In for review is the HIKSEMI FUTURE PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. This is available in four flavors: 512, 1024, 2048 and 4096 GB models.
What we have here is the 512 GB model, featuring specified sequential speeds of 7,050 MB/s read and 4,200 MB/s write. Now what interest me the most is its price – about ₱2,599 PHP (Lazada) which is nice for its speed and capacity.
Disclosure: HIKSEMI sent the FUTURE PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD for the purpose of this review. As usual, the company did not ask me to say anything particular about it.
Specifications
| Storage | |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 512 GB (also available in 1 TB, 2 TB and 4 TB) |
| Cache | N/A |
| Flash Controller | N/A |
| Flash Memory | N/A |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 |
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x4 |
| Sequential Read | 7,050 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 4,200 MB/s |
| Random 4 KB Read | 710 K |
| Random 4 KB Write | 640 K |
| Endurance | |
| MTBF | 2,000,000 Hours |
| TBW | 900 TB |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 80 mm |
| Width | 22 mm |
| Height | 2.2 mm |
| Weight | 7 grams |
Packaging and Accessories
The HIKSEMI FUTURE comes in a simple packaging.
Scope of delivery are as follows:
- HIKSEMI FUTURE PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
- Screw Driver and screw set
- Documentation
I have not seen this kind of bundled accessory in ages.
Design, Build and Connectivity
The HIKSEMI FUTURE looks exactly like your run of the mill NVMe SSD with a simple heat spreader except that it has a not-so-mainstream graphene sheet which is nice to see at its price point. Actually the first model at sub $50 USD that I’ve seen with one included.
The rear houses its label. Nothing much to see here as the 3D NAND and its controller are located at the front-facing side of the unit.
This is a PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD keyed in M.2 2280 form factor. Plenty of device supports such so its thermal output is the only thing that could hinder you from slapping it on a confined device. Spoiler alert, it is not that hot.
Throughput
The HIKSEMI FUTURE SSD starts strong at the Crystal Disk Mark benchmark, featuring a sequential throughput of 7225 MB/s read and 4497 MB/s write respectively. Random 4K performance on the other hand is decent but what gave this drive a hard time were the shallow queue depth benchmarks.
The same thing could be said at AS SSD where lower queue depth benchmark results are just middling. Considering its price range I cannot complain though.
The 512 GB model is still looking good in the grand scheme of things – if not great. It managed to breach its own specified sequential speed rating at Crystal Disk Mark which is something you don’t usually see from storage drives these days.
IOPS
Now I/O operations per second from CrystalDiskMark is pretty low compared to specs but I am not complaining yet.
At AS SSD, the HIKSEMI FUTURE is much closer to its specifications. Focusing on the Random 4K-64Thrd benchmark, we got a 577 K read and 476 K write.
IOPS results are acceptable for the drive’s price point.
Access Time
The FUTURE 512 GB gave us an overall sub 1 ms response time via Anvil’s Storage Utilities. I have seen drives at the same ball park price with way worst result and I am glad this one do not follow. HIKSEMI’s low latency claim is definitely not a marketing ploy.
Pretty good results we got here but it is what I already expected from an NVMe SSD.
File Copy
Going back to AS SSD, we now see how fast the HIKSEMI FUTURE could copy huge chunks of data. Fastest we got here is the ISO copy performance rated at 2290 MB/s rounded off but to be fair, you should be looking at the Program copy performance over the former.
Above translates to 0.47 s, while it took about 1.31 s to copy files similar to how a program would behave.
If you are thinking about using this as your Steam library storage device then I have no reason to object.
Compression
When it comes to a mix of compressible and un-compressible data, the HIKSEMI FUTURE is fairly consistent at read but not quite at write.
Temperature
With a decent thermal output, the graphene cooling patch works for this particular NVMe SSD. Should be fine inside a notebook and maybe on some consoles.
Final Thoughts
The HIKSEMI FUTURE is a fairly simple NVMe SSD apart from its graphene sheet. That said, there isn’t much to talk about its extra set of features. What I could tell though is that it supports S.M.A.R.T., TRIM and Volatile Write Back Cache. It also has 2,000,000 hours of MTBF and a pretty good TBW at 900 TB. Warranty is also at 5 years which is unheard of from a relatively new brand in this space.
Overall, I firmly believe it is safe to assume that HIKSEMI is trying to impress everyone with their FUTURE line of NVMe SSDs. I went in expecting nothing but mediocrity yet I was humbled by its performance – sans the good but not quite up to spec IOPS result.
Regardless of its IOPS performance – which is still fast for its price range, the HIKSEMI FUTURE also comes with a good mean time between failure, TBW and warranty coverage. That combination of performance and commitment to reliability made its current street price of just around ₱2,599 PHP a real steal.
HIKSEMI FUTURE PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD ₱2,599 PHP
Product Name: HIKSEMI FUTURE PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
Product Description: Just as the name FUTURE, this series is born to break limits and embrace the future. FUTURE SSD has faster speed, stronger performance, larger capacity, making users even more powerful in the world of game entertainment and content creation.
Brand: HIKSEMI
Summary
The HIKSEMI FUTURE PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD in its 512 GB variant fills in the void of sub $50 SSDs with its class leading performance and innate features. I have no idea how HIKSEMI did this but color me impressed.
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