A PCIe 4.0 Solid State Drive which uses NVMe 1.4 technology and which promises to excel in all storage solution areas!
Product on Review: Exceria Pro
Manufacturer: Kioxia
Street Price: 2TB Model – $280 USD | $529 AUD
KIOXIA, is a key player in the realm of memory and storage solutions. Formerly known as Toshiba Memory Corporation, the brand has redefined the landscape of data storage and have been on a mission to consistently push the boundaries of what’s possible for SSDs, NAND flash memory, and other storage solutions.
The KIOXIA EXCERIA PRO SSD brings a blend of high performance and modern design to the storage division. Tailored for both professionals and gamers, this SSD focuses on speed, reliability, and efficiency. With a seamless combination of technology and design, the EXCERIA PRO SSD aims to enhance data storage, access, and transfer experiences.
Kioxia on their Exceria Pro
The all-new KIOXIA EXCERIA PRO SSD Series uses next generation technology to take your high-end computing and gaming into a new realm of possibilities. Leveraging PCI Express® 4.0 technology, this updated professional-class SSD series now offers up to 2TB of capacity well-suited for both high performance desktops and notebooks needing maximum speed.
Technical Specifications
Below are the technical specifications surrounding the EXCERIA PRO:
Capacity
1TB, 2TB
Form Factor
M.2 Type 2280-S2-M
Interface
PCI Express® Base Specification Revision 4.0 (PCIe®)
Flash Memory type
BiCS FLASH™ TLC
Interface Maximum Speed
64 GT/s (PCIe® Gen4x4)
Dimension (Max: LxWxH)
80.15 x 22.15 x 2.23 mm
Interface Command
NVM Express™ Revision 1.4 command set
Weight
1TB: 7.6 g (typ.)
2TB: 8.0 g (typ.)
1TB, 2TB
Form Factor
M.2 Type 2280-S2-M
Interface
PCI Express® Base Specification Revision 4.0 (PCIe®)
Flash Memory type
BiCS FLASH™ TLC
Interface Maximum Speed
64 GT/s (PCIe® Gen4x4)
Dimension (Max: LxWxH)
80.15 x 22.15 x 2.23 mm
Interface Command
NVM Express™ Revision 1.4 command set
Weight
1TB: 7.6 g (typ.)
2TB: 8.0 g (typ.)
Closer Look
Kioxia has kept things simple with the packaging of EXCERIA PRO and it arrives in a small, nicely designed box which states the estimated speed, capacity and form factor of this drive. Inside, all that accompanies the drive is some documentation.
EXCERIA PRO conforms to the M.2 form factor and more specifically the 2280 size, there is no heatsink or RGB lighting with this drive – it is simple as is.
EXCERIA PRO uses Toshiba TC58NC1210GSE-00-BB Rebranded Phison E18 controller which is DRAM-less. This drive also lends itself to using 176-layer TLC 3D Flash.
Over the next pages we’ll be putting the EXCERIA PRO under examination to see what you can expect in terms of performance.
Test Setup & Methodology
Our test system is formatted and a fresh version of Windows is installed with just drives in place – no additional applications. Windows is then updated to the latest release and the drivers are installed.
Included in the list of benchmarks are the following applications:
BENCHMARKS
Anvil Pro
AS SSD
ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
AIDA64
AS SSD
ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
AIDA64
TEST CONFIG
CPU Intel Core i9-12900K
Motherboard MSI Z690 UNIFY
Graphics GIGABYTE RTX 3060
Memory 64GB CORSAIR Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5
Storage KIOXIA EXCERIA PRO
PSU Corsair HX1050 Gold
OS Microsoft Windows 11 Professional 64-Bit
Motherboard MSI Z690 UNIFY
Graphics GIGABYTE RTX 3060
Memory 64GB CORSAIR Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5
Storage KIOXIA EXCERIA PRO
PSU Corsair HX1050 Gold
OS Microsoft Windows 11 Professional 64-Bit
Benchmarks: Anvil Pro
Anvil Pro from Anvil Storage utilities is one of the most popular storage benchmarking utilities today thanks to the large suit of tests available. You can test pretty much anything from Read/write Speed to IOPs with many variables to tweak allowing you to get either a single or host of results to compare with other likeminded enthusiasts. In our test we ran the standard suite 5 times, subtracting both the highest and lowest scores and determined the final result from the average of the remaining three results.
Benchmarks: AS SSD
AS SSD Benchmark is a straightforward tool for measuring the speed of your SSD drive.
Simply launch the program, choose your drive, click Start, and it’ll test your SSD’s read and write speed in a variety of ways, delivering a score for each when it’s done. And if that’s not enough, there are also additional file copy and compression-related benchmarks available from the Tools menu. (The author’s support page is German only, but if you need further English explanations then there’s a thread on the program at the OCZ Technology forum.).
Simply launch the program, choose your drive, click Start, and it’ll test your SSD’s read and write speed in a variety of ways, delivering a score for each when it’s done. And if that’s not enough, there are also additional file copy and compression-related benchmarks available from the Tools menu. (The author’s support page is German only, but if you need further English explanations then there’s a thread on the program at the OCZ Technology forum.).
Benchmarks: ATTO
The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.
Benchmarks: AIDA64
AIDA64 Product PageThis simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core-based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.
Benchmarks: CrystalDiskMark
CrystalDiskMark is an open-source disk drive benchmark tool for Microsoft Windows. Based on Microsoft’s MIT-licensed Diskspd tool, this graphical benchmark is commonly used for testing the performance of solid-state storage. It works by reading and writing through the filesystem in a volume-dependent way. It generates read/write speeds in sequential and random positions with varying numbers of queues and threads.
Conclusion
The prowess of the EXCERIA PRO is undeniable, as clearly noted in the results from the previous pages of performance tests – it’s crystal clear that we have a blazing fast SSD in our hands, and one that isn’t going to stretch too many budgets.
In most of the tests we ran, the EXCERIA PRO topped out and lead the pack both for outright throughput and IOPS capabilities, making it an excellent all-round choice for those wanting a fast storage solution for gaming and intense workflows.
If you have a PCI-E 4.0 ready motherboard then you can’t go wrong with this drive. It is available in 1TB, and 2TB option, its just a shame larger isn’t also available.
Our 2TB model is priced at $280 USD | $529 AUD. This drive is also backed by a lengthy 5-year warranty which is considerably more generous than we’ve encountered for a storage drive.
Pros
+ Excellent performance
+ No installation issues due to lack of heatsink
+ Simple design with no RGB
+ 5 Years Warranty
Cons
– None apparent
+ Excellent performance
+ No installation issues due to lack of heatsink
+ Simple design with no RGB
+ 5 Years Warranty
Cons
– None apparent
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