Solid state drives have changed quite a bit over the years. I spend a lot of time editing videos, so I'm always dealing with large files and need a lot of fast storage. I recently did a new PC build, and with that, I got a new SSD for the operating system. This particular drive, the MSI SPATIUM M482, came bundled with my motherboard as a bundle.
Watch the video on YouTube for more information or if you prefer video over reading:
SanDisk Ultra 3D NAND 2TB SATA SSD:
HighPoint 4-Port M.2 SSD7204 PCIe Gen3 NVMe RAID Controller:
PNY CS2130 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4 SSD:
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| The MSI SPATIUM M482 2TB NVMe SSD |
Drive Specifications and Features
The MSI SPATIUM M482 is built on 3D NAND flash memory and comes in the common M.2 2280 form factor. It uses a PCIe Gen 4x4 interface with the NVMe 1.4 protocol. For the 2 TB model, MSI claims a sequential read speed of up to 7,300 MB/s and a sequential write speed of up to 6,400 MB/s. They also rate the meantime between failure (MTBF) at 1.5 million hours.
For those unfamiliar with these terms, 3D NAND is a type of flash memory where memory cells are stacked vertically in multiple layers. This technology increases storage density, allowing for higher capacities in a smaller physical space compared to older, planar (2D) NAND.
The M.2 2280 form factor describes the physical dimensions of the drive. The '22' stands for 22mm wide, and the '80' stands for 80mm long. This is the most common size for consumer NVMe SSDs and fits in most modern desktop motherboards and many laptops.PCIe 4.0 NVMe refers to the interface and protocol the drive uses to communicate with the rest of the computer. PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) is a high-speed interface, and version 4.0 offers double the bandwidth of the previous generation, PCIe 3.0. NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a communication protocol designed specifically for SSDs to take full advantage of this speed, offering much lower latency and higher performance than the older SATA protocol.
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| The official specifications for the MSI SPATIUM M482, showing details for both the 1TB and 2TB models. You can find this PDF on their website. |
Installation of an m.2 SSD
Installing an M.2 drive is very specific to your motherboard. My new build uses an MSI X670E Gaming Plus Wi-Fi motherboard, which has multiple M.2 slots. I chose to install this drive in the fastest slot available, which connects directly to the CPU. This primary slot is actually a PCIe version 5.0 slot. Since the MSI SPATIUM M482 is a version 4.0 drive, it's backward compatible and simply runs at the slower PCIe 4.0 speeds. It won't get the benefit of the Gen 5 slot, but it also won't be hindered by it.
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| The primary M.2 slot on the MSI X670E motherboard |
The Benchmark Tests
To check the speeds, I used CrystalDiskMark (version 9.0.1... this website is loaded up with advertisements so be careful). This tool runs several different tests, primarily measuring sequential and random performance.
Sequential tests measure the speed of reading or writing large, contiguous blocks of data, which is typical for transferring large files like videos. Random tests measure the performance of reading or writing small, non-contiguous blocks of data spread across the drive, which is more representative of tasks like loading an operating system or applications.
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| The CrystalDiskMark user interface, showing the available test profiles for NVMe SSD, Default, and Flash Memory. |
For the NVMe drives, I used the 'NVMe SSD' test profile. For my older SATA SSD, I used the 'Default' profile. Let's look at the numbers.
MSI SPATIUM M482 (PCIe 4.0 NVMe)
The MSI drive performed very well. The maximum sequential read speed I recorded was 7350.77 MB/s, which is actually a bit better than MSI's official rating of 7300 MB/s. As expected, when we get to the most extreme random read and write tests, the speeds take a significant hit, which is normal for any drive.
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| The final benchmark results for the MSI SPATIUM M482, showing a top read speed of 7350.77 MB/s. |
In HWMonitor it has 2263 powered-on hours so far with a health status of 100 percent.
PNY CS2130 (PCIe 3.0 NVMe)
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| Holding the PNY CS2130 2TB NVMe SSD, an older PCIe Gen 3 drive. |
Next, I tested an older drive, a PNY CS2130 I bought in 2020. This is a PCIe 3.0 drive. Its maximum read speed was 3,422.40 MB/s with a write speed around 3,000 MB/s. Throughout all the tests, it was slower than the MSI drive in every aspect. While you might not notice the difference in day-to-day use, but the numbers clearly show a generational improvement.
This wasn't a cheap drive at around $230 when I purchased it. Definitely more than the $85 I spend on the MSI drive, but that was a bundle with the motherboard.
On their website, their specifications are:
- Max Sequential Read Speed = 3,500 MB/s
- Max Sequential Write Speed = 3,000 MB/s
- NAND Components = 3D Flash Memory
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| The benchmark results for the PNY CS2130, which are significantly lower than the PCIe Gen 4 MSI drive. |
Looking at the program HWMonitor it's statistics say it has 18431 hours of power-on time and it's at 76% health status. That could factor into why it didn't meet their read performance numbers.
HighPoint PCIe RAID Card (4x PCIe 3.0 NVMe in RAID 10)
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| The HighPoint SSD7204 PCIe expansion card, capable of running multiple M.2 SSDs in a RAID configuration with no PCIe bifurcation needed on the motherboard. |
Here's a unique one. This is the drive I used for video editing in my previous and current computer. It's a HighPoint PCIe expansion card that holds four 1 TB SanDisk Ultra Gen 3 NVMe drives, which I run in a RAID 10 configuration.
RAID 10, also known as RAID 1+0, combines disk mirroring and disk striping to protect data. It requires a minimum of four disks and provides both redundancy (from mirroring) and increased performance (from striping). If one drive fails, the data is still safe on its mirrored partner.
I bought the card back in 2021. Clearly it's a much more extreme solution than the single MSI drive. The results were surprising considering how much in total it cost a the time. The maximum read speed was 3554.11 MB/s, and the write speed was 1,747 MB/s. Even with this complex four-drive array, the single, modern MSI SPATIUM M482 is significantly faster. While I still get the benefit of data mirroring with the RAID setup, it's showing to how much SSD technology has improved.
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| The reverse side of the HighPoint card, showing the physical slots for up to four M.2 drives. |
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| The benchmark results for the four-drive RAID 10 array, showing slower performance than the single MSI drive. |
HWMonitor lists the four drives as different power on times, but they around 18,000 hours while still registering 100% life. It's possible that the expansion card isn't reporting it properly.
SanDisk Ultra 3D (SATA SSD)
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| A standard 2.5-inch SanDisk Ultra 3D SATA SSD. |
The last drive I tested was a standard 2.5-inch SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD connected via a SATA port. The SATA interface has clear limitations compared to NVMe. The maximum read speed for this drive was about 551 MB/s, with write speeds around 516 MB/s. It's a huge difference, and one I notice in the real world when I'm backing up large video projects to this drive. It's a lot slower than all of the NVMe drives. Interestingly, in some of the random performance tests, it wasn't too far behind some of the NVMe drives, so it's not bad for every task.
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| The benchmark results for the SATA SSD, illustrating the performance bottleneck of the SATA interface. |
Final Thoughts
It's cool to see how SSD technology has improved over the years. The fact that a single, relatively affordable M.2 drive can now outperform an extreme, multi-drive RAID card from just a few years back is impressive.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed this look at the drive and the comparisons. To see the full tests and installation, check out the video.