OWC has released the Aura P12 4TB M.2 SSD for $1,149.88. Additionally, the new SSD will make its way into the company's Envoy Pro EX line, ThunderBlade and Accelsior 4M2 devices.
The Aura P12 comes in the M.2 2280 form factor and fuses Phison's E12 SSD controller and Toshiba's 3D TLC (triple-level cell) NAND flash memory on the same PCB. While the 4TB model is marketed as such, the drive features 7% over-provisioning, meaning the useable space comes down to 3,840GB.
OWC equipped the Aura P12 with a built-in SLC caching technique that allows it to deliver an exceptional level of performance. However, the SSD is still limited by the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. OWC cites sequential read and write speeds of up to 3,400 MBps and 3,000 MBps, respectively. The manufacturer didn't disclose the Aura P12's random performance.
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The Aura P12's endurance level is pretty impressive too. OWC rates the drive for 6,820 TBW (terabytes written). The SSD also comes with a limited five-year warranty.
Not many storage vendors compete at the 4TB capacity. For the moment, the Aura P12 only has one rival on its radar, the Sabrent Rocket 4TB. Performance-wise, we wouldn't expect there to be much difference between the two, as they leverage similar components. However, the Rocket 4TB offers 50 MBps higher sequential reads.
The Sabrent Rocket 4TB currently sells for $849.99 before any OWC promo codes, meaning the Aura P12 is $299.89 more. Therefore, OWC might have to rethink the price on the Aura P12 if it wants the drive to be competitive.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.