HP EX950 NMVe M.2 2TB SSD Review

A Closer Look

The HP EX950 2TB M.2 NMVe drive looks pretty much how you would expect. The M.2 form factor has been with us for quite some time now. This drive is in the M.2 2280 form factor, making it 80mm long. That’s a pretty standard size, so it should be broadly compatible with most motherboards and laptops without much concern for space.

The EX950 uses the PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface, which is again a pretty common interface too. Sure, it’s not the ultra-fast Gen4 interface, but it should be compatible with those ports, albeit still only operating at 3.0 x4 speeds.

The PCB is nicely laid out, it looks presentable, and comes with a smart-looking black finish; not that we see green/blue PCBs that often anymore.

It deploys the Silicon Motion SM2262 eight-channel controller. However, it has the HP logo, as it has likely been modified to meet some requirement from HP themselves.

There are four flash chips on this drive. They are all Micron 3D TLC NAND with a capacity of 512GB each to give us our 2TB total.

Finally, you’ll also find a pair of Micron DDR3-1600 RAM chips, giving it a total of 2GB RAM. However, keep in mind, that’s only true on the 2TB model, lower capacities will have less RAM.