Tom's Hardware Verdict
The PNY CS3150 is a decent PCIe 5.0 SSD, offering high performance with dual-fan cooling and optional RGB. It doesn’t break records and can be challenging to find, however, particularly the 2TB models.
Pros
- +
Strong all-around and sustained performance
- +
Excellent cooling
- +
Optional RGB, fan control
Cons
- -
Pricing and availability
- -
1TB capacity limiting for enthusiast SSDs
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RGB version needs a motherboard USB header
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PNY is probably best known for its GPUs, DRAM, and general memory products — memory cards and portable flash drives — and it's branching into the SSD market. Sometimes PNY draws outside the lines, like with its pSLC LX3030, but usually the company plays it safe by selling drives with a wider appeal. The CS3150 looks to cater to the enthusiast market, with a PCIe 5.0 SSD that stands out with its dual-fan cooler and optional RGB. It has DirectStorage-optimized firmware and hardware encryption support as well, leveraging the best aspects of its Phison E26 SSD controller.
The CS3150 isn’t the fastest drive of its kind, though it ranks near the top of our charts. It's also limited to only 1TB and 2TB capacities, with the latter being difficult to find for sale at present. PNY sent us the 1TB model with RGB lighting for this review.
The CS3150 hardware allows for good all-around and sustained performance, but it retains the power consumption issues of its high-end hardware. The good news is that the heatsink and temperature-controlled fans keep the drive cool and are much quieter than some of the actively cooled fans we've tested. That and the optional, controllable, syncable RGB are the CS3150’s biggest selling points. This could be an interesting drive for some builds, even at 1TB, although the pricing makes a niche product.
PNY CS3150 Specifications
| Product | 1TB | 2TB |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $179.99/$189.99 | $299.99 |
| Variants | Heatsink/RGB Heatsink | Heatsink/RGB Heatsink |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
| Interface / Protocol | PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0 | PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0 |
| Controller | Phison E26 | Phison E26 |
| DRAM | LPDDR4 | LPDDR4 |
| Flash Memory | 232-Layer Micron TLC | 232-Layer Micron TLC |
| Sequential Read | 11,500 MB/s | 12,000 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 8,500 MB/s | 11,000 MB/s |
| Random Read | N/A | N/A |
| Random Write | N/A | N/A |
| Security | TCG Opal 2.0 | TCG Opal 2.0 |
| Endurance (TBW) | 700TB | 1,400TB |
| Part Number | M280CS3150HS/HSW-1TB-RB | M280CS3150HS/HSW-2TB-RB |
| Warranty | 5-Year | 5-Year |
The PNY CS3150 XLR8, or just CS3150, is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities, with no 4TB variant available or planned at this time. PNY’s MSRP is $179.99 and $299.99 for the two capacities, adding another $10 on for the RGB or Epic-X model. These prices are higher than equivalent drives like Gigabyte’s Aorus Gen5 12000, the Corsair MP700 Pro, and the Teamgroup Cardea Z540, although the Z540 comes bare.
At present, the 1TB SKUs are slightly more expensive than this on Amazon, and the 2TB is missing in action. That’s a shame as the 2TB models would be far more interesting — we can't imagine many enthusiasts who would be willing to spend a lot of money on a high performance PCIe 5.0 drive would want to stick with 1TB.
The CS3150 can hit up to 12,000 / 11,000 MB/s for sequential reads and writes. No information is given for random read and write IOPS, but we would expect a maximum of around 1,400K / 1,400K — similar to other Phison E26 1TB drives with 12 GT/s NAND. The warranty is also standard for drives of this class, rated at five years with 700TB of writes per TB capacity. The CS3150 does support hardware encryption with TCG Opal 2.0.
PNY CS3150 Software and Accessories
If you happen to get the RGB or Epic-X version of the CS3150, PNY supplies its VelocityX RGB control software. This can sync with other PNY RGB products, namely GPUs and DRAM. For benchmarking and drive health information, we recommend CrystalDiskMark and CrystalDiskInfo. For cloning and imaging, the free Clonezilla is a good place to start.
PNY CS3150 — A Closer Look
Our review sample is the CS3150 1TB model with a black heatsink, with the optional RGB lighting. The drive is available in white or black, with or without RGB. The RGB version has a shorter heatsink underneath the fan shroud.
Speaking of fans, the two small fans that adorn the heatsink help cool the drive and are powered and controlled with a 4-pin connector on the non-RGB versions of the drive. If RGB is present, a 9-pin USB power connector is used instead, and the LEDs can be controlled through software.
The heatsink/shroud is listed as being 76 (L) x 23.5 (W) x 17.5mm (H), in case you have limited space to install a drive. Given the heatsink and fan requirements, the CS3150 effectively requires a desktop PC — putting one in a laptop or PS5 would require removal of the heatsink, at which point you'd be better off with a different drive, even if you want PCIe 5.0 speeds.
The heatsink can be removed if desired by removing the four screws and pulling the heatsink away from the drive. There are thermal pads on both sides of the drive — which makes sense, as it’s double-sided and the heatsink has a backplate (that might be easier to remove with some heat).
Not shown here, a thermistor or thermal sensor pokes through the top thermal pad to rest against the controller for temperature measurement. Thermistors change their resistance based on temperature, which allows the fans to vary in speed based on the controller temperature.
Looking at the back of the heatsink, we see that the drive is rated for 3.3V at 3.6A, which correlates to the maximum 11.55W the M.2 slot is designed to provide. Also listed is a physical security ID, or PSID, which enables a secure, data-destructive wiping of the drive in concert with the TCG Opal specification.
The drive’s DRAM is 2GB on the 1TB model and 4GB on the 2TB model. This is double the typical amount of memory, a fact we’ve covered in previous reviews. This is typical for drives based on Phison’s enterprise-inspired E26 SSD controller. DRAM is used for mapping and metadata storage, and in the case of enterprise applications or flash management, this extra memory could be put to good use.
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