NVMe SSDs have become more and more common in the last year, to the point where you can get a fast 500-512GB NVMe SSD right now for just over 170 lei. Precisely for this reason, more and more users are gravitating towards something like this, thanks to the much higher speeds than SATA SSDs, and the offer is as varied as possible. Today we will talk about a Lexar NM620 1TB SSD, which promises good speed for an affordable price. Let’s see if it is so.
Performance
What do you pay attention to if you want a balanced SSD? I say that the main indicator should be the price-performance ratio, because these are the most important aspects. You want good speeds that open your apps and operating system quickly, but top performance comes at a price to match. Thus, cost must also be on his mind, and with so many options from so many manufacturers, finding the perfect suitor can seem almost impossible.
Well, today I’m here to help you with that, because the Lexar NM620 costs about 340 lei on average, and it’s a very interesting offer. I’ll start with the performance, and right from the start the manufacturer boasts that this SSD has a proprietary controller developed in-house by Lexar. That would translate into some good speeds, and the numbers on the box promise 3,500MB/s for reading and not much less for writing, good numbers that fly in the face of the real-world performance of the Samsung 980 for example.
And guess what, Lexar doesn’t lie. I even laughed when I saw that the NM620 was able to achieve the reading speed promised by the manufacturer, and I’m not ashamed of the writing speed either. I repeated the test a few times because I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a one-off, but it wasn’t. Performance and temperatures remained consistent throughout several benchmarks, so I have nothing to comment on here.
Next, the PCMARK 10 test for the drives produced a respectable score of 1,824 points, a value that beats equals or even wins in some cases against models like the Crucial P3 or the WD Green SN350 that cost an idea more . And this is precisely the appeal of this SSD: good performance for its segment, at a price that is a fraction lower than the competitors.
The Lexar NM620 will also perform perfectly as a drive for the operating system or games. I tested some of today’s popular titles, such as Forza Horizon 5, CS2, and World of Warcraft, and the results were exactly as I expected. Don’t expect app opening speeds similar to what a PCIe 4 SSD would give you, but the differences aren’t as big as you’d think. Four seconds here, five there, and if you don’t have them side-by-side there’s every chance you won’t notice.
However, it should be noted here that the Lexar NM620 is not suitable for increasing the storage capacity of the PlayStation 5. I tried the experiment myself, although I know that Sony requires a PCIe 4 SSD and at least 5,500 MB/s read and write speeds, specs which today’s model does not meet. Predictably, the console immediately displayed an error message and refused to boot until I removed the SSD entirely.
But not everyone is looking for an SSD for play, some just want to make their work life easier. For them we installed ATTO Disk Benchmark, a more thorough test of transfer speeds that is designed to simulate a traditional workload. All said and done, we ran the test twice: the first time with a file size of 256MB, the second time with an 8GB file, to see how it behaves when larger sizes come into play.
And as I expected, the Lexar NM620 performed very well in both tests, with values that outperform rivals from Samsung and Crucial in this price segment. Not bad!
Other specs and impressions
Also, it’s worth mentioning that the Lexar NM620 is an M.2 2280 SSD, so it won’t fit in the even smaller 2260 or 2242 slots in some laptops. For any desktop PC it’s ok though, and it will also fit in many serious work or gaming laptops, but not all.
In addition, the warranty offered is also very good. Lexar touts a five-year warranty on the NM620, a value that rivals what other manufacturers offer on the market, so I have nothing to complain about. It’s also pretty shockproof, so if you drop it on the ground for some reason, the data on it should remain intact. It uses NAND flash 3D TLC chips, not the most modern and reliable standard but for home use it is more than enough. Installation is simple and easy, and you only need a screwdriver at most if your motherboard doesn’t have a quick release system.
Conclusion
Finally, is it worth getting a Lexar NM620 or not? Well, from my side the answer is a positive one, especially if we look at the price-performance ratio. In the 1TB version, the one I tested, the Lexar NM620 is about 50 lei cheaper than the rival from Samsung, the 980 model, all while the performance is marginally better.
The warranty is spot on, and I didn’t run into any stability issues or I know what throughout testing. So, for the money he’s asking for, I’d say it’s a very tempting offer.
