SK Hynix Gold P31 1 TB

[W1zzard]

The SK Hynix Gold P31 M.2 NVMe SSD achieves truly impressive performance thanks to its Hynix "Cepheus" controller, which is paired with 128-layer NAND flash. It is the fastest PCIe Gen 3 drive we ever tested, beating even some Gen 4 drives, at a much better price.

Show full review

 

[Anymal]

Well amid gold remark.

 

[Mescalamba]

"SLC cache perhaps a bit small"

Probably only viable negative.

Bigger than 2TB? Even 1TB aint exactly cheap. Altho I think my last SSD was more expensive as 500GB..

Gen.3 PCIE, well.. I dont have even that in my PC. Currently Gen.4 doesnt seem to be present enough to be particularly important, or needed.

Seems as pretty solid piece of HW. Thanks for review.

 

[Blaazen]

Is it available in Europe? It's even listed on amazon.de but can't be shipped to Czech Republic (both are EU).

 

[bug]

Considering PCIe4 is still little more than a gimmick, I would very much like to know why PCIe3-only support is considered a con.

 

[mechtech]

one thing I caught was "512 GB ($75) and 1 TB ($135). Endurance for these models is set to 500 TBW and 750 TBW respectively"

One would have thought the 1TB drive would have been rated closer to 900-1000 TBW.

 

[Space Lynx]

Sabrent Rocket Q at my local store for $99 1tb still seems like the best offer I can find... I think I may go with that and throw it in my gtx 1070 laptop after all. meh.

 

[maxfly]

Finally a proper replacement for the 8200pro.
Thanks for the review!

 

[R0H1T]

All things considered there is no better PCIe 3.0 drive out there!

Too bad they don't actually sell it outside the US, Japan?

 

[Chrispy_]

Did Intel's NAND controller/firmware team move to SK Hynix when Intel sold the business?
Given the results here it's looking like a bit of the old Intel magic is back. That team, with the in-house controller and firmware of the X25-M are responsible for making SSDs a thing, IMO

 

[Raven Rampkin]

Is it available in Europe? It's even listed on amazon.de but can't be shipped to Czech Republic (both are EU).

No and to my knowledge, has never been. The German listing is a US import most likely (or a third party seller).

 

[Hugis]

As i few have pointed out, shame its not readily available, would like to get my mits on one....

 

[Tomorrow]

Considering PCIe4 is still little more than a gimmick, I would very much like to know why PCIe3-only support is considered a con.

Is that not always the case? When a newer standard is present then launching a new product that uses the old standard is always considered a con. For example if a new high end monitor launches with HDMI 2.0b vs HDMI 2.1 while not limiting the performance, then the lack of 2.1 support would still be considered a con.

Basicly what i am personally lamenting is that someone went trough the trouble designing, producing, assembling, testing and marketing/selling the product based on old technology despite the fact that newer standard is available.

Dont get me wrong. This review is great and i think there is still place on the market for good Gen3 drives. However i can also understand why saying the lack of Gen4 support is a con.

 

[bug]

Is that not always the case? When a newer standard is present then launching a new product that uses the old standard is always considered a con.

Sure, if all you can offer is a knee-jerk reaction.

For example if a new high end monitor launches with HDMI 2.0b vs HDMI 2.1 while not limiting the performance, then the lack of 2.1 support would still be considered a con.

That's totally different. HDMI 2.1 does offer tangible improvements over 2.0b. Incidentally both HDMI 2.1 and PCIe4 offer more bandwidth. But where HDMI 2.0b is actually limiting the support for high-resolutions and high-refresh, PCIe3 already offers enough bandwidth that PCIe4's addition barely makes a difference. As proven by this very drive, PCIe4 with a crappy controller can actually be slower than PCIe3 with a good controller.

Personally, I would list PCIe4 as a pro and leave that out in case of PCIe3.

 

[Mussels]

I wanted to make a joke about it being 'gold' but being shit... but turns out its a pretty solid drive

 

[Mescalamba]

Probably taken from

one thing I caught was "512 GB ($75) and 1 TB ($135). Endurance for these models is set to 500 TBW and 750 TBW respectively"

One would have thought the 1TB drive would have been rated closer to 900-1000 TBW.

They can last longer, unless it has built in counter which shuts it down after reaching that.

Also its reason why server class has stuff like 3x full HDD rewrite per day. (in regular ppl speech, there is acronym for that ofc)

 

[AKBrian]

Small error in the conclusion section - largest available size is listed as 2TB, this should read 1TB. If there were a 2TB version, I would have bought one a long time ago.

They're fantastic drives.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

1TB for less than $150? =O

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Sabrent Rocket Q at my local store for $99 1tb still seems like the best offer I can find... I think I may go with that and throw it in my gtx 1070 laptop after all. meh.

You should get the p31 for a laptop. It's idle and load power usage are dramatically lower then any other nvme drive.

 

[Raven Rampkin]

^To the convo above.
Sabrents... Hynixes... meanwhile all we have is subpar vendors with controller and NAND lottery that or, living with a single kidney as decent drives cost decent money. Haven't seen a bargain in ages.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

@W1zzard , may I suggest color coding these SSD charts to distinguish SATA, PCI-e3 and PCI-e4?