PNY's Latest NVMe SSD Is Really, Really Fast

• Gen5 PNY CS3250 hits up to 14,900 MB/s read and 14,000 MB/s write - blistering NVMe speeds.

• Thermal-coated controller (sticker) helps cool the drive to maintain peak speeds and extend reliability.

• 1TB $125.99, 2TB $219.99; 5-year warranty with TBW limit - marketed for AI, image gen, deep learning.

PCI Express Gen 5.0 is really, really fast, and where that's most visible is in SSDs and their read-write speeds. Now, PNY just launched its latest PCIe Gen 5 SSD, and it's really fast.

PNY has just announced the CS3250 M.2 NVMe SSD. Being a Gen 5 SSD, PNY states the CS3250 can achieve sequential read speeds of up to 14,900 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 14,000 MB/s. As usual, these speeds vary depending on the capacity. Still, that's pretty good. But it does have some things going compared to other Gen 5 SSD offerings as well. For one, a significant challenge for all PCIe Gen5 SSDs is heat. The high data transfer speeds generate considerable thermal output, which can cause the drive's controller to throttle and slow down performance to prevent damage.

PNY's stated solution for the CS3250 is a "thermal-coated controller." According to the product specifications, this design is intended to keep temperatures low, allowing the drive to "maintain peak speeds during heavy multitasking or transfers." The company also claims this thermal solution helps extend the drive's lifespan and long-term reliability. The thermal coating in question appears to be just a sticker—it's something we've seen in other drives as well, and it's the reason why you probably shouldn't remove those stickers since they're made of a special material that acts as a heatsink. Pretty cool.

PNY has explicitly targeted the drive at users with demanding workloads. Just like it's the case for pretty much all tech that launches this year, the company is highlighting how good it is for AI, as well as its suitability for "real-time image generation" and "deep learning tasks," both of which rely on rapidly feeding large datasets to the system's processor and GPU.

The drive is backed by a 5-year limited warranty. As is standard for high-performance SSDs, this warranty is also limited by a Terabytes Written (TBW) endurance rating, meaning the warranty expires after 5 years or after a specific total amount of data has been written to the drive, whichever occurs first.

The 1TB model is now available for $125.99, while the 2TB version will set you back $219.99. It's pretty competitive pricing for a Gen 5 SSD, all things considered. You can get yours now from Amazon .

Source: PNY