HP FX700 2TB SSD review: HP strikes back with YMTC's newest QLC flash memory

We haven’t heard from HP in a while, but it recently served up an interesting SSD in the FX700. This is the first drive we’ve tested with YMTC’s newest QLC, built around a Maxio controller that’s been disruptive in the SSD space and powers some of the best SSDs and best PS5 SSDs.

The dream of inexpensive, capacious SSDs has been realized as of 2023, and with the FX700 this dream is taken a step further. The use of QLC rather than TLC NAND should reduce the price even more, but what about the performance? Historically this platform has been power-efficient, great for laptop and PS5 users who especially like single-sided drives. Can QLC possibly improve things there as well?

We’re happy to say that this QLC is very efficient and, with HP’s graphene thermal pad, the drive runs pretty cool as well. We haven’t nailed down pricing just yet, but it should undercut the TLC alternatives — like the Lexar NM790 and Addlink A93 — and the FX700 is just the beginning. We’ll be seeing this hardware from other manufacturers in due time. Performance for a drive of this nature is good enough where it matters and it should find a happy home as secondary storage in any system. Sustained performance, as always an issue with QLC, remains more problematic.

That is to say that this QLC is not otherworldly and miracles should not be expected. If you’re looking for an alternative to the Crucial P3 Plus or Corsair MP600 Core XT, though, this can get you a bit more speed without any further drawbacks. It’s probably even a good alternative to the PCIe 3.0 Crucial P3 and the popular, TLC-clad Teamgroup MP34, too. Hopefully you can save a bit of money over the NM790 or A93, and for basic secondary storage it can be a good pick over older mainstays like the Silicon Power XS70. Read on to see if the FX700 hits the right notes for you as we dig into deeper details on this new hardware.

HP FX700 Specifications

The HP FX700 is available in 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. The 4TB SKU is missing in action so far, but we know this drive’s controller can handle that much flash just fine. Currently, the drive cannot be found in the U.S., but it and many drives like it are destined to make their way here. The product numbers are not explicitly listed, but we can guess what they are from product listings.

Rough comparison pricing from other regions suggests that the 2TB, as reviewed here, should come in at $89.99 or less with the 1TB being at $50 or less. This puts it below sale price of drives like the Crucial T500, which makes sense as we’re dealing with QLC. Put another way, pricing will make or break the viability of the HP FX700. The T500 is a great all-around SSD, and we've seen it on sale for around $107 for the 2TB model. It's a bit weak on sustained write performance, but still well ahead of what you can expect from QLC-based drives.

The FX700 can reach up to 7,200 / 6,200 MB/s for sequential reads and writes and up to 1050K / 920K random read and write IOPS, depending on the capacity. The 512GB SKU is woefully short on dies and should probably be ignored. The drive is backed by a 5-year, 400TB of writes per TB warranty. This delivers 0.22 drive writes per day (DWPD) which is about 33% less than standard TLC but up to double what QLC used to provide. Biwin’s site erroneously lists 800TBW for the 4TB SKU, but a look at the datasheet shows the expected 1600TBW. In any case, this is sufficient write endurance.

HP FX700 2TB: Software and accessories

HP’s SSDs are supported by an OEM version of Acronis True Image, which is useful for backups, cloning, and imaging. Health data should be monitored with CrystalDiskInfo. Biwin has historically released firmware updates when absolutely necessary, but the level of support here is less than you will find with vendors like Samsung, WD, or Crucial. The FX700 is a budget drive, so take that into consideration.

HP FX700 2TB: A closer look

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The HP FX700 looks unexceptional, except that it comes with its own M.2 screw. HP has done this with its drives since at least the EX920. Your motherboard should provide the necessary hardware for installing an M.2 SSD, but things happen and sometimes the screw gets lost — not a problem here. It’s also worth mentioning that the FX700 is single-sided, which makes it usable in more systems and laptops, and HP markets the drive specifically for the PlayStation 5.

HP’s datasheet for the drive emphasizes the power efficiency of the drive for use in laptops. There's a built-in power management unit (PMU) for the host controller with a power management IC (PMIC). This is an interesting note as SMI recently detailed its PCIe 5.0 SM2508 SSD controller as having an intelligent PMIC for better power management without placing a burden on the main ARM processor. Designing for better power efficiency is a good thing, given the heavy results we’ve seen with Phison’s PCIe 5.0 E26 controller so far.

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HP uses a graphene heatspreader to help cool the FX700. We discussed graphene and nanocarbon cooling technologies in our Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 12000 review. Gigabyte’s heatsink is considerably more involved than this heatspreader, but HP’s solution is better than nothing. Pulling off the sticker is likely to rip it apart, which we've done in our teardown.

The drive uses the Maxio MAP1602A, which generally runs quite efficiently. However, the controller package itself is known to get quite hot, as it uses a material that is less conductive with a smaller surface area than the T500’s Phison E25. This presents a scenario where a heatspreader makes sense, and the use of graphene in a thicker pad will significantly mitigate the issue. Extra heat on the NAND flash is not worthy of concern.

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Our sample’s flash is labeled BWN0AQF1B1HCAD and is dated 2331 for the 31st week of 2023, placing the date of manufacture in early August. This compares with the date of 2319, or mid-May, on some ZhiTai Ti600’s, a YMTC drive that led to the reveal of the manufacturer’s cutting-edge 232-Layer QLC starting back in July. The flash on that drive is labeled the same except for the first two characters, with our “BW” indicating Biwin and that drive’s “YM” implying YMTC. The rest of the code can be compared to other drives for information on package density and generation — here we have four quad-die packages (QDP) with 1Tb dies for a total of 2TB.

YMTC’s claim to fame with this QLC is the highest commercial density on record at 19.8 Gb/mm2. Solidigm’s (formerly Intel's) 192-Layer QLC, which is based on a 5-bit penta-level cell (PLC) design, is listed as achieving 18.6Gb/mm2 in its 4-bit mode. Other flash manufacturers have plans for QLC with Samsung’s V9 due in 2024, SK hynix having a V8 QLC design in the works, Micron planning for denser QLC dies down the road, and Kioxia proposing a BiCS8 variant. These designs are comparable or higher in layer count and performance to YMTC’s current 232-Layer design, but they're not available yet.

This QLC utilizes YMTC’s Xtacking 3.0 technology, which we’ve covered in reviews and articles in the past. The company’s changes helped reduce the complexity and cost of manufacturing, which was a past concern for competitiveness. This wafer-on-wafer approach will be adopted by others as Samsung already has something similar on its roadmap and Kioxia has suggested its own CMOS Bonded to Array (CBA) design. YMTC already has refinement in mind with Xtacking 4.0 and a higher I/O speed, which includes a variant for QLC.

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