The PNY CS3150 XLR8 (w/ heatsink) is a solid-state drive in the M.2 2280 form factor, launched on November 14th, 2023. It is available in capacities ranging from 1 TB to 2 TB. This page reports specifications for the 2 TB variant. With the rest of the system, the PNY CS3150 XLR8 (w/ heatsink) interfaces using a PCI-Express 5.0 x4 connection. The SSD controller is the PS5026-E26 from Phison, a DRAM cache chip is available. PNY has installed 232-layer TLC NAND flash on the CS3150 XLR8 (w/ heatsink), the flash chips are made by Micron. To improve write speeds, a pseudo-SLC cache is used, so bursts of incoming writes are soaked up more quickly. The cache is sized at 205 GB, once it is full, writes complete at 3300 MB/s. Copying data out of the SLC cache (folding) completes at 1000 MB/s. Thanks to support for the fast PCI-Express 5.0 interface, performance is excellent. The CS3150 XLR8 (w/ heatsink) is rated for sequential read speeds of up to 12,000 MB/s and 11,000 MB/s write.
At its launch, the SSD was priced at 300 USD. The warranty length is set to five years, which is an excellent warranty period. PNY guarantees an endurance rating of 1400 TBW, a typical value for consumer SSDs.