D Mark Benchmark is predominantly acknowledged for its strong capabilities in assessing the efficiency of graphics playing cards and gaming PCs. Nonetheless, it additionally consists of assessments that may consider the efficiency of solid-state drives (SSDs) in gaming-related situations. By simulating a variety of demanding gaming environments, 3D Mark gives insights into how effectively a storage machine can deal with the extreme learn and write calls for of recent gaming.
The SSD showcased its capabilities in gaming-related situations. It achieved a mean bandwidth of 773.45 MB/s and a mean entry time of 39 microseconds. When examined with standard video games, the bandwidth diversified: 1,480.03 MB/s for ‘Battlefield V’, 1,105.62 MB/s for ‘Name of Obligation Black Ops 4’, and 649.62 MB/s for ‘Overwatch’, with respective entry instances of 51, 60, and 36 microseconds. The SSD’s efficiency in recording gameplay confirmed a bandwidth of 271.18 MB/s and an entry time of 31 microseconds. For sport set up, it recorded a velocity of 356.54 MB/s and an entry time of 37 microseconds, whereas for saving sport knowledge, it reached 311.41 MB/s with an entry time of 23 microseconds. Remarkably, in shifting sport information, it achieved a excessive velocity of 5,173.69 MB/s with an entry time of fifty microseconds. The entire rating attained in these assessments was 4,560, underscoring the SSD’s effectivity in dealing with numerous gaming-related duties.
PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark
PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark is a complete device designed to judge the general efficiency of a pc’s storage system, together with solid-state drives (SSDs) just like the T-Drive Cardea Z540. In contrast to benchmarks focusing solely on velocity metrics, PCMark 10 assesses how effectively a drive performs in on a regular basis duties. It simulates quite a lot of real-world situations, resembling booting up the working system, launching purposes, and conducting file transfers, to offer a sensible evaluation of the drive’s efficiency in widespread use instances.
The SSD achieved a rating of 4,635, indicating strong total efficiency. It exhibited an total bandwidth of 717.2 MB/s, which demonstrates its effectivity in dealing with knowledge transfers. Moreover, the SSD confirmed an total entry time of simply 35 microseconds, reflecting its fast responsiveness in accessing knowledge.
PCMark 10 Knowledge Drive Benchmark
The PCMark 10 Knowledge Drive Benchmark is a specialised element of the PCMark suite, particularly designed to evaluate the efficiency of secondary storage drives, resembling SSDs used for knowledge storage, just like the T-Drive Cardea Z540. This benchmark focuses on how effectively a drive handles workloads associated to storing and accessing knowledge, quite than the working system or purposes. It simulates numerous real-world duties, together with file saving, modifying, and transferring, to judge the drive’s effectivity and responsiveness in dealing with data-centric operations.
The SSD scored 9,802 with an total bandwidth of 1,374.6 MB/s and 15 microseconds.
PCMark 10 Fast System Drive Benchmark
The PCMark 10 Fast System Drive Benchmark is a streamlined model of the Full System Drive Benchmark, a part of the excellent PCMark 10 suite. It’s designed to shortly assess the efficiency of major storage drives, resembling SSDs, in dealing with widespread system-level duties.
The SSD scored 5,898 with an total bandwidth of 696.9 MB/s and 21 microseconds.
PassMark PerformanceTest Disk Mark
PassMark PerformanceTest Disk Mark is a flexible benchmarking device designed to judge the efficiency of storage gadgets resembling onerous drives, solid-state drives (SSDs), and exterior drives. It gives a complete evaluation of varied features of a drive’s efficiency, together with learn and write speeds, knowledge switch charges, and entry instances.
The SSD achieved an impressive rating of 71,142, which locations it within the 99th percentile in comparison with related gadgets globally, a transparent indication of its superior efficiency. Breaking down the scores, it confirmed spectacular leads to sequential learn and write assessments, with 10,558 MB/s and 10,047 MB/s respectively. For the IOS 32KQD20 check, which measures the enter/output operations per second for 32K blocks at a queue depth of 20, it scored 4,143. Within the IOPS 4KQD1 check, designed to evaluate smaller file operations at a queue depth of 1, the SSD achieved a rating of 131. These outcomes place the SSD considerably larger than the worldwide minimal rating of three and near the utmost of 209,786, highlighting its distinctive efficiency throughout numerous metrics.
Black Magic Design Disk Pace Take a look at
The Black Magic Design Disk Pace Take a look at is a efficiency measurement device particularly tailor-made for video professionals and content material creators. It excels in evaluating the flexibility of storage gadgets like SSDs to deal with high-resolution video information. This benchmark measures the learn and write speeds of drives, such because the T-Drive Cardea Z540 SSD, within the context of video file processing and rendering. It’s significantly beneficial for figuring out whether or not a storage machine can deal with the demanding throughput necessities of duties like modifying 4K or 8K video.
Tailor-made for evaluating efficiency in video-related duties, the SSD displayed spectacular capabilities. It achieved a write velocity of 10,038 MB/s, demonstrating its proficiency in dealing with high-resolution video information, an important side of video manufacturing and content material creation. Moreover, the SSD recorded a learn velocity of seven,536.9 MB/s.
Comparability
To achieve a clearer perspective on the efficiency of the T-Drive Cardea Z540 in comparison with different SSDs we have now evaluated, we invite you to look at the detailed benchmark chart offered under. This chart presents a direct comparability, showcasing how the Z540 measures up towards its rivals throughout a variety of efficiency metrics.