Lexar NM610 M.2 2280 NVME SSD Review

A Closer Look

PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe ––The upgrade that puts in 3.5x the work

Move beyond the pace of a SATA SSD’s with an upgrade to the Lexar NM610 and get 3.5x the speed of SATA-based SSD (3). With PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe 1.3 standard, and speeds up to 2100MB/s read and 1600MB/s write, you will feel the improved performance from boot ups, software load times, and transfers giving you maximum efficiency without the constant slowdowns. The NM610 is built with 3D NAND flash inside.

Ideal for PC enthusiast

With sequential read speeds of up to 2100MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 1600MB/s (1), you’ll enjoy better all-around performance for your PC. That’s faster boot-ups, data transfers and application load times compared to a SATA SSD.

Built to last

Unlike traditional hard disk drives, the NM610 SSD has no moving parts, so it’s less likely to fail. On top of that, it’s also shock and vibration resistant, making it one robust and reliable SSD.

Efficient

Reduced power consumption and cooler operation makes the battery life last longer than an HDD.

Now that we have seen the NM610 M.2 2280 up close, let us see the results from testing!

Test Setup

Testing was accomplished on a blank formatted SSD. The drive used in our tests was first securely erased via software provided by their respective manufacturer and then updated to their latest firmware. I also used the x4 setting in the bios to see maximum potential. Our test setup consists of the following hardware:

Performance

Just as a quick reminder of the advertised specifications from Lexar. Sequential read 2100 MB/s and sequential write 1600 MB/s.

ATTO Disk Benchmark v4.01

The ATTO Disk Benchmark application was designed to measure your storage systems performance with transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and write speeds. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. You can test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives.

ATTO Disk Benchmark Features:

• Transfer sizes from 512KB to 8MB
• Transfer lengths from 64KB to 2GB
• Support for overlapped I/O Supports a variety of queue depths
• I/O comparisons with various test patterns
• Timed mode allows continuous testing
• Non-destructive performance measurement on formatted drives.

Results: Max Sequential read 1930 MB/s and sequential write 1590 MB/s

Very close to advertised speeds.

Crystal Disk Mark 7.0

CrystalDiskMark is designed to quickly test the performance of your hard drives. Currently, the program allows to measure sequential and random read/write speeds.

CrystalDiskMark Features:

• Measure sequential reads/writes speed
• Measure random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed
• Select test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill)
• Theme support
• Multi-Language support

Results: Max Sequential read 2086 MB/s and sequential write 1667 MB/s

Right at the advertised speeds!

PCMark 10 Results with real-world relevance

• PCMark 10 Storage Benchmarks produce an overall score as a measure of drive performance. Comparing devices is as simple as comparing scores. The tests also measure and report the bandwidth and average access time performance for the drive.
• Each test uses traces recorded while performing real-world tasks such as booting Windows 10, starting applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, working with applications such as Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, and copying several large files and many small files.
• Unlike other synthetic storage tests, this focus on real-world activities enables PCMark 10 to show meaningful differences between the latest, high-performance storage technologies.
• PCMark 10 Storage Benchmarks help professional users relate manufacturers’ technical specifications to practical real-world performance with tests that are easy to set up and run.
• You can compare up to four results in the PCMark 10 app, or export your results to Microsoft Excel for more detailed analysis.

The Quick System Drive Benchmark is a shorter test with a smaller set of less demanding real-world traces. You can use this benchmark to test smaller system drives that are unable to run the Full System Drive benchmark.

The Data Drive Benchmark is designed to test drives that are used for storing files rather than applications. You can also use this test with NAS drives, USB sticks, memory cards, and other external storage devices.

There we have it! The NM610 M.2 2280 brought to us by Lexar! Let us cover a few final thoughts and conclusion of our review.