MyDigitalSSD BPX Pro NVMe SSD Review: Big on Endurance, Small on Price

Great SSD for prosumers and media content creators.

MyDigitalSSD BPX Pro
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

Tom's Hardware Verdict

MyDigitalSSD’s 1.92TB BPX Pro comes with a very hefty endurance of 3115 TBW, or about eight times that of the Intel SSD 660p. While it isn’t a chart-topper in application performance, the 1.92TB BPX Pro still offers plenty of performance and high capacity for a great price. At just $229.99, it's one of the cheapest 2TB SSDs available and earns our recommendation.

Pros

  • +

    Price

  • +

    Capacity

Cons

  • -

    Small SLC cache capacity

  • -

    Could use further performance optimization

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Update 12/23/2019: We have updated this article with new testing for the 1.92TB BPX Pro SSD on page 4.

Original Review published 10/9/2018:

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Higher performance, better endurance, more features and, of course, more accessories. Enthusiasts always want more of everything, and MyDigitalSSD designed the Bullet Proof eXpress Pro, or BPX Pro for short, to answer that call. The company started with Phison’s new high-end controller paired with Toshiba’s latest flash, so it has the right foundation for a strong product.

This combination of components allows the BPX Pro to enter the market at strikingly low prices while still providing enthusiast-class performance, features, endurance, and warranty. If you are in the market for a new M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, the BPX Pro will give you your money’s worth and deliver up to 3.4/3.1 GB/s of read/write throughput in the process.

SSD prices are dropping, and many companies have focused solely on the race to the bottom while others have embraced high-end products. Some companies have even found themselves in-between the two approaches. Creating the right mix of value is difficult, but MyDigitalSSD, while not a large company, has navigated this territory quite well over the last few years. Through some good whims here, and well thought out strategy there, the company has delivered several hits and earned several of our recommendations.

The firm's first-gen enthusiast NVMe SSD, the BPX, came with a great mix of performance and price courtesy of Phison’s E7 SSD controller paired with MLC NAND. It even came with an M.2 screw and screwdriver as an accessory. At first, an extra screw may not seem like such a great inclusion, but it's the little things that count. For those of us that have dropped their only M.2 screw and lost it into a magical black hole, it was a godsend.

The new BPX Pro brings improved performance with Phison’s latest E12 SSD controller. The controller connects to Toshiba’s latest BiCS3 TLC NAND flash via eight dedicated channels. Like its predecessor, the BPX Pro comes with an extra M.2 screw and screwdriver, but now it includes a slick sticker so you can sticker bomb your gear.

Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally
ProductBPX Pro 240GBBPX Pro 480GBBPX Pro 960GBBPX Pro 1920GB
Pricing$74.99$129.99$259.99$569.99
Capacity (User / Raw)240GB / 256GB480GB / 512GB960GB / 1024GB1920GB / 2048GB
Form FactorM.2 2280 Single-SidedM.2 2280 Single-SidedM.2 2280 Double-SidedM.2 2280 Double-Sided
Interface / ProtocolPCIe 3.1 x4 / NVMe 1.3PCIe 3.1 x4 / NVMe 1.3PCIe 3.1 x4 / NVMe 1.3PCIe 3.1 x4 / NVMe 1.3
ControllerPhison E12Phison E12Phison E12Phison E12
DRAMNANYA DDR4NANYA DDR4NANYA DDR4NANYA DDR4
NAND FlashToshiba 64L TLCToshiba 64L TLCToshiba 64L TLCToshiba 64L TLC
Sequential Read3,400 MB/s3,400 MB/s3,400 MB/s3,400 MB/s
Sequential Write1,100 MB/s2,100 MB/s3,100 MB/s3,100 MB/s
Random Read QD150 MB/s55 MB/s55 MB/s55 MB/s
Random Write QD1315 MB/s325 MB/s325 MB/s325 MB/s
EncryptionAES-256, TCG Opal & PyriteAES-256, TCG Opal & PyriteAES-256, TCG Opal & PyriteAES-256, TCG Opal & Pyrite
Endurance380 TBW800 TBW1,665 TBW3,115 TBW
Part NumberMDNVME80-BPXP-0256MDNVME80-BPXP-0512MDNVME80-BPXP-1TMDNVME80-BPXP-2T
Warranty5-Years5-Years5-Years5-Years

The BPX Pro offers great performance, but the controller’s features really add to the value. The BPX Pro’s E12 controller supports TRIM and SMART, end-to-end data path protection, static and dynamic wear leveling, bad block management, SmartECC, SmartRefresh, and AES-256 hardware encryption that supports TCG Opal and Pyrite standards. Also, just in case your drive gets a bit too toasty, it has a thermal throttling feature so that it won’t overheat. We've noticed the new E12 runs much cooler than the previous-gen E7, though, so it shouldn't be an issue for most users.

The BPX Pro offers up to 3.4/3.1 GB/s of sequential read/write throughput, which is enough to challenge the fastest SSDs on the market. MyDigitalSSD launched the drive with capacities of 1TB and lower, but added the 2TB model in October. MSRP  listed in the table above spans from $74.99 to $569.99. But here in November, real-world Amazon pricing was more appealing, with the 512GB model selling for $79.99, the 1TB for $129.99, and the 2TB model for $229.99. That undercuts some of the cheaper, lower performing NVMe options.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
ProductTBWDWPDWarranty
MyDigitalSSD BPX Pro 960GB1,6650.915
Samsung 970 Pro 1TB1,2000.665
Adata XPG GAMMIX S11/SX8200 960GB6400.355
Samsung 860/970 EVO 1TB6000.335
WD Black 1TB6000.335
Intel SSD 760p 1TB5760.325
WD Blue 3D 1TB4000.373
Crucial MX500 1TB3600.25
Intel SSD 660p 1TB2000.115

The BPX Pro comes with a healthy amount of overprovisioning, which helps boost endurance and performance. The resulting endurance figures trump the Samsung 970 PRO and every other modern SSD in our comparison, which is a nice complement to the five-year warranty.

MyDigitalSSD also launched a new M.2 NVMe to USB 3.1 Gen 2 adapter alongside the BPX Pro. The M2X allows you to use the BPX Pro as well as any other NVMe SSD as a portable, high-speed storage device for under $40. If you want to just have one of these high endurance SSDs as your portable scratch/media drive, it will handle the task no problem. Now you can use one of these speedy SSDs with almost any device with a USB connection.

A Closer Look

The BPX Pro comes in the M.2 2280 form factor and communicates over a PCIe 3.1 x4 interface with the NVMe protocol. The smaller 240GB and 480GB models are single-sided (all components are on one side of the PCB), while the 960GB and 2TB models are double-sided. That's important if you're installing a new M.2 SSD into a laptop, some of which only support single-sided M.2 drives.

The new eight-channel E12 NVMe controller is a step up from the older E7 in Phison’s line up. While the E7 helped pave Phison’s road to fame, the E12 has improved power consumption, NAND support, and performance.

Like the E7, the E12 uses a DRAM cache. There is a single DDR4 DRAM chip on the 480GB sample, while the 960GB model has two. The 480GB SSD comes with two Toshiba 64-layer 3D TLC NAND flash emplacements, and the 960GB model comes with four (two on each side). After formatting, the drives have 446GB and 894GB of usable capacity, respectively.

MORE: Best SSDs

MORE: How We Test HDDs And SSDs

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Sean Webster
Storage Reviewer

Sean is a Contributing Editor at Tom’s Hardware US, covering storage hardware.

  • elpresidente
    I pre-ordered one in 960gb. Latency was worse than my xg3 from years ago- maybe tlc vs mlc difference? Was always >100us iirc, about 3x higher.
    Reply
  • Peter Martin
    lower than average application performance... hello, samsung, give me an NVMe from Samsung any day
    Reply
  • Krazie_Ivan
    looks like fantastic value for long-term ownership with heavy write use, which fits a niche market perfectly. i'd ideally run a smaller EVO primary for OS/apps with Magician's Turbo enabled, and paired through StoreMI to conserve space with a large HDD for large apps/games, but have this BPX Pro for vid editing use instead of a dedicated media file HDD.

    ...just waiting on Zen2 for a dual M.2 mobo
    Reply
  • ron baker
    Turbo doesn't work on the nvme 970 ... Something they dont shout about ...means you can still run it on your old sata SSD for equiv speeds , tho .
    Reply
  • cat1092
    Just purchased the BPX PRO a couple of days ago, the 512 (480GB) version from Amazon for an amazing $129.99.

    If it's anything close to my three previous gen BPX drives, will be fantastic. My only issue with these, although running in PC's didn't affect me, were these probably not best suited for notebooks, as these generates heat. Mine are cooled with a Sintech PCIe adapter with 50mm fan attached. The fans has been upgraded to those with ball bearing type, as the included ones were of the sleeve or rifle type & became noisy at boot, would quieten in a minute or so.

    Hopefully this newer version will run much cooler as posted in specs, so will be suitable for everyone in need of an NVMe SSD. BTW, this latest BPX PRO has been called the 'Samsung 970 EVO Killer' by an Amazon reviewer. Hopefully I'll feel the same, will be replacing a 512GB Samsung 950 PRO NVMe with the BPX PRO.
    Reply