For instance, the Mushkin Gamma is rated at 700TBW for its 1TB version and 1,400TBW for 2TB, while our top-rated ADATA XPG Gammix S50 Lite comes in at 740TBW for 1TB and 1,480TBW for 2TB. In comparison, TLC-based SSDs tend to be much more durable. (TBW generally scales with capacity, as it does here.) (Photo: Molly Flores) The 1TB Delta is rated at 200TBW, the 2TB model at 400TBW, and the 4TB version at 800TBW. "Terabytes written" is an estimate, according to the manufacturer, of how much data can be written to the drive in its lifetime before some cells begin to fail and get taken out of service. The main downside of QLC-based drives is that they tend not to be quite as durable as their TLC kin, at least as measured by their terabytes written (TBW) rating. We have reviewed another QLC-based drive, the Sabrent Rocket Q, in its 8TB (!) capacity, as well as the 4TB Sabrent Rocket Q4, another PCI Express 4.0 QLC-based drive. Thus, the Mushkin Delta comes in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities, while the TLC memory-based Mushkin Gamma maxes out at 2TB.
One advantage of QLC-based memory is that high-capacity drives employing it can be manufactured at a reasonable cost. Laptop support, in the form of accessible, upgradable M.2 slots that support 4.0, are spottier still.
You may have to install such a motherboard yourself, as support for PCIe 4.0 SSDs is spotty in prebuilt systems, barring some of the latest ones on upper-end chipsets. These include a select group of late-model AMD boards for Ryzen CPUs, as well as 2021's Intel Z590-based boards designed for the company's 10th Generation and 11th Gen ("Rocket Lake") CPUs. (Baffled by some of these terms? Check out our handy SSD dejargonizer.)Īlthough the Delta (like all PCIe 4.0 drives) is backward-compatible with motherboards that support PCI Express 3.0, to get the most out of this drive you need a system with a motherboard whose chipset supports PCI Express 4.0. It employs the NVMe 1.3 protocol over its PCIe 4.0 bus. It is built in the M.2 Type-2280 "gumstick" form factor common among modern internal SSDs. The Delta is a four-lane PCI Express (PCIe) 4.0 drive, based on 3D QLC NAND flash memory and featuring a Phison E16 controller. The one possible point of interest? Mushkin's aggressively priced 4TB version comes in at $499.99.
Look at it as an SSD price play for a budget PC with a late-model motherboard that can leverage a PCI Express 4.0-bus drive. The Delta's test scores are middling compared with those of similar SSDs, and it's merely decent as a budget drive, with a low durability rating typical of drives based on cost-saving quad-level cell (QLC) memory. The Delta is a more typical offering from a company known for its value-priced SSDs. Launched alongside the company's high-performance Mushkin Gamma SSD, the Mushkin Delta (starts at $149.99 for 1TB $299.99 for 2TB as tested) is less of difference-maker.
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