The new PNY XLR8 Gaming CS3140 PCIe Gen 4×4 NVMe SSD marks the pinnacle of PCIe Gen 4×4 storage speed with up to 7000+MBps read and 6000+MBps write speeds. Is this the next SSD for your gaming builds? Read on to find out.
As the flagship NVMe storage product, the CS3140 is categorized under the XLR8 Gaming label, however, that doesn’t mean this SSD is made exclusively for gaming. Content creators and professionals who demand the most out of their storage performance will also benefit from the advantages offered by this product.
The SSD comes in a 2280 form factor with 2TB and 4TB models utilising the double-sided NAND chip arrangements.
PNY XLR8 Gaming CS3140 Specification
| Capacity | 1TB 2TB 4TB 8TB |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 |
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 |
| Controller | Phison PS5018-E18 |
| NAND Type | Micron 176-layer TLC NAND |
| DRAM | 1GB DDR4 |
| Read/Write Speed (Rated) | 1TB: 7,500 MB/s (Read), 5,650 MB/s (Write) 2TB: 7,500 MB/s (Read), 6,850 MB/s (Write) 4TB: 7,500 MB/s (Read), 6,850 MB/s (Write) 8TB: 7,000 MB/s (Read), 5,900 MB/s (Write) |
| IOPS | Unspecified |
| Write Endurance | 1TB: 700 TBW 2TB: 1400 TBW 4TB: 3000 TBW 8TB: 6000 TBW |
| MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) | 2,000,000 hours |
| Warranty | 5 years |
Benchmark
Test System
| CPU | Intel Core i9-12900K |
| Motherboard | AORUS Z690 Pro AX |
| Memory | ADATA XPG LANCER RGB DDR5@6000MHz CL30 (16GB x2) |
| GPU | Galax NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti |
| Storage | KLEVV C920 2TB (Boot) Test drives: PNY CS3140 1TB PNY CS3140 2TB PNY CS3140 4TB |
| Power Supply | GAMDIAS CYCLOPS X1-1200W-P |
| Case | Cooler Master MasterFrame 700 |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Pro 22H2 |
CrystalDiskMark
1TB
As the development of the PCIe Gen 4×4 controller matures, we are getting ridiculous read/write speed claims on the marketing material. Some of you may not have noticed but there are plenty of high-end PCIe Gen 4×4 SSDs being marketed with over 7000MBps read speeds, in this case, 7500MBps. That is, the theoretical peak read speed except that we are being limited by our setup at the 7000MBps range.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
ATTO shows a better picture of the IO size that is favourable for the CS3140 4TB:
- 128KB~64MB for Writing
- 256KB~64MB for Reading
The same applies to the 2TB drive.
The 1TB drive has a different tier of performance due to the use of fewer NAND chips.
Temperature
“With great speed comes great heat”
Without an SSD heatsink, the CS3140 quickly thermal throttles during our burn test, with a recorded peak temperature of 79C.
Since this SSD is being sold with or without a heatsink, you will need to reevaluate your motherboard’s SSD cooling and determine if you need the additional cooling solution or not.
Conclusion
The PNY XLR8 Gaming CS3140 has certainly lived up to our expectations as a high-end PCIe Gen 4×4 SSD with a competitive price tag:
- 4TB – RM1,689 (price per gigabyte RM0.422)
- 2TB – RM639 (price per gigabyte RM0.3195)
- 1TB – RM359 (price per gigabyte RM0.36)
Most of the SSDs of this performance would be priced near RM400 for the 1TB variant. Of course, there are plenty of affordable choices available, especially the ones without a DRAM cache. That is when you don’t mind the lack of it. For example, the purpose is as simple as game storage. The CS3140, on the other hand, is excellent for all purposes, including as a boot drive or even as a perfect replacement drive for the PS5.
Worth mentioning is the warranty as PNY offers a 5 years warranty for all CS3140 models. As long as your product packaging contains the sticker, you may contact Fusion Tech Supply Sdn Bhd (Malaysia distributor) or PNY’s Malaysia Facebook Page for any product or warranty-related enquiries.
