How Much Does it Cost?
The BIWIN NV7200 4TB SSD is available now, in variants of 1TB, 2TB, and of course, 4TB. What’s most impressive is the price. The 1TB starts at just £59.99, the 2TB is just £99.99, and the 4TB is just £217.99, making them extremely competitive in today’s market. At the time of publishing, the drives were also on sale for £59.99, £99.99 and £196.19 respectively. Best of all, they’re available on Amazon Prime with next-day delivery, so unlike many of the drives we test that seem to have limited stock, that isn’t the case for BIWIN. You can check for up-to-date stock and prices here.
Conclusion
BIWIN continues its strong trajectory in the storage market, and the NV7200 is a testament to their ability to blend performance with value. This PCIe 4.0 drive delivers speeds that push the boundaries of the interface, achieving and sometimes exceeding its rated specifications in our tests. Its use of HMB technology keeps it efficient and also more affordable, while the single-sided design and graphene thermal pad ensure broad compatibility and excellent thermal management. Across various benchmarks, from sequential transfers to random IOPS and real-world gaming tests, the NV7200 consistently impressed, proving itself a capable contender for upgrades, new builds, and even demanding workloads. Backed by a solid 5-year warranty, it’s a compelling option.
Build Quality
The NV7200 employs the standard M.2 2280 form factor. A key highlight is its single-sided design, maintained even on this high-capacity 4TB model. This thin profile enhances compatibility, particularly with laptops and the PS5, and aids cooling by concentrating heat-generating components on one side. The drive features a distinctive blue sticker which incorporates a graphene thermal pad, contributing to effective heat dissipation. While the packaging is simple, reflecting its budget focus, the drive itself feels well-constructed.
Controller
The NV7200 drive utilises the PCIe Gen 4×4 interface and NVMe 2.0 protocol. It supports Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology, indicating it is a DRAM-less design. This approach leverages system RAM for caching duties, helping to reduce manufacturing costs while maintaining good performance levels for many workloads, but more performance-focused builds may want to spend more for a dedicated DRAM drive from BiWin if you don’t mind spending a little more money.
Read and Write Performance
Performance stands, as our testing revealed speeds extremely close to the maximum advertised read of 7200 MB/s, and it actually surpassed the 6200 MB/s write speed rating. Random IOPS were also very strong, approaching premium drive levels in specific scenarios like 4K-64Thrd writes, achieving around 800K IOPS. Although minor inconsistencies in write speeds surfaced during certain benchmarks, overall throughput remained high, generally sitting in the mid-5 Gbps range or exceeding 6.6 GB/s at larger block sizes. Furthermore, file copy operations demonstrated excellent speed, handling a 50GB transfer in just 18 seconds, while responsiveness, judged by access times, was consistent. The drive also proved capable when dealing with both compressible and incompressible data, managing demanding tasks like uncompressed 5K video capture with ease.
Gaming Performance
The BIWIN NV7200 proves itself an excellent choice for gamers seeking faster loading times. Its combination of high sequential read speeds and strong random access performance directly contributes to reducing wait times in games. This was evident in the Final Fantasy XVI loading benchmark, where the drive achieved results around the 10-second mark for all scenes in total, but around 2-3 seconds per scene. This performance indicates that users will experience minimal loading delays in games known for large assets or frequent loading screens, making an upgrade from older SATA or Gen3 NVMe drives particularly noticeable.
Thermal Performance
Despite undergoing numerous demanding benchmark runs, the NV7200 demonstrated impressive thermal control. The highest temperature recorded was a mere 47°C. This excellent result, aided by the integrated graphene thermal pad, suggests that the drive is highly unlikely to encounter thermal throttling issues, even under sustained load, in systems with limited airflow, and compact systems such as compatible laptops or handhelds.
Should I Buy One?
Yes, the BIWIN NV7200 presents a very appealing drive. If you’re looking for a performance upgrade from SATA SSDs or earlier generation NVMe drives without paying the premium for the absolute fastest Gen4 or Gen5 models, the NV7200 hits a sweet spot. It delivers excellent read and write speeds, strong random performance suitable for gaming and demanding applications, and runs exceptionally cool. Its single-sided design broadens compatibility, making it a great fit for desktops, laptops, and PS5 consoles. Considering its competitive pricing, range of capacities, and the reassurance of a 5-year warranty, the NV7200 is a highly recommendable PCIe 4.0 SSD that offers impressive value for money.
