Temperature:
While PCIe SSDs like the NV7000-Q offer impressive performance, they also generate a good amount of heat. To prevent themselves from overheating, most SSDs have implemented a mechanism called thermal throttling which automatically reduces a drive's performance when it reaches a certain temperature.
If you're someone looking to get the most out of your SSD, this is something that you don't want to happen. To prevent this drop in performance, the NV7000-Q has an ultra-thin heatspreader built into the label on the top of the drive that helps dissipate heat faster.
The NV7000-Q stayed relatively cool throughout our tests. At idle, temperatures hovered around 34 ºC. When pushed hard, the drive's temperature peaked at 54 ºC when both reading and writing. These temperatures had no impact on the NV7000-Q's performance. No matter how hard I pushed it, the drive did not throttle its read or write speeds in any noticeable way.
Final Thoughts:
The Netac NV7000-Q is a great choice for the gamer or content-creator looking for a fast, yet affordable, PCIe Gen 4 SSD for their computer or PlayStation 5 gaming console. This compact, M.2 form factor drive is powered by Maxio Technology's DRAM-less MAP1602 controller and is available with up to 4TB of YMTC's 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash. Combine this with NVMe's Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology and a PCIe Gen 4x4 interface and you have a drive capable of transferring data at nearly twice the speed of most Gen3 SSDs. In our sequential read and write tests, the 1TB version of the NV7000-Q was able to read at speeds as high as 7,235 MB/s and write at speeds in excess of 6,161 MB/s. The drive also did very well in our random write tests, producing more than 254,000 IOPS at low queue depths.
The only real complaint I have about the NV7000-Q is the lack of availability here in the US. The 1TB version of the drive has been available in other countries for a number of months now and major retailers like Amazon or Newegg do not stock it, even though they carry other Netac products. Hopefully this changes now that 2TB and 4TB versions of the NV7000-Q have started to ship.
If you live in Canada though, the NV7000-Q can be purchased from Amazon.ca. The drive is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities which are priced at $119 CAD ($85 USD) and $221 CAD ($157 USD), respectively.
Highs:
- Available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities
- PCIe 4.0 x4 interface with NVMe protocol
- Maxio MAP1602 controller
- YMTC 232-layer 3D QLC NAND flash
- Good sequential and random read and write performance
- Small M.2 2280 form factor
- Stays relatively cool, even under heavy loads
- Host Memory Buffer (HMB)
- Reasonably priced
- 5 year warranty
Lows:
- Does not support hardware based encryption
- Hard to find in some markets
