KITGURU SHORTLISTS: THE BEST SOLID STATE DRIVE OF 2022

The new drive sees the introduction of not only a new in-house controller but also the latest generation of Samsung's V-NAND.  The new PCIe 4.0 controller goes by the name Elpis. Details of this controller are pretty thin on the ground at the time of writing but what we do know is that it's built on an 8nm process, (the previous generation PCIe 3.0 controller in the SSD970 PRO, Phoenix, uses a 14nm process).

At launch the KC3000 line-up consists of four capacities; the entry-level 512GB, 1TB, 2TB (the drive we are reviewing) and the flagship, 4TB model. With the new 176-layer NAND being able to run at the E18's top 1,600 MT/s transfer rate, the KC3000 comes with an impressive set of performance figures. All four drives in the range are rated up to 7,000MB/s for Sequential reads with Sequential writes varying with capacity.

Corsair’s latest flagship PCIe Gen 4 SDD is the MP600 Pro XT. Offered in two varieties, one with a traditional SSD heatsink, while the other – the MP600 Pro XT Hydro X Edition – comes with a copper interior water block. The drives use a Phison PS5018-E18 controller together with Micron’s 176-Layer 3D TLC NAND, Micron’s fastest 3D TLC flash to date.

WD are in the fortunate position to have all three parts of the component jigsaw; NAND, controller and cache chip available in house so all three can be tuned to get the maximum out of any given drive. The SN850 uses WD's G2 controller which is used in combination with BiCS4 96-layer 3D NAND.

Patriot was early to the table with the Viper VP4100 and now we have the second generation Viper VP4300. Up until now the Gen4 drives we've looked at either have in-house controllers (WD and Samsung) or a controller from Phison (the E16 or the latest E18 chip) but for the Viper VP4300, Patriot has opted for a third option, by using a controller from a company called Innogrit.