SK Hynix Platinum P41 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD Review - Introduction

SK Hynix Platinum P41 2 TB M.2 NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 4.0)
Breaching 7 GB/sec and exceptional access times

We take a look at the SK Hynix Platinum P41 M.2 NVMe SSD, dubbed to be one of the fastest SSDs we've tested in terms of access times and throughput. This unit, which comes with its own NAND and PCIe Gen 4.0 controller, provides proper endurance levels as well as PCIe 4.0 performance levels exceeding 7 GB/sec. You'd think premium prices here, but the P41 is a low-cost drive at 13 cents per GB for the 2 TB model. With capacities up to 2TB and an ACNS075 PHC631.00S-1 controller, it's also developed with power efficiency and steady performance in mind.

Onboard you'll spot 176-layer TLC NAND with SK Hynix's "Aries" controller. The P41's controller details are scarce, but this seems to be a 4-channel architecture, quite similar to the P31. A DDR4 DRAM cache is also integrated, with the drive containing 1GB of cache. According to SK Hynix, the Platinum P41 can achieve sequential read rates of up to 7,000 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 6,500 MB/s. Random reads and writes have IOPS ratings of 1,400K and 1,300K, respectively. As mentioned, the P41's NAND density is also significantly higher at an impressive 176 layers. The SK Hynix Platinum P41 has undergone 1,000 hours of high-temperature operational life (HTOL) testing, with an endurance rating that is attractive. The TBW (TeraBytes Written—the total amount of data that a company is willing to guarantee to be written to the SSD) is rated 1200 TBW for the 2 TB model and 750 TBW for the 1 TB model. The performance will vary slightly depending on volume size; the more volume, the faster it is though. The SSD is a Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe 1.4) M.2 2280 form factor SSD. The performance numbers of a proper SATA3 SSD offers these days are simply excellent, but with the more niche NVMe SSDs you can multiply performance 14x, and that offers serious numbers. The unit follows a smaller M.2 2280 form factor (8cm), so it will fit on most ATX motherboards capable of M.2 just fine. The P41 also comes with a customized version of the Macrium cloning software, allowing users to do data transfers and operating system migrations with ease. SK Hynix also included their Easy Kit software, which lets users examine the performance and status of the P41 SSD.

The SK hynix Platinum P41, which comes with a 5-year warranty, costs roughly $105 (500GB), $150 (1TB), and $260. (2TB). For this review, we will focus on the 2TB capacity version. Next page and onwards into the review then.