The world of SSDs is becoming wider and more affordable for everyone, with different cutting models, sizes, speeds and costs, in order to be able to satisfy any type of user. Lately, M.2 SSDs with NVMe interfaces are becoming increasingly popular. These particular units will interface in a 4-line PCI Express slot dedicated exclusively to them, in order to reach read and write speeds that we would hardly have with the classic Sata interface. Over time, even these particular SSDs have begun to have prices increasingly accessible to everyone, with increasing competition. Among the various brands that produce M.2 SSDs there is also Transcend, a company mainly active in the production of all kinds of memories, but also in multimedia devices and video cameras. Today we are here to tell you about 220S, PCIe SSD with NVME interface and 512GB capacity.
The Taiwanese company with this SSD aims to conquer all users, professionals and not, who have to process extremely heavy files: video and audio makers are the perfect target for this product. Given the high speed that this SSD manages to reach, Transcend also winks at all those players who want the best from their machine, without incurring slowdowns during the gaming sections.
Transcend with PCIe SSD 220S used a particular technology for memory modules, called 3D Nand. Unlike 2D NAND memory, the 3D ones have memory cells stacked vertically on multiple levels, so as to offer greater density, therefore a smaller footprint and more storage space, thus being able to reach larger storage sizes in one lower space.
To ensure better endurance and reliability, Transcend's PCIe SSD 220S is was designed using LDPC coding (Low-Density Parity Check), that is a powerful ECC algorithm (the one also used for RAM memories), to protect data. The SSD is also crafted using high quality 3D NAND flash chips, equipped with an engineered dynamic thermal throttling mechanism, in order to guarantee superior resistance and stability, especially during high-end applications that require intense use of the unit.
Transcend PCIe SSD 220S uses the PCI Express standard as its interface, much faster than the SATA 6 Gbps interface. Thanks also to the NVME standard, the SSD is able to reach amazing speeds: up to 2.800 MB / s in writing and 3.500 MB / s in reading. Thanks to these speeds, even the heaviest application will never experience slowdowns.
Transcend for this version of SSD has provided three memory cuts: 1TB. 512GB and 256GB. In terms of reading speed, all three are identical, settling on 3.300 / 3.500 MB / s, while the write rate changes depending on the storage capacity. The 1TB version manages to reach 2.800 MB / s in writing, while the 512 version manages to reach 2.100 MB / s and the 256 one 1.100 MB / s.
The random write speed also differs depending on the model. The 1TB model achieves 360,000 read IOPS and 425,000 write IOPS. The 512GB one is capable of 210,000 / 310,000 IOPS, while the 256GB one achieves 210,000 / 290,000 IOPS. We got our hands on the 512GB version.
The first benchmark we used to test Transcend PCIe SSD 220S performance was CrystalDiks Mark, the most used test in the world to verify the performance of any type of disc. In reading and writing, when using medium-sized files, therefore between 1 and 4 GB, the results perfectly reflect what was declared by the Taiwanese company. While if you use large files, the writing speed drops, halving, while the reading speed remains unchanged.
The second benchmark used was Anvil's Storage Utilities. Here too we find the same situation seen above. With small files the speeds mirror those stated by Transcend, but as the files begin to increase in size, we have a drastic drop in write speed, but they still remain much higher than those of a Sata SSD.
The last benchmark used was ASSD Benchmark. Again with large files we have a drop in write performance. With small files, on the other hand, we have seen speeds, both of writing and of reading, slightly lower both than what Transcend declared and compared to those detected in the other benchmarks.
During our tests, the operating temperature of the Transcend PCIe SSD 220S settled around 51 °, a completely acceptable temperature for such an M.2 SSD.
Transcend PCIe SSD 220S is a PCI Express SSD with M.2 interface with excellent features. It manages to guarantee excellent performance during daily use and in the game phases. If we have to process small files, it manages to guarantee exceptional performance, instead if we have to deal with fairly generous data in terms of GB, the write speed will suffer a significant drop, however remaining well above even the best SSD with interface SATA. The operating temperatures are almost excellent, in fact our sample, after several hours of stress, has practically never exceeded the threshold of 51 °.
If you are looking for a PCIe SSD with M.2 interface that can offer you good performance, with a large storage and above all it does not cost crazy figures, you can buy Transcend PCIe SSD 220S from 512 GB at the price of about 94 €.
