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It is always refreshing when we get something on our bench that is new…maybe even a bit out of the ordinary. On our Test Bench today is the SK hynix Platinum P51 Gen5 2TB SSD and this SSD is as proprietary as they come. The controller, DRAM buffer chip and NAND memory are all SK hynix manufactured and this SSD controller…it is the first we have had it in our hands. The Platinum P51 is challenging to be one of the best available today. Can they pull it off? You may be surprised.
As just a bit of a background, SK Hynix (like Samsung) is of South Korean origin with its original company name being Hyundai Electronics Industries. The company was founded in 1983. In 2012 SK Telecom, a subsidiary of the SK group, acquired a controlling stake in the company and the name SK ‘Hy’ (from Hyundai) ‘nix’ (from Electronics) was formed to its present SK hynix. Like Samsung, TSMC and Intel, SK Hynix is a foundry as well as a memory fab. This means that, not only does it manufacture the wafers used to make NAND and DRAM memory from their original sand composition, but also, they fabricate (fab) those wafers right through to the complete product.
The SK hynix Platinum P51 is a PCIe 5.0 (Gen5) 4-channel (x4) SSD of the 2280 form factor (22mm wide x 80mm long) which is of the NVMe 2.0 SSD operating protocol. It is available in one and two terabyte capacities and performance specifications speak to 14700MB/s read and 13400MB/s write data throughput.
Perhaps our greatest interest in this SSD lies in the fact that its brand new SSD controller is proprietary to SK hynix which is not the current norm, and further, this controller is the SK hynix Alistar Gen5 8-channel NVMe SSD controller. To the left of this is a SK hynix DRAM buffer chip.
This is a ‘single-sided’ SSD with two 1TB NAND flash memory packages on the PCB which are SK hynix 238-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory.
This SSD is a ‘thoroughbred’ storage device. It has a typical 10 watt active power usage which is a bit high in consideration of where we see other SSDs bringing that power rating down to sub 8 watts as of late.
Checking Amazon, we can find the Platinum P51 for $154.99 (1TB) and $229.99 (2TB) which is significantly lower than the original MSRP of $199.99/$319.99. This SSD comes with a standard 5-year limited warranty and speaks to 600TBW endurance per 1TB of capacity.
Let’s take a look at the P51’s speed…