Mushkin’s Helix-L is an entry-level NVMe drive that offers high-speed performance at a low price. While it doesn’t excel in prosumer workloads , it's a great bang-for-the-buck buy for budget gamers.
Pros
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Competitive performance and pricing
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Large write cache
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Power-efficient
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Black PCB
Cons
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Low prosumer/sustained performance
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No Software package
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Mushkin’s Helix-L is an entry-level SSD through and through. It’s pretty cheap, comes with a 3-year warranty, and it features a DRAMless controller architecture. Even so, it can still deliver a more-than-acceptable level of performance for gamers and mainstream users alike.
Mushkin’s Helix-L is marketed toward budget-conscious gamers with its DNA theme and pricing -- the 1TB model sells for just $107. It's powered by Silicon Motion’s SM2263XT PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD controller, and our sample features Micron’s 64L TLC NAND flash. This combo lacks DRAM, but resourcefully utilizes Host Memory Buffer, a feature of the NVMe protocol to aid performance instead.
This feature uses a tiny 64MB portion of the host’s DRAM to cache the SSD’s FTL mapping table for better performance than without it. It’s a big improvement over non-HMB designs and can help deliver surprisingly good performance in various tasks.
Mushkin’s Helix-L is rated for speeds of up to 2.1 GBps read and 1.7 GBps write at the highest (1TB) capacity. The performance takes a slight hit when looking at the 250GB model though. That model is only rated to 2 GBps read and 1.25 GBps write. Still, that’s much higher than any SATA SSD. Random 4K performance is rated for up to 240,000 / 260,000 read / write IOPS. The 250GB model again is rated just slightly lower, at up to 200,000 IOPS read.
The warranty length is a rather standard at just 3-years, but the drive has endurance figures that match both the Samsung 970 EVO and WD Black SN750. As well, it comes with the standard support for TRIM (via NVM Deallocate), S.M.A.R.T. data reporting, secure erase via the Format NVM command.
Mushkin doesn’t provide the end-user an SSD Toolbox for support. But as nice as that feature is to have, it's not really a necessity. There is plenty of freeware that can cover mainstream cloning and monitoring needs. You do get a Mushkin Enhanced case sticker in the box, however.
The Mushkin Helix-L is an M.2 2280 form factor SSD that comes either a single- or double-sided, depending on your luck of the draw. Our sample was single-sided and utilizes Micron’s 64L TLC to deliver responsive performance.
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Aesthetically, the Helix-L features a black PCB. The DNA sticker on top of the drive is more attractive than most we've seen on M.2 SSDs, but drives with heatsinks usually look better.
I think most people focus too much on the performance comparison, which in my opinion if they're within range should all be the same, especially if you're upgrading from a 5400 rpm HDD. What I found most impressive about this NVMe is the power consumption and efficiency. I like to know if anyone can add, this also factors into the heating?
One of the drawbacks of NVMe when I was considering between that and a SATA was the power consumption and heating since I was getting it for a laptop. Most out there, such as Samsung, runs at 2.7-2.8A, or max at 9-10W!!! They can run up to 85-90*C.
The specs for this Mushkin Helix L is max active at 4.5W, or 1.36A. That is 1/2 the power usage of most other NVMe. But if this review is accurate, at least in the test of the 50GB transfer, it was only 3.72W or 1.127A!! That's amazing! And at a average consumption of 2.15W, that's 0.65A. I have a mSATA right now rated at 0.65A and it doesn't even heat up.
I litterally registered so I can say this review is BS. it says Pro "Large Write Cache" but this is HMB (Host Memory Bus) so it has ZERO cache and no DRAM. It just uses your system RAM as DRAM.
I litterally registered so I can say this review is BS. it says Pro "Large Write Cache" but this is HMB (Host Memory Bus) so it has ZERO cache and no DRAM. It just uses your system RAM as DRAM.
The SLC write cache (the NAND flash) is not the same thing as a DRAM cache.
