Kioxia Exceria Pro SSD Review

Kioxia Exceria Pro SSD is a storage product based on NVMe that promises high read and write speeds. Using PCI Express 4.0 technology, Exceria Pro falls into the professional grade SSD category and offers capacities up to 2TB.

PCI Express 4.0 is not an interface in every system. Today, many computers and laptops already use a PCIe 3.0 interface. In this context, we can say that Exceria Pro is designed for desktop and laptop computers that need the highest speed.

How fast is Exceria Pro?

Kioxia states that the SSD achieves sequential read speeds of up to 7,300 MB/s and sequential write speeds of 6,400 MB/s. These speeds reduce game load times and make it easier to work with 4K and higher resolution videos.

So what speeds can we actually achieve? Our first test is with CrystalDiskMark. We get 7293 MB/s in sequential reading and 6372 MB/s in sequential writing.

Our next test is with the BlackMagic Disk Speed ​​Test. Here too, we reach write values ​​of 5735 MB/s and read values ​​of 5181 MB/s. The SSD is at a level that can easily meet the needs of those who want to edit 12K RAW and ProRes video.

In real-world testing, we’re copying a 67GB Modern Warfare 2 to an SSD. Offering a writing speed of more than 2 GB per second, Exceria Pro completes the process in 33 seconds under Windows 11 22H2.

Kioxia’s SSD management software It also has its own text tool. Here too, we get values ​​of 6.95GiB/s of reading and 6.01GiB/s of writing, while we get a minimum delay of 9 us and an average delay of 132 us.

With AS SSD, we look at the input/output performance (IOPS) of the SSD. In 4KB 64 Threaded processes, the SSD can reach 587,730 reading and 1.444,017 IOPS writing.

Exceria Pro Temperature Values

Exceria Pro runs at 22 degrees at idle with a heatsink on the X670E system. After being subjected to continuous reading and writing tests for 15 minutes, it reached a maximum of 38 degrees Celsius.

Controller, Cache and NAND Chips

Toshiba uses a rebranded Phison PS5018-E18 controller. The E18 is Phison’s flagship PCI-Express 4.0 controller with eight channels. Built on TSMC’s 12 nanometer node, this controller uses five Arm Cortex R5 CPU cores. The E18 supports NVMe 1.4, TLC, DDR4 memory and 32 memory chips.

This controller is accompanied by Hynix DDR4-3200 MHz memory of 2 GB capacity.

There are four toshiba/Kioxia production 112 layer 3D TLC NAND chips on the SSD.

M.2 2280 Standard

M.2 SSDs, sometimes called stick SSDs, can be installed in both laptop and desktop computers. Exceria Pro also uses the M.2 2280 standard, which is currently the most common standard. Thanks to this standard, which does not use cables, unlike SATA, the cases have become more spacious. Incidentally, it is useful to remind from time to time: M.2 SSDs can also use the SATA protocol. On the other hand, the speed limit of 600 MB/s SATA is now a problem for modern SSDs. Exceria Pro also uses the NVMe 1.4 protocol in this context.

What is a 3D NAND Chip?

3D NAND is chipped into the chips where the storage cells are stacked vertically. Kioxia also uses 3D NAND chips, which it calls BiCS FLASH. In this way, the capacity is increased while the cost is reduced.

SSD Utility Management SSD

At Technopat we hesitate to recommend SSDs without management software. Kioxia not only manufactures the NAND and the controller, but also makes its own software. With the Kioxia SSD management software, you can instantly check the health of the SSD and get the highest possible performance from the SSD when the firmware update is released.

Conclusion

Kioxia has also joined PCIe 4.0 SSD manufacturers, and while doing so, it competes directly with the high-end models. These are models like the Samsung 980 Pro and WD Black SN850 that we reviewed earlier.

The product currently has a price tag of 4400 TL. One of the most affordable PCIe 4.0 SSDs after Kingston KC3000 and PNY XLR8. SSD that can easily find a place among your shopping preferences.

Kioxia Exceria Pro Technical Specifications

Kioxia SSD models