[SOLVED] Silicon Power P34A80 1TB (Phison E12) using Chinese NAND

Jan 11, 2020
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I used Tomshardware's SSD reviews to arrive at the decision to buy a 1TB Phison E12 equipped SSD. Then it came down to which brand/model and the Silicon Power P34A80 was the least expensive and through reviews, deemed to be comparable to Phison's own reference design, and that of other E12-based cards.

Imagine my surprise when I receive the 1TB model and it has completely different components than the one pictured on Tomshardware review. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/silicon-power-p34a80-pcie-gen3x4-m-2-nvme-ssd,6180.html

The model number is the same, however the one I received is using flash from a Chinese company "UNIC" and instead of Hynix DDR4 DRAM, the card I received is using Nanya DDR3 modules.

At first glance this seems like the classic bait and switch-- Silicon Power changing components to ones they can source much cheaper, and leaving the model number the same so as to swindle buyers... But then I question whether I'm being too pessimistic? Surely reverting to DDR3 for the buffer would have a performance penalty.

What do you folks make of this? I'm not going to be the guinea pig for performance testing; I'm sending the card back and getting a brand with known Toshiba flash. I think a component change of this magnitude warrants a new model number or revision suffix at the very least.
 
Solution
Yeah just send it back. I would not be happy if I did not received what I paid for. Not even taking the performance into account but just the fact that you didn't receive the good product.
Jan 11, 2020
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I can assure you it's not a fake, it was sold by SP directly, fulfilled by Amazon. They simply did some cost cutting and went with Chinese flash and DDR3 buffer.