Kioxia Exceria 960 GB SATA3 SSD review - Introduction

Kioxia Exceria 960 GB SATA3 SSD review
Easy drop-in storage at an affordable price, but is it worth it?

We have another Exceria review for you today. Meet the Exceria 960 GB SATA3 from Kioxia (formerly Toshiba memory). A nice and fast storage solution based on that now-aging SATA3 interface. Kioxia is offering the Exceria series that will become available as a quick upgrade solution in the form of this 2.5" SSD, then a mainstream solution in the Exceria range and then an enthusiast solution called Exceria Plus. We'll test all models in standalone reviews, this round the SATA3 model. Based on the latest 96-Layer 3D NAND, which is written as TLC (Triple level cell). For our tested 960GB variant, the manufacturer specifies a lifespan of 400 TBW  (total bytes written) and a proper 5-year warranty (whichever once comes first). We've spotted out tested 960 GB model here in the Netherlands already for 108 EUR so that €0,11 per GB with a 240TB endurance rating and a three-year warranty.

• Max Sequential Read - Up to 555 MBps
• Max Sequential Write - Up to 540 MBps
• 4KB Random Read - Up to 71 IOPS
• 4KB Random Write - Up to 88 IOPS
• Endurance (TBW) up to 240 TBW (960GB model)

Let's chart up the biggest key factors of the SSD

Type	Solid State Drive(SSD)
Form factor	2.5"
Controller	Toshiba/Kioxia
Interface	SATA3
Read	555 MB/s
Write	540 MB/s
IOPS 4K read/Write	71k/88k
Memory modules	3D-NAND TLC, 96 Layer (BiCS5)
TBW	0.24 PB
Reliability prediction	1.5 Mio. hours (MTBF)
Cache	1GB (DDR4), SLC-Cache

We say it all the time, the performance numbers of a proper SATA3 SSD offers these days are simply excellent, but with the more niche NVMe SSDs you can easily quadruple performance, which offers serious numbers. But as easy add-in storage for say your games or a normal to high-end PC, this is totally fine.