Bang-for-Buck NVMe Drive Option
Texas-based Mushkin is rolling out their latest SSD. It is a speedy M.2 2280 drive they are calling the Helix-L. The controller is a Silicon Motion SMI SM2263XT paired with 3D TLC NAND. This leverages the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface with the NVMe 1.3 protocol. Reaching speeds of up to 2,110MB/s sequential read and 1,700MB/s sequential writes.
“Mushkin fully embraces the adoption of PCIe NVMe SSD technology in gaming, professional, and embedded vertical market environments”. That is according to Brian Flood, Director of Product Development.
“We believe that with features like HMB, capacities up to 1TB and the aggressive price point of the Helix-L our customers in these market segments will find our Helix-L to be a very attractive offering.”
How Much is this Mushkin Helix-L SSD?
So far, Mushkin is only offering the drive in 1TB capacity. It is available now on Amazon for only $118 USD, which makes it a very competitive alternative to large capacity SATA SSDs.
In order to reach that price, there are obvious compromises necessary. Most obvious is the DRAM-less design, plus exclusion of any cooling mechanism. Competitors like ADATA for example, offer an optional heatsink that users can install.
Otherwise, Mushkin provides a 3-year warranty coverage for each Helix-L drive.
