24 May
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The Spatium M470 from MSI provides PCIe Gen4 performance at PCIe Gen3 costs. The MSI Spatium M470, built on last-generation technology, offers faster-than-PCIe 3.0 performance and strong lifespan values at a competitive price.
MSI Spatium M470 is a well-rounded M.2 NVMe SSD with PCIe 4.0 performance of up to 5/4.4 GBps sequential read/write throughput, very competitive endurance ratings, OPAL compliant encryption, and low pricing. It lacks the flamboyant look of SSDs with elegant heatsinks, but it performs admirably against the top SSDs.
MSI's Spatium M470 comes with last-gen components but is quicker than your ordinary PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD in most workloads thanks to Phison's PS5016-E16 SSD controller and BiCS4 TLC flash. The Spatium M470 is a good addition to any setup, providing adequate performance and endurance for demanding applications if the pricing is correct at the time of purchase.
Specifications
| Product | 1TB | 2TB |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity (User / Raw) | 1000GB / 1024GB | 2000GB / 2048GB |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
| Interface / Protocol | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3 | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3 |
| Controller | Phison PS5016-E16 | Phison PS5016-E16 |
| DRAM | DDR4 | DDR4 |
| Memory | BiCS4 96L TLC | BiCS4 96L TLC |
| Sequential Read | 5,000 MBps | 5,000 MBps |
| Sequential Write | 4,400 MBps | 4,400 MBps |
| Random Read | 600,000 IOPS | 600,000 IOPS |
| Random Write | 600,000 IOPS | 600,000 IOPS |
| Security | AES 256-bit encryption | AES 256-bit encryption |
| Endurance (TBW) | 1,600 TB | 3,300 TB |
| Warranty | 5-Years | 5-Years |
MSI's Spatium M470 comes with last-gen components but is quicker than your ordinary PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD in most workloads thanks to Phison's PS5016-E16 SSD controller and BiCS4 TLC flash. The Spatium M470 is a good addition to any setup, providing adequate performance and endurance for demanding applications if the pricing is correct at the time of purchase.
The Spatium M470 is also covered by a five-year warranty and has strong endurance ratings. The 1 TB device can withstand up to 1,600TB of writes with a solid 9.9% of its flash assigned to overprovisioning and utilizing Phison's fourth-generation LDPC engine, while the 2 TB model can withstand up to 3,300TB.
MSI's Spatium M470 provides Trim, end-to-end data route security, SMART data reporting, and OPAL 2.0-compliant AES 256-bit encryption features for individuals working with particularly sensitive data. It can also be securely wiped fast and easily using your motherboard's UEFI tool or another method. MSI's SSDs lack software support for the time being, but a future upgrade of MSI Center, the company's go-to software utility, will add monitoring capability.
The MSI Spatium M470 is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities in an M.2 2280 form factor, which will prevent most Ultrabook customers seeking for an upgrade. However, it is quite adequate for the majority of desktop apps. The M470's design is excellent in every way. The label is well-designed, and the black PCB adds a wonderful finishing touch. All of the compliance information and internal use SKUs are listed on the backside, out of sight, as we want.
The SSD is outfitted with Phison's PS5016-E16 SSD controller, which is effectively an upgraded version of the E12. Its eight-channel quad-core controller is based on Cortex R5 cores manufactured on a 28nm technology. Having said that, it can and will use power and become overheated if not properly cooled.
This controller incorporates end-to-end data route protection, as well as capabilities such as Active State Power Management (ASPM), Autonomous Power State Transition (APST), and thermal throttling support, to assist maintain data integrity and device reliability.
The controller makes use of a DRAM cache, with two 4Gb SK hynix DDR4 DRAM ICs in our sample. On our 1TB sample, there are four NAND packages, each with eight 256Gb BiCS4 96L TLC dies. Each has a dual-plane architecture for higher degrees of interleaving, which improves performance over earlier flash's single plane designs. This is still less than half the amount of planes on the latest BiCS5 112-layer and BiCS 6 162-layer flash.
Conclusion
The MSI Spatium M470's test results were mostly in line with its advertised speed, while its 4K write and AS-SSD scores were disappointing. Nonetheless, the M470 is a good attempt as one of MSI's first M.2 solid-state drives; it lacks some of the brawn and power of its M480 stablemate (which had higher 4K read and write scores), but comes in at a lower price. And, with a high durability rating, the M470 should easily outlast its guarantee. Consider it if heavy writing activity will be the primary load on your new SSD.
