PNY CS2211 SSD Review (240GB/480GB)

TSSDR TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL

SSD testing at TSSDR differs slightly, depending on whether we are looking at consumer or enterprise SSDs. For consumer SSDs, our goal is to test in a system that has been optimized with our SSD Optimization Guide. To see the best performance possible the CPU C states have been disabled, C1E support has been disabled, Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST) has been disabled. Benchmarks for consumer testing are also benchmarks with a fresh drive so, not only can we verify that manufacturer specifications are in line but also, so the consumer can replicate our tests to confirm that they have an SSD that is top-notch. We even provide links to most of the benchmarks used in the report.

Sean Consumer Test Bench Core V51

SYSTEM COMPONENTS

This Test Bench build was the result of some great relationships and purchase; our appreciation goes to those who jumped in specifically to help the cause. Key contributors to this build are our friends at ASRock for the motherboard and CPU and be quiet! for the PSU and cooling fans. Also, a big thank you to Thermaltake for the case and Kingston for the RAM. We have detailed all components in the table below and they are all linked should you wish to make a duplicate of our system as so many seem to do, or check out the price of any single component. As always, we appreciate your support in any purchase through our links!

PC CHASSIS: Thermaltake Core V51
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock Z97 Extreme6
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K
CPU COOLER: Corsair H75
POWER SUPPLY: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W
SYSTEM COOLING: be quiet! Silent Wings 2
MEMORY: Kingston HyperX Beast 2400Mhz
STORAGE: Samsung 850 Pro
IRST DRIVER: 13.1.0.1058

BENCHMARK SOFTWARE

The software in use for today’s analysis is typical of many of our reviews and consists of Crystal Disk Info, TRIMcheck, ATTO Disk Benchmark, Crystal Disk Mark, AS SSD, Anvil’s Storage Utilities, Iometer, PCMark Vantage, and PCMark 8. We prefer to test with easily accessible software that the consumer can obtain, and in many cases, we even provide links. Our selection of software allows each to build on the last and to provide validation to results already obtained.

CRYSTAL DISK INFO VER. 6.5.2

Crystal Disk Info is a great tool for displaying the characteristics and health of storage devices. It displays everything from temperatures, to the number of hours the device has been powered, and even to the extent of informing you of the firmware of the device.

PNY XLR8 CS2211 240GB CDI

Crystal Disk Info is a great utility to identify SSD SMART attributes, as well as confirming the drive is TRIM compliant, and the amount of use the drive has seen.  As we can see in this result, the drive we are using is brand new. The firmware revision we are testing is CS221016. One note, the temperature reading is not a true value. Throughout testing we saw zero fluctuation in the reported controller temperature.

TRIMCHECK

We’ve covered TRIMcheck in the past. It is a great tool that easily lets us see if TRIM is actually functioning on a SSD volume in your system.

TRIMcheck Working

After running this test we can see that TRIM is indeed functioning.

ATTO DISK BENCHMARK VER. 2.47

ATTO Disk Benchmark is perhaps one of the oldest benchmarks going and is definitely the main staple for manufacturer performance specifications. ATTO uses RAW or compressible data and, for our benchmarks, we use a set length of 256mb and test both the read and write performance of various transfer sizes ranging from 0.5 to 8192kb. Manufacturers prefer this method of testing as it deals with raw (compressible) data rather than random (includes incompressible data) which, although more realistic, results in lower performance results.

240GB

PNY XLR8 CS2211 240GB ATTO

480GBPNY XLR8 CS2211 480GB ATTO

ATTO shows us strong initial results. Reads reach 500MB/s by the 16KB file size and writes reach 500MB/s at 32KB. Peak speeds reached were 564MB/s for read and 545MB/s for write. These numbers are nearly spot on with the listed specs. So far, off to a good start!

8 comments

  1. blank

    G’day Sean

    Seems the same Phison made drive with 19nm flash is faster,

    and possibly cheaper………….

    https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/zotac-premium-edition-ssd,4397-3.html

  2. blank

    Glad to see reviews again instead of announcements. But It amazes me how these companies advertise their new ssds with so much enthusiasm, when there new ssds are slower than the previous generation. It’s like, yeah we shrunk the nand size again, Woopie!!! And now it’s a little slower but almost as fast.

    • blank

      As long as it performs adequately and the endurance/retention is reasonable, there is nothing wrong. After all, each generation is getting cheaper.

  3. blank

    Does this performs better that Samsung 850 Pro and Crucial M550? I am lost which to choose…

  4. blank

    Ugh, all the graphs have two SSDs using the white line. which one is which ?

  5. blank

    You say this is a TLC Nand but the official website says its an MLC https://www.pny.com/ssd-cs2211 I am going crazy here. Anandtech also says its an MLC.
    Well I am going crazy cause many people are saying that TLC drives come in 120/240 capacities and only the MLC come in 128/256 and so on capacities.
    I have seen uptill now two brands that have the 120/240 capacites but claim to be MLC one is PNY and the other is Chiprex. So I am confused. These are really cheap but I don’t want it if its a TLC Could someone please confirm

    • blank

      TLC -is- MLC

      MLC = Multiple-level cell
      TLC = Triple-level cell

      Multiple means more than one.. 3 is more than one.

      MLC usually means 2 levels per-cell, but manufacturers can sometimes label TLC as MLC.

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