PNY XLR8, a competitively priced gaming SSD [Review]

Solid state drives are becoming more and more popular, even among Gamers that require large storage capacity in order to develop your entire video game library. This time we bring you a high capacity and speed SSD with double use, it serves both your PC Gaming as to expand the memory of your PlayStation 5 (PS5).

Let's take a look at all its features and why it becomes such an interesting alternative given its quality / price ratio.

Design and packaging

This XLR8 CS3040 is an M.2 NVMe SSD XNUMXth generation with a fully integrated oversized heatsink. Offered in three storage variants: 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB. In our case, we are analyzing the 1 TB version and we have to say that it has given us a good result.

The packaging is quite good, Behind the cardboard box there is a millimeter plastic case and inside we have the SSD already mounted with its large heatsink. This heatsink, which has a front and rear chassis, is made of matt carbon-colored aluminum and is bonded on both sides by means of a thermal paste. On the sides, we have six screws in total that will allow us to get rid of this heatsink, as has been our case, in which we have decided to remove it to install it in a Play Station 5 (PS5).

Technical characteristics

As we have said before, we have a solid state hard drive with the M.2 2280 form factor and a PCIe Gen4 x4 interface. All this gives us on paper up to 5.600 MB / s in terms of read performance, and up to 4.300 MB / s in terms of writing performance. In our tests, as you can see in the video that leads this review, we have exceeded the estimated read speeds, and the write speeds are met.

In this way, PNY offers a five-year warranty and integrated technical support, which we have not had to go to for the moment, and we hope that this will be the case. Regarding the performance of the SSD, due to the important proportions of its heatsink we have not found any problem in the development of its temperatures, it does its job more than efficiently and especially well. ANDThat's why we have decided to test install it in the SSD expansion slot on a PS5 and the performance has been especially favorable, giving better readings than those offered by the brand, something to keep in mind, since in other SSDs that promise readings of up to 7000 MB / s, the results offered by the PS5 analysis have been lower than those offered.

Editor's Opinion

This SSD has a price of around 185 euros on Amazon, Where it has so far obtained more than 4.000 ratings with an average of over 4,5 stars, which attests to its value for money, and we have corroborated this. It offers a cheaper price for storage than other alternatives such as Samsung or Western Digital, and at the moment there seems to be no reason to opt for the competition, unless you want to have read speeds closer to 7.000 MB / s, where this PNY XLR8 3040 does not arrive.

Its versatility, as we have said, will allow you to use it both on a PC, as well as expand the memory of a laptop and even your Sony PS5. Be that as it may, this XLR3040 CS2 M.8 PNY is a good value for money option for those looking for the most adjusted, functional and with confidence in the aspect of utility.

Pros and cons