Today’s quick review is also a hot deal, which led me to want to cover this one. The holiday season has brought out a lot of great sales all around, but this one takes the cake when it comes to name-brand SATA SSD drives when you are looking for something both reliable and affordable. It is the PNY CS900 3D NAND 2.5″ SATA III Internal Solid State Drive.
Specifically, the one we are focused on today is the 1TB model since I happened to have one sitting right here and it just so happens to be on a great sale at Amazon right now for just $44.99. Making this a great buy for mini PCs and other projects where NVMe speeds either aren’t required or aren’t supported.
These drives are rated for up to 535 MB/s read and up to 515 MB/s write, landing it perfectly within the 500+ expectations of SATA SSDs. We actually have a number of these spread about in various uses, and can honestly say that our average reads have been between 450 and 520MB/s, while the write speed has averaged around 420-490 MB/s. Coming decently close to what they are rated for and it all depends on what you are doing (ie, single files vs multiple files, large files vs thousands of small files, etc). Speeds can vary all over the place, but like most SSDs, these tend to carry the loud proudly no matter what you are doing.
What’s nice about SATA SSDs is that they run significantly cooler than NVMe. This means less strain on power and less heat you have to dissipate from your system. They may not be as fast as NVMe (especially modern PCI Gen 4 or 5 models), but they do balance things out in other ways.
Many of the PNY CS900 drives we have been using were acquired back in early 2020 and have been holding up great. No accelerated signs of wear or deterioration to lifespan beyond normal expectations. S.M.A.R.T. values report them all still within the 90%+ life range, with one showing as 98%.
The original MSRP was $69.99, so the $44.99 is pretty doable given that it competes with some of the generic names out there. Making this an easy yes when compared to those names you likely have never heard of before (or at least used personally). PNY is a name that has been around for quite some time and isn’t going anywhere and there’s a good reason for that.
Our final score of the series is 8.5/10 as it meets all of our expectations when it comes to industry averages, quality of manufacturing, and value.
| Our Rating | Sale Price* $44.99 (originally $69.99) |
*Sale price is based on the time this article was published
Specifications:
| Capacity | 1TB |
| PNY Part Number | SSD7CS900-1TB-RB |
| Form Factor | 2.5 inch |
| Height | 7mm |
| Interface | SATA-III 6Gb/s; backwards compatible with SATA-II 3Gb/s |
| Max Sequential Read Speed | Up to 535 MB/s |
| Max Sequential Write Speed | Up to 515 MB/s |
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