Looking to bump up your storage? The Lexar NM790 4TB might just be the drive you’re looking for. I tested out the drive on both a PC and PS5.
I previously took a look at Lexar’s NM790 NVMe SSD earlier this year and thought it was a well-accomplished drive that offered heaps of performance at a competitive price. Now kitted out in a 4TB variant with a heatsink, does this new model match up to my expectations of what’s been tested before, or are there more kinks to iron out?
The drive features a DRAM-less design, which might be a dealbreaker for some, as sustained write performance can suffer. But, will the NM790 still make for an excellent drive, considering there’s a less complex NAND flash build involved, which can save you some precious pennies.
Key specs
- Capacity: 4TB
- Form factor: M.2 2280
- Max sequential read: 7400 MB/s
- Max sequential write: 6500 MB/s
- Warranty: 5 years
- Price: £219.99
Design
Kicking off with the actual physical design of the Lexar NM790 4TB, the PCI4x4 NVMe SSD sports a utilitarian look, with a blocky heatsink covering the PCB of the SSD. This looks slick and might offer enough cooling performance for the drive while it’s being stressed under load.
The SSD also sports a DRAM-less design. What this effectively means is that it will operate at a lower wattage, in addition to ending up being a bit simpler to construct than the likes of drives like the Samsung 990 Pro. The downside is that writing caches directly to the flash can increase the wear and tear of the device.
The NM790 seeks to instead use an HMB to write DRAM directly onto your device, with an SLC cache. The drive is also rated for up to a total of 3000 TBW, so the drive will likely have a long life, even if you are a power user.
The device snugly slots into a PS5’s SSD slot, meaning that if you’re looking for a drive that can perform inside of Sony’s latest console, then this heatsink-equipped design should also do enough to cool the drive down when enclosed in Sony’s SSD coffin, which somehow has no airflow running over it at all. Maybe something to fix for next time, Sony?
Performance
As a PCIe Gen 4 drive, the NM790 4TB will offer super-fast speeds without breaking the bank, as some Gen 5 drives do. With so many devices now supporting the Gen 4 slot, drives are faster and more affordable than ever before. Lexar rates the NM790 4TB for up to 7400 MB/s reads, and 6500 MB/s reads, so we put the drive to the test in CrystalDiskMark.
CrystalDiskMark results
- Max sequential read: 7064 MB/s
- Max sequential write: 6500 MB/s
Interestingly, in this synthetic performance test, the drive only managed to attain a maximum of 7064 MB/s reads, which is slightly less than what’s listed on the box. After some retesting, we came up with similar results. This ends up being slightly disappointing, as missing out on around 400 MB/s of read speeds is not an insignificant number. However, write speeds to the device performed admirably, maxing out the SSD’s rating overall.
Real-world usage
Monitoring the drive through HWInfo shows us that the SSD manages to perform well, achieving around 7110 MB/s read rate, while the write rate exceeds synthetics at 6526 MB/s, which is impressive. When slotting the drive into a PS5, there were no issues regarding fitment or compatibility with the console, which means that it’s very much a set-and-forget drive, if you’re just looking to upgrade your console.
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Thermals
With regards to thermals, we set the SSD to transfer over a large Steam game installation of Baldur’s Gate 3, which was completed in just over a minute, which is no small feat for a title that ends up being over 100GB. I observed that the drive’s thermals spiked to around 56 degrees celsius, which is more than safe for operation.
In a more taxing load, where I transferred over 300 GB of data by copying my Steam folder over, the drive did spike to around 69 degrees celsius, which is just within safe operation levels, and within spec for the drive, to boot.
Sustained writes
With the NM790’s SLC cache, you should have ample room to hit these maximum transfer speeds fairly regularly. Just be aware that the drive’s performance can drop off of a cliff once you give it a big enough sustained write. I did this when attempting to clone from another drive in Macrium, where I observed that speeds plummeted after around 700 GB had been transferred. It’s unlikely that you will ever have to do this unless you clone a drive or make massive file transfers.
Should you buy it?
The Lexar NM790 4TB SSD is a no-frills affair. It offers a good level of performance at a competitive price point, and while it does have some weaknesses. But, its budget price point makes it one of the most compelling options out there, especially for those looking to slot the drive into a PS5.
The verdict: 4/5
The Lexar NM790 only ever falters when it comes to sustained write speeds. While it doesn’t have additions like hardware encryption and a DRAM-less design, it should be good enough for most people to pop into their PCs or PlayStation 5 consoles without having to think too much bout the overall tech specs of the drive itself.
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