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  • TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Looks like a fantastic laptop drive.

    Now, if only we could get some nice 4800/4850U laptops to go with it.
  • Walkeer - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link

    there is one: schenker via 15 pro / tuxedo: https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Linux-Hardware/...
  • TheinsanegamerN - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link

    that's a 4800h, not a 4800u. The 4800U has 8 GPU slices, the 4850U has 9. The 4800h has the same GPu performance as a 4700u, as both have 7 slices.

    It's confusing. The analog for H series would be a 4900h. I saw that laptop earlier and it would be perfect if it had a 4900h and lpddr4x, but alas it does not.
  • Luminar - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    There are barely any 2242 drives on the market. Wish there were more.
  • vladx - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Very few motherboards including for laptops are limited to 2242 size. The only real use case would be tablets, sadly that market is in a steep decline.
  • Luminar - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Many laptops use the 2242 form factor. All Thinkpads do, at least for the secondary drive slot.

    Finding a 2242 was difficult so I had to Dremel down a 2280 drive to the 2242 form factor.
  • TheinsanegamerN - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link

    Uh huh. So you cut a 2280 drive down to size and got a nice light show? Because you cant just dremel off a flash NAND chip and expect the drive to work properly....
  • Luminar - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link

    Of course you can Dremel off a good amount of the WD SN500/520 series of drives. As AnandTech wrote in their review, the electronics are contained in the first 30mm of the PCB for all SN500 drives, whether they be 2280, 2242, or 2230.
  • TheinsanegamerN - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link

    OK, fair enough theSN500syou can do that. I've never seen a M.2 drive like that befor,e they've always had chips along the entire 80mm length.
  • cfbcfb - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link

    Yeah, you have to fold it over and use some duct tape on it.

    A computer without at least one piece of duct tape is just not cutting it.
  • Luminar - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link

    Kapton tape works better. Those small SSDs can get pretty hot and good Kapton tape won't leave residue.
  • Luminar - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Why didn't the WD blue sn500 get included?
  • Billy Tallis - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Mainly because I only have a 250GB sample of that, and that's not a particularly fair or relevant comparison against 1TB drives. If I had the 1TB SN550 I would definitely have included that.
  • cfbcfb - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link

    Not even in the ballpark. The read and especially write speeds are in the top 3 of ALL nvme SSD's, and this one uses half the power and makes half the heat, for just a few dollars more than the Blue. In fact, in most use cases, its faster than the WD Black for less money.
  • DZor - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    All this does not matter cause 1TB drives are for long time in USD 130 - 150 range. For PCIe 3. PCIe 4 is some USD 50 more expensive.
    Except for "hi end" once like 970 Pro.
  • Gigaplex - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Why doesn't it matter? It's a good drive in this price range, and to many people it's pretty affordable.
  • plopke - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    I am curious to try SKHynix consumer drives out myself. But unless you are a OEM like dell there is no support software to check firmware or update firmware , so if there is ever an issues they have no framework at all to fix anything? This drive isn't even mentioned on their weird ssd webpage?

    I mean sandisk-WD/samsung/crucial/ADATA/Kingston , ALL OF THEM have a ssd manager client and software in place just in case firmware updates are needed?
  • plopke - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    PS I mean someone please proof me wrong , i actually was kinda interested in getting one of these but then I saw their product page and it was horrible and alarms bells started to ring when I couldn't find any support software at all.
  • Billy Tallis - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Their consumer SSD site is definitely a work in progress, but that's not too surprising since they only have two retail products at the moment and no real history in this market.

    I wouldn't be too worried about software. Aside from firmware updates, there's really not much point in vendor-specific tools and I wish they would all just lobby Microsoft to make decent vendor-neutral storage admin tools.

    And I don't think firmware updates are as important as you seem to think. They're pretty uncommon these days and usually don't matter much unless your system has a weird incompatibility that a SSD firmware update can fix. If SK hynix does need to push out an update for this drive, I'm sure they'll be able to come up with a delivery method. Running an extra application to give you a firmware update notification on the outside chance you ever need such a notification is a bit silly.
  • damianrobertjones - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Well, I'm not a copy editor, but i could prove you wrong if I tried.
  • surt - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Am i the odd one out that hasn't needed to use a hard drive tool in years?
  • HardwareDufus - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    i don't think so. i've been in the industry for over 30 years. back in those days, some harddrives came with error lists that you had to key into a system bios. then there were all the size limits that require creating multiple partitions... the list goes on...

    but I think other than running scan disk once a year and my scheduled trims.... I haven't used a harddrive tool on my personal PCs and laptops for over 8 years.
  • plopke - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    For me only once with Samsung it was needed , the other times where it was offered but not needed was crucial /sandisk for slight improved performance or compatibility. I just found it very awkward to not have a website showing specifications or support tools at all.
  • Holliday75 - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Nope. I have no updated the firmware on a SSD in 5+ years. That includes work.
  • MikeMurphy - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link

    My practice is to update firmware before I install a fresh copy of Windows. Often I'm greeted with some improved firmware for which I'm grateful. I've been happy with the support on my Crucial, Intel and Samsung drives.
  • TheinsanegamerN - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link

    Literally have never updated firmware on any SSD. Also only had issues with 1 SSD where the controller straight up died.
  • Tomatotech - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    I've only ever used them as a last resort when trying to rescue a failing SSD (and I've had a couple) - they were useless anyway, might as well not bother. Both times when the drive died the manufacturer happily replaced the drive.

    With today's cloud tech it's easier than ever to keep a 1TB drive constantly backed up & synced (different things) to several different places. OneDrive offers 1TB, iCloud offers 2TB, etc, and usually anything apart from office docs, project files, and photos doesn't even need to be backed up.
  • TheinsanegamerN - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link

    That only applies to the 1% who can get fiber internet. Ever try to back up 1TB of stuff over a cable connection, usually with a 3-5Mbps upload speed?

    For most people an external HDD is more usable as a backup method then any cloud storage.
  • Srikzquest - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Hi Billy, I see that the benchmarks are equally compelling on the performance side as well in addition to power efficiency. Then, why its only the standard for Laptops and not Desktops. Is it due to PCIe gen4 drives on the market?
  • Billy Tallis - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    The P31 is definitely a good choice for desktops, but it's not the only reasonable choice—while for laptops, it pretty much is at the moment. Since desktop users have little reason to worry about SSD power efficiency, it can make sense to go with something like a cheaper, somewhat slower Phison E12 drive or even something more low-end, because the real-world performance difference between the P31 and a decent low-end NVMe drive (or even a good SATA drive) is pretty small for most use cases. There's also the 2TB market to consider, since the Platinum P31 isn't available yet.
  • Srikzquest - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Ok thanks Billy. I am going to get this. I have a 960 EVO in my laptop which I will transfer it to my Desktop (which doesn't use an NVMe SSD currently) and replace that with this in my laptop.
  • lmcd - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Good plan -- make sure though that your laptop mobo supports a new enough NVMe version! 960 was one 1.X release earlier.
  • Billy Tallis - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    There are very few ways that NVMe could have trouble with forwards compatibility. I don't think any of them apply to features necessary to boot an OS, or to consumer drives in general. Almost all new stuff in recent NVMe versions has been optional features that your motherboard would never need to use, and your operating system can get by without.
  • vladx - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    So most of the newer NVME protocols are enterprise only?
  • Billy Tallis - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    It's been a mix of enterprise-only features and embedded-only features. Some of the more enterprise-oriented features would be slightly useful on consumer systems, but only in a world where consumers weren't held back by Windows and its lack of good storage admin tools.
  • lmcd - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    I guess 99% of laptops are probably fine but I needed a BIOS update for my Lenovo E485 to accept an EVO 970, afaik. Or maybe I'm mixing it up with my desktop motherboard. All I know is that compatibility hasn't been as consistent as you'd expect.
  • Srikzquest - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link

    Thanks Imcd for the headsup as my current laptop is also a Lenovo one, T470. So, I will keep my eyes open.
  • MikeMurphy - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link

    I think the low power consumption should also help with thermals, though it's a stretch to think of a typical workload that would keep an NVMe SSD under load for very long.
  • Hul8 - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    The ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB is missing from the list of included comparison drives on page 1.

    I only noticed because I was disappointed by its omission (I have one), but then found it in the graphs anyways.
  • Billy Tallis - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Thanks for pointing that out. I've added it to the list on page 1.
  • MrCommunistGen - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Truly impressive drive! I'm glad you were able to confirm that the power efficiency numbers held up and weren't the result of some kind of measurement error. When the Platinum P31 comes out I'll probably snag a 2TB model to upgrade my 1TB XG6 in my main ITX rig.

    Interesting that you mentioned the SN520. I needed a 2242 or 2230 SSD for a project I'm working on and was trying to decide between a BG4 and the SN520. I was able to refer to the previous Anandtech 1TB BG4 review but even then, I'm looking at either a 128GB or 256GB drive as that's what's available 2nd hand on eBay and the 1TB drive's performance isn't going to really represent the smaller drives.

    On the other hand I've found exactly nothing on the SN520.

    They're cheap enough so I decided to just buy one of each and test them both and see how they compare.
  • Luminar - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    The 2280 form factor SN500s/SN520s are more common than the 2242s and 2230s.

    I would buy a 2280 SN520 and just Dremel it down to a 2242 form factor. It's been proven to work. As Anandtech wrote in their review, the electronics are only in the first 30mm of the PCB.
  • MrCommunistGen - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    For the heck of it I decided to buy a bunch of different 2230 and 2242 SSDs on eBay to test. I was surprised to find 6 different models, 5 of which are from well-known brands. They all seem to be OEM drives pulled from laptops.

    I skipped any of the no-name, known garbage drives.
  • lilkwarrior - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Why was the 970 plus in the benchmarks, but not the 970 Pro?
  • MrCommunistGen - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    If you really want to compare the performance of the P31 and the 970 Pro, you can look up the results in the "Bench" section of the website:
    https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2627?vs=24...

    To answer your question directly:
    I'd imagine that's because for a lot of client workloads the performance of the 970 Pro is relatively similar to the 970 EVO Plus. The Pro definitely has lower latency, particularly write latency -- but again -- in most client workloads that isn't going to translate into very noticeable differences.

    However, the Pro is SO much more expensive. Realistically, someone shopping for a fast consumer SSD who is looking at the P31 isn't going to also be considering the 970 Pro.

    FWIW, at the 1TB capacity the 970 Pro seems to be selling for ~$320, the 970 EVO Plus for ~$190, and the P31 for $135.

    If the idea is to compare to the highest performing non-volatile storage available today, that's probably what the Optane 905P results are for.
  • PaulHoule - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    It is as if Taiyo Yuden started making writable DVD's under its own name.
  • nirolf - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link

    Ha ha! Good one!
  • jyotaro - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Any plans for a 500gb review of this product?
  • Billy Tallis - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Not at the moment. I'll try to get them to cough up a sample of that one when the Platinum P31 is released so I can compare across the full range of capacities, but I don't know how likely it is that they'll agree. This is still a pretty new relationship between us and SK hynix PR.
  • ozzuneoj86 - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Maybe I missed it, but does the high efficiency of this drive translate to significantly less heat output? Seems like it should. Some kind of thermal test would be useful for choosing a mobile SSD especially.
  • vladx - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    I have a SX8200 Pro on my laptop, do I need to enable the laptop Power Management state or is it detected automatically by the firmware?
  • Billy Tallis - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    That really depends on what combination of firmware and driver bugs the laptop vendor gave you. But in theory, if the machine originally came with a M.2 NVMe drive, it should have been configured for proper power management and should continue to work well with an aftermarket SSD that doesn't bring any new power management bugs. I think the SX8200 Pro is okay on that score; the slow wake-up times shouldn't prevent the system from trying to use the deep idle states because the drive still promises the OS that it will have reasonable wake-up times.
  • vladx - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    My laptop is a MSI Creator 17 that came with a Samsung PM981 drive. Could HWinfo offer any help in identifying the active power states?
  • Billy Tallis - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    I'm not sure. I think you can figure out what PCIe power management settings are being used by digging through the PCI configuration space, but I'm not sure how easy it is to get that info while running Windows. As for the NVMe power management settings, my understanding is that it's impossible or very nearly impossible to access that information under Windows, at least with the usual NVMe drivers. The only reliable way I know of to confirm that everything is working correctly to get your SSD idling below 10mW is to have expensive power measurement equipment.
  • vladx - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Ok thanks, Billy. I was going to install Fedora anyways as secondary OS so I guess I'll try the Linux route then.
  • MrCommunistGen - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    vladx, I'm really interested in how you go about trying to tease the NVMe power management info out of the drive. I did some internet searches a while back and didn't find anything definitive that I was able to follow and get results from. I've only ever used Debian-based distros, but if you're able to figure it out in Fedora then at least I'll know it is possible.
  • Foeketijn - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Did it happen? Did Samsung finally get an actual competitor? It doesn't really beat the 970 evo that much, so the 970 pro would still be better, but not at this price point, and definitely not with this power usage.
    Last time intel did that, Samsung suddenly woke up and beat them down again to a place where they stayed since.
    Interesting to see what the new evo and pro line will bring.
    Not high margin prices this time arround I guess.
  • LarsBolender - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    This has to be one of the most positive AnandTech articles I have read in years. Good job SK Hynix!
  • Luminar - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    No recommendation sticker, though.
  • Zan Lynx - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    It would be handy if you could add a power loss consistency test. I have a Dell with an older hynix NVMe and one time the battery ran down in the bag, and on reboot its btrfs was corrupt.

    Imagine these are sequence numbers in metadata blocks.
    Correct: 10 12 22 30
    Actual: 10 12 11 30

    The hynix had committed writes for SOME of the blocks but a few in the middle of the update chain were old versions of the data. According to btrfs flush rules that is un-possible. Which means that the drive reported a successful write for 22 and for 30 but after powerloss recovery it lost that write for 22 and reverted to an older block.

    I mean, that's better than some of the older flash drives that would trash the entire FTL and lose all the data. But it is not exactly GOOD.

    I'm pretty sure Samsung consumer drives will also lose the data but at least they will revert all of the writes following the lost data, so in my example it would revert write 30 also. That would at least leave things in a logically consistent state.
  • ballsystemlord - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    @Billy Thanks for the review. There have been several new SSD releases this year. I look forward to more SSD articles!
  • ballsystemlord - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    Of course, I'm assuming manufacturers are sampling you guys. (:
  • serendip - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link

    There needs to be more options for 2230 and 2242 drives. More laptops are coming out with replaceable drives in those smaller form factors.
  • Samus - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link

    Kinda feel stupid for buying an SN750 a few weeks ago...
  • vladx - Friday, August 28, 2020 - link

    Still an excellent drive, a bit pricey though...
  • cfbcfb - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link

    Just installed one in my desktop t replace an older Hynix OEM 256GB drive.

    Zero issues cloning, I used Macrium to "backup everything needed for windows" to another drive, made a usb stick with standalone macrium, put in the p31 and booted from the usb, restored the image and I was off and running.

    Stunning speed for the price, especially the write speed. In some instances I'm seeing faster writes than reads. And hey, power savings and less heat from a non heatsink nvme drive is okay in a desktop too! That's one of the reasons why I got it. With most other high end drives you need a heatsink unless you have a fan blowing on it, and in my system the m.2 slot is right next to the gpu in the only x16 slot, and the nearest fan is the cpu heatsink fan.

    So my old drive would often hit 60-80c. No bueno. This one? After hammering it, its still barely warmer than ambient case temp. Plus its one sided, which is nice.

    A WD 750 black with heatsink or an 8200 pro with heatsink are MUCH more expensive.

    This is a MSRP deal of the year for nvme high end drives. Durability and warranty are also excellent.

    So its not just for laptops. Don't hesitate to buy this drive if you want a high end nvme SSD in ANY device.
  • nfriedly - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link

    Is the Gold P31 a single-sided drive or a double-sided drive? (In other words does it have any components on the bottom?) There are a few smaller laptops, such as the GPD Win Max, that only have room for single-sided drives.
  • Srikzquest - Wednesday, October 14, 2020 - link

    This one is a single sided drive, that's a plus against ADATA's XPG 8200 Pro.
  • AnarchoPrimitiv - Monday, August 31, 2020 - link

    I'll hold back on calling it a "fantastic laptop drive" until it's actually put in a laptop with battery duration tests performed and compared to other drives. If it's power savings only equate to 15 extra minutes of battery in real life for example, then it's definitely not worth the compromise on performances.
  • Srikzquest - Wednesday, October 14, 2020 - link

    That's the point, there is hardly any compromise with performance. Its equally good on Efficiency and Performance.
  • jaydee - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link

    Thanks Billy! Reading the part about the power efficiency though, any thoughts of quantifying the extra battery life you could expect to see (typical laptop) from the SK Hynix Gold P31 over a Phison E12? The numbers look impressive on paper in terms of percentages against other HDs, but what are we talking about? An extra.. 5/10/15/20 minutes under an extreme R/W heavy workload? What about an average R/W workload? For sure the price/performance is there too so it appears a good buy anyway, I just don't know what to make of the efficiency numbers in terms of actual computing experience.
  • Jimster480 - Saturday, September 5, 2020 - link

    I just put this into my new Ryzen 4600H Powered Nitro 5 and it beats my EX920 in everything! Really a leap in performance and power consumption that wasn't expected from SK Hynix that has been an Also-ran until now!
  • rlr297 - Wednesday, September 23, 2020 - link

    Is there an update on when the platinum drives will be released? I am looking for a 2TB variant. If not, do you have a 2TB drive you'd recommend for a laptop?
  • MatthiasM - Tuesday, November 10, 2020 - link

    Hi All: Can I please ask for collective wisdom? I was very impressed by the review of this drive, especially the low power consumption for laptops. So, I bought one for my 2017 MacBook Air. This can use NVME drive with a Sintech Adapter, no problem. Several other NVME drive (WD, ADTA) run without problems. But when I built in this SK Hynix drive, it wouldn't start. It initiates the boot process, but won't complete it. But when I insert the drive in an external enclosure, it starts from it as boot drive, no problem. Only when it is internal, it won't start. Any suggestions? NVME controller incompatible with MacBook? Any ideas on how to fix this?
  • oRAirwolf - Monday, November 30, 2020 - link

    A little late to the fold, but there was a comment about drive software and firmware updates. SK Hynix released a tool for this drive called Drive Manager: Easy Kit. It's available at the very bottom of this page: https://ssd.skhynix.com/GoldP31.html
  • EarFull - Sunday, February 7, 2021 - link

    Totally over my head, I bought one of these off Amazon after finding out Hynix supplies OEM SSD's for Apple laptops. Thought I'd play with it as a peripheral plug in. Problem is, I can't find an external enclosure that is appropriate for it. I wrote Hynix and they commented it is only for INTERNAL use. Does anyone KNOW of an external enclosure suitable for this 1TB Hynix P31 Gold Drive? I don't care now if it is USB or Thunderbolt. Thank you.
  • EarFull - Sunday, February 7, 2021 - link

    Tried the Hynix P31 Gold NVME in the OWC Envoy Express: did not work. Now OWC site states in this configuration only available for Windows 10. Bummer.
  • EarFull - Thursday, February 11, 2021 - link

    Posted a comment two days ago and can't find it. To reiterate: bought Hynix P31Gold NVME to use as external drive. OWC Envoy Express will NOT work in this configuration on macOS. So, bought this SSK Aluminum M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure Adapter, USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) to NVME PCI-E M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure (Fits only NVMe PCIe 2242/2260/2280) to try. Indeed, it works perfectly for about $20. The enclosure is well made, metal, and comes with extra NVME 'screws' and such and two cabes for USB-C to USB-C as well as USB-C to USB-A. Hope this helps. Patrick
  • Davidm771 - Friday, November 26, 2021 - link

    Anyone know how the P31 Gold compares in terms of power efficiency against an SN730 OEM nvme drive? Read the specs of the SN730 and the power states are really low mostly except the PS1+2 numbers are better on the P31 Gold. Thanks
  • srahman5317 - Friday, January 21, 2022 - link

    Thank you so much guys. This was perfect and exactly the kind of reporting I was looking for. Much love from a laptop user

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