Lexar NM710 SSD test – Fast, cheap and durable. You probably won’t get anything better for this price

I barely had time to finish testing the Lexar NM800 PRO SSDs, having previously reviewed the Lexar NM760, and I received another model below the two listed. The producer is not slowing down and intends to attack all segments. The Lexar NM710, which is the successor to the popular NM610, uses the not-so-popular Maxio controller plus Longsys 3D TLC NAND memory, but it has been very attractively priced and theoretically should defeat the class competition. At least at the moment, you will not find a faster carrier, which also turns out to be surprisingly resistant to filling up the usable space. Could the Lexar NM710 seriously mess up the storage market?

Author: Sebastian Oktaba

The SSD (Solid State Drive) technology is older than it might seem, because the first carriers that are the progenitors of the currently available ones appeared even before the Intel 286 processors. Why is it worth having an SSD? The advantage of semiconductor models over disk ones is devastating – devices using flash memories are more durable and noiseless due to the lack of moving parts. However, most importantly, they are much more efficient – especially in the case of operations on small or very small files. SSDs use four types of modules NAND Flash SLC, MLC, TLC and QLC – the first two are less and less common, and most consumer models are based on other systems. The key factors for the performance of carriers are also the controller and the appropriate firmware, which together determine the final performance of the tested devices.

The competition hates him, because he found a way to provide SSD media that is surprisingly fast and very well priced. If it is also resistant to filling up, it may turn out to be a really big surprise…

Lexar NM710 is based on the controller Maxio MAP1602A, a manufacturer associated so far with weak constructions, but consistently improving its solutions. The four-channel Maxiotech control system was made in 12 nm lithography (TSMC), probably using the ARM Cortex-R5 architecture. Not much else is known about the controller’s specs other than ONFi5.0/Toggle 5.0 support and a smart virtual cache (HMB) system. Maxio MAP1602A was used in the not very popular ACER Predator GM7 and Hikvision HikSemi C4000 carriers, so the real baptism of fire will pass only now. The 3D TLC NAND memories with the designation RH14TAA1442256G come from Longsyshowever, these are probably renamed modules Micron B47R having a 176-layer construction. The Lexar NM710 is a model without a DRAM memory buffer.

Lexar NM800 PRO SSD test – Strong competition for Kingston KC3000 and ADATA XP S70 Blade. Complete with a radiator

Declared transfers for Lexar NM710 media are 4850-5000 MB/s for reading and 4500 GB/s for writing, but theoretically the Maxio MAP1602A controller’s capabilities turn out to be much higher, reaching up to 7200/6500 GB/s. The manufacturer apparently deliberately limited the parameters of the device, but even the proposed transfers mean the absolute fastest carrier in its price category. The closest worthy competitor is the Crucial P3 Plus, although other rivals still work with the PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface – ADATA Legend 750, Crucial P2, budgets from Silicon Power or Apacer. However, the lack of information about the IOPS factor is a bit surprising, because the controller theoretically performs a million operations in writing and reading, so the paper specification does not bring shame. The carriers are covered by a 5-year warranty up to 600/1200 TBW, which is decent, but without revelations.