Kioxia Exceria 960 GB SATA3 SSD review - Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

The entire Exceria lineup has been pretty good, that is until we tested the SATA3 model. It's very average for SATA3 standards at best, that is the best description we can give it. Even on SATA3, we see TLC write holes en mediocre write performance under sustained loads. So while you can reach the advertised speeds synthetically tested, the reality simply is different under real-world workloads. And in that scenario, the SSD had a hard time reaching its advertised performance as it runs out of write stamina way too fast. Next to that, the endurance levels are inferior for the small volume size at 60 TBW for the 240 GB model, which I am afraid is the biggest culprit of the SATA3 series, for me the 240GB simply put would be a no-go with that TBW value.

• 240 GB, TBW=60
• 480GB TBW=120
• 960TB , TBW=240

 

Concluding

The Kioxia Exceria SATA3 SSD leaves us with mingled sentiments, simply put it is underwhelming in the year 2020. It offers mediocre performance in its writes, and with the listed values this low we feel that Kioxia is underestimating the endurance levels that an end-users expect before they give you the trust of purchasing such a product. Basically, the 11 cents per GB price is the only thing that this SSD has going for it if you combine it with cold storage needs. But as so often there are products out there from the competition, you can pick up a Crucial BX500 1TB for like 98 EUR. Also, for a few cents per GB more you can purchase an NVMe SSD sweeping the performance and endurance of this SSD. In the end, the Exceria SATA revision makes little sense. The 240GB model with a merely a 60TBW rating is simply-put a no-go, I'd be on the lookout for something else. For the 1 TB model that is better, but even there 240TBW is undoubtedly a timid number. Perhaps if you can spot this series with a dirt-cheap street price you could use it as a cold storage unit for say storage of movies, music, or whatever. I would be comfortable enough with that, but with more extraordinary workloads this is no-Bueno worthy of consideration.

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