MyDigitalSSD BPX Value NVMe SSD Review

Status
Not open for further replies.

Game256

Commendable
Sep 8, 2016
31
0
1,560
This is actually not a bad budget NVMe SSD. This SSD is more like what Intel 600p should look like. Because Intel 600p is a disgrace for a NVMe drive.

However Samsung 960 EVO will cost about the same, especially 250 Gb version.
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator

What is so special about that picture? The "wavy" pattern? Nothing special about that, it is just an uneven wafer cut, possibly caused by a worn diamond saw blade, insufficient lubrication/flushing, uneven pressure through the cut or any number of other flaws in the wafer cutting process.
 
It's just frustrating when you find a review someplace and all it turns out to be is pretty much the marketing description verbatim (or nearly so) and no hands-on testing, lab or otherwise. (You see this quite a bit with products unfortunately.)

It's one reason sites like this can be, and are, valuable tools. Keep up the good work.
 

Xajel

Distinguished
Oct 22, 2006
167
8
18,685
I wonder how these will compare against Samsung 960 Evo, for the 512GB part, Samsung is $50 pricier than this with a little higher performance than this on paper, but with less endurance
 

CRamseyer

Distinguished
Jan 25, 2015
425
10
18,795
It will be interesting to see for sure. We tested the PM961 (results are in the 512GB charts) and its a close battle. It really depends on your workload but as they say, $50 is $50.
 

Bruce427

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
74
0
10,630
Thanks for the great review, Chris.

I was all set to order the 240GB version as a place holder until the Samsung 960 drives are delivered (looks like Samsung is going to significantly miss their "October" target -- especially on the EVOs).

But the exceptionally low notebook battery life spoiled the deal for me.

You said Phison has been unable to replicate your low notebook battery life results with the E7 controller. Is it possible that the drive might exhibit better battery life performance in a notebook other than a Lenovo?
 

nebun

Distinguished
Oct 20, 2008
2,840
0
20,810
where is the heatsink....these things get really hot under load....they really need to do something about it....not throttle it down...that's a patch, not a fix
 

Brian_R170

Honorable
Jun 24, 2014
288
2
10,785
The listed price doesn't quite match the Intel 600p street price, but maybe when it hits retailers, it'll be closer.

Not many reviews of MyDigitalSSD products or service compared to better-known brands, though.
 
It's hard to fit a heat sink on an M'2 drive because most mboards have them between card slots, where they'd have to fit under double-slot GPUs and other cards. Not that I don't agree with the idea of heat sinks, or at least different placement on the mboard that puts them under better airflow, but it would restrict the product on the market.
 

CRamseyer

Distinguished
Jan 25, 2015
425
10
18,795


It doesn't need a heatsink. The controller never got over 49C in our tests.

We have some new test methods coming up for 2017 and one of them monitors the temperature and takes a measurement once every second. We will publish the thermal results. Right now we're in the development phase with the software but stay tuned. For now, we are just posting thermal and thermal throttling issues if we find them.
 

HERETIC-1

Commendable
Aug 18, 2016
50
1
1,530
Hi Chris,
Like the separation of the sizes-easy to read-not too cluttered.
This comment"Phison packages the flash"really surprised me,
I was under the impression this was all done by Toshiba-like
with their SATA drives.

Perhaps I'm wrong but I thought nearly all FF-S10 SATA drives
were made by Toshiba and re-labled with different firmware tweaks...
 

CRamseyer

Distinguished
Jan 25, 2015
425
10
18,795
In the Intel 600p review we added a section with the 600p against the fastest SATA SSDs. The 600p was faster in many applications. The Samsung 850 EVO 500GB delivers 308 MB/s in the Storage Application test. The MDD BPX 480GB delivers 567 MB/s. It is a healthy increase and one you will notice with a properly configured system.
 

CRamseyer

Distinguished
Jan 25, 2015
425
10
18,795


That is the hundred Dollar question right now. I only own Lenovo notebooks that support NVMe and I don't have access to any others. NVMe support is still fairly new and expensive. Phison doesn't see the same gap testing with Acer systems running the same test.
 

Bruce427

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
74
0
10,630
** [Chris] Phison doesn't see the same gap testing with Acer systems running the same test. **

If further testing by Phison turns up battery life issues that just affect *some* notebooks, is this something that could be fixed/addressed by a future firmware update?
 

Bruce427

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
74
0
10,630
Chris,

On the 240GB version the factory specs on Sequential Write say 1300MB/s. But your test is showing about 800MB/s.

Am I reading this incorrectly, or did the drive not meet specs?
 

CRamseyer

Distinguished
Jan 25, 2015
425
10
18,795
On the notebook side it is difficult to tell what is going on. I don't want to throw the Lenovo Y700-17 under the bus. It performs fine with every other NVMe SSD. That said, it's only one notebook out of many (I actually own three Y700-17s, two for testing, one for gaming). Compatability issues are usually fixed with either firmware or a driver. Sadly, Phison has yet to release an E7 specific NVMe driver. I would like to see a driver and have rung the bell several times.

On the performance topic I can say the MyDigitalSSD BPX actually outperforms the specifications released. The difference is how NVMe works, how companies test, and how current generation software requests data. Until we get an operating system and general use software that utilizes the protocol to it's potential I don't want to change the testing methods.

Have you ever highlighted several icons and accidentally opened them all at one time when you really meant to delete or move them? NVMe is awesome when you do that. The 25 applications, documents and pictures open really fast. Most of the time we only open one application at a time. That's not to say we don't keep several open at one time, we really only use one or two at one time.

Imagine an airport with eight runways. In theory you could mix a combinations of up to eight planes landing and up to eight planes taking off. The bottleneck is the single air traffic controller calling out the flight pattern.

I'm on a roll at 5AM so I'm going to give you another one.

Testing storage is like going to the beach. There are thousands of ways to test a device. It's like looking down and picking up a single grain of sand. At some point you have to ask, why this one? I try to pick the sand that most people walk on and not a piece off the path. I could show that drive writing at 1150 MB/s by selecting an obscure test pattern but that won't make your game open faster.
 

Bruce427

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
74
0
10,630
Thanks Chris.

BTW, I noticed that MyDigital Discount is giving a 6% discount on all pre-orders for the new drives. I appears that the pre-order price will be in effect until the drives arrive in stock (maybe 2 weeks).

So that makes a great deal ever better.
 

Bruce427

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
74
0
10,630
Well, disappointingly, Samsung has now delayed the 960 EVO series until near Christmas. So we probably won't get actual delivery this year.

So, I ordered the 240GB MyDigital as a place-holder until the Samsungs arrive. MyDigitialDiscount is currently selling that model for $107 and change.

Considering the performance, at that price it is hard to beat.
 

Bruce427

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
74
0
10,630
I just received an email from MyDigital tech support as a response to my inquiry re: battery life.

I was told that in early 2017, Phison would deliver a Controller (the E8), designed for notebook use, that would consume less power.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.