Team Group T-FORCE CARDEA M.2 480GB SSD Review - Product Showcase

Product Showcase

The following images were taken at high-resolution and then cropped and scaled down. The camera used was a Canon DSLR shooting 24 MegaPixel photos. Right then, off we go.
 

The sample we have at hand is the 480 GB M.2 model. Performance is listed as 2,650 MB/s for reads and 1,450 MB/sec for writes with roughly 150 IOPS at 4k random writes QD32 aligned disk access with our tested model. 
 

 
Above, the tested unit; you should easily be able to place the M.2 unit into a compatible motherboard. Most Z97/X99/Z170/Z270 and AMD B350/X370 motherboards support it. You should however check out with the motherboard manufacturer if you have a x4 lane PCIe version with NVMe support.

The compact M.2 2280 (2280 = 80 mm) form factor ensures compatibility with next-generation desktop and mobile platforms that support the M.2 PCIe slot and interface. 
  

 
With the heatsink removed we see the top of the SSD, it holds two NAND chips on the top side, two on the back, a DRAM cache chip and the Phison controller.
  

 
The PCB reveals a hard to read but uses a Phison Series 5000  likely E7 NVMe controller. The one supports 15 nm SLC/MLC/TLC as well as the latest 3D (vertically stacked) NAND. These controllers support up to 2 Terabytes today and will expand to 4 Terabytes in the coming future as well as supporting NVMe L1 sub-state with less than 5 mW in L1.2 low power mode. The 480 GB configuration uses a 1,024 MB DRAM buffer that the company deploys in a single package from Nanya.
  

 
It's a bit washed out but that reads TA. It is a Toshiba 15nm MLC NAND flash memory. You'll find four flash NAND packages, two on each side of the PCB. Perhaps in the future a 1 TB version will be launched as the backside of the PCB reveals an empty SMT trace for another DRAM chip.