The PNY XLR8 CS3150 ($189.99 for 1TB as tested) is a version of the company’s CS3150 PCI Express 5.0 internal solid-state drive geared to gamers, with searing speeds (if you have the right hardware), a dual-fan heatsink, and RGB lighting that you can set to a range of patterns using downloadable PNY software. Of course, to see the lighting, you will need a desktop with a see-through case, and to get the drive’s PCIe 5.0 performance benefits, you either need a recent boutique computer that supports that standard or to build your own compatible rig with the latest components. As of this writing, only a 1TB version of the drive is available, making the slightly faster and cheaper Editors’ Choice-winning Crucial T705 (which is also available in additional capacities) a better buy. But this drive is the top looker among PCIe 5.0 models.Design: High-End Innards, Fan-Based Heatsink, RGB LightingThe XLR8 CS3150 is a four-lane solid-state drive running the NVMe 2.0 protocol over a PCIe 5.0 bus. This internal SSD comes in the standard M.2 Type-2280 “gumstick” format. The double-sided drive uses Micron 232-layer 3D TLC NAND chips and Phison’s Gen 5-optimized PS5026-E26 controller.
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The drive comes with a heatsink in place, with a small fan on either end. Between the fans is a letter X, plus “PNY XLR8” in small type. When the drive is running, the letters glow in RGB colors, with the lighting pattern set through PNY software, which you install on your PC.PCIe 5.0 SSDs—even ones with lower throughput speeds than the XLR8 CS3150—promise a major speed boost over PCIe 4.0 drives, but you can take advantage of it only if you have recent hardware that supports the standard. (You can still run a PCIe 5.0 SSD in a PCIe 4.0 slot, but you will only get Gen 4 speeds, with read and write throughput maxing out at around 7,000MBps.) Only the latest boutique desktops are likely to be PCIe 5.0-ready off the shelf, so you may have to build your own PC from the ground up or update an existing system to gain the required connectivity.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
You’ll need an Intel 12th Gen or later Core CPU with a motherboard based on Intel’s Z690 or Z790 chipset; or a Ryzen 7000 or 9000 processor with an AM5 motherboard built around an X670, X670E, B650E, or emerging 800-series chipset. One big caveat is that just because you have one of those chipsets doesn’t guarantee that the motherboard maker actually implemented a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 SSD slot. That’s up to the board maker, so check your system’s or motherboard’s specs and documentation to make sure you actually have such a slot before investing in one of these drives. Some boards have PCIe 5.0 expansion slots for graphics cards and other PCI Express cards, but you specifically need a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 slot.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The drive connects via an attached cable to a nine-pin USB header located on the motherboard that powers both the RGB lighting and fan (see the photo above). Most SSDs with fan-based heatsinks use a SATA power connector from your power supply to run the fan, but the USB header provides more versatility. The USB header connection lets you run the fan on an Auto setting or at full speed, and it enables access to nine different RGB lighting patterns through PNY’s VelocityX software. The software is available to download from the PNY site—the download link for the latest version is near the bottom of the page.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The CS3150 currently comes in a 1TB capacity, with a 2TB model not widely available yet. The drive comes in two versions; the PNY CS3150 has the dual-fan heatsink but lacks RGB lighting, while the PNY XLR8 CS3150, which is the version we tested, adds the lighting. (All references to the CS3150 in this review are for the XLR8 version.)
As for durability, expressed as lifetime write capacity in total terabytes written (TBW), the XLR8 CS3150 has a slightly better rating than the Crucial T700 and T705, which are both rated at 600TBW for their 1TB versions. The TBW spec is a manufacturer’s estimate of how much data can be written to a drive before some cells begin to fail and get taken out of service. PNY warranties the XLR8 CS3150 for five years or until you hit the rated TBW figure in data writes, whichever comes first. But the drive’s durability rating is such that unless you’re writing unusually large amounts of data to the SSD, it’s a safe bet that it will last the full warranty period and well beyond. The drive supports hardware encryption under the TCG Opal 2.0 standard.Testing the PNY CS3150: Speedy, Especially for GamingIn benchmarking the PNY CS3150, we used our latest testbed PC, designed specifically for benchmarking PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs. It consists of an ASRock X670E Taichi motherboard with an AMD X670 chipset, 32GB of DDR5 memory, one PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot (with lanes that have direct access to the CPU), and three PCIe 4.0 slots. It sports an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU using an AMD stock cooler; a GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics card with 8GB of GDDR6 SDRAM; and a Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 Snow 750-watt power supply. The boot drive is an ADATA Legend 850 PCIe 4.0 SSD.We put the CS3150 through our usual slate of internal solid-state drive benchmarks, comprising Crystal DiskMark 6.0, UL’s PCMark 10 Storage, and UL’s 3DMark Storage Benchmark, the last of which measures a drive’s performance in a number of gaming-related tasks.We ran Crystal DiskMark twice, with the fan on its default Auto setting and then with it on its high-speed setting. The high-speed results were a bit faster than those on auto across the board; in both cases the CS3150’s Crystal DiskMark sequential read score was a bit under its rated speed, while its write score was faster than its rating. The CS3150 also lagged the speedsters from Crucial and Corsair shown in the table below, which have higher rated speeds.
The XLR8’s Crystal DiskMark 4K (small-file) read scores were very similar on both the fan settings, while its 4K write results were 3.8% faster when the fan was set to high speed. Both sets were in the middle of a tight range of scores tallied by the PCIe 5.0 drives we have reviewed. (The one PCIe 4.0 SSD in the table, the Samsung SSD 990 Pro, had a 4K read speed comparable to the PCIe 5.0 drives but had a much slower 4K write speed.) Good 4K write performance is especially important for an SSD used as a boot drive, though we test them as secondary drives.The PCMark 10 Overall Storage test measures a drive’s speed in performing various routine tasks such as launching Windows, loading games and creative apps, and copying both small and large files. In this test, the XLR8 CS3150’s fan settings made no difference, as the scores were effectively identical with it set to Auto or high speed. The drive had the third-highest overall score among our comparison group.
In 3DMark Storage, a benchmark that aggregates an SSD’s performance on various gaming-related tasks, running the fan at full speed produced a statistically insignificant difference in score (barely half a percent higher) than when the fan was set to Auto. The CS3150’s score on this test was the second best, behind the Crucial T705.The bottom line regarding fan use is that although running the fan at full speed showed some improvement in Crystal DiskMark 4K write scores over when the fan was set to Auto, it had virtually no effect on its PCMark 10 score and minimal effect on its 3DMark Storage results.Verdict: Gen 5 Speed and RGB Bling, But Only 1TB of SpaceThe PNY XLR8 CS3150 proved its mettle in our benchmarking, with the second-best score on the 3DMark Storage test and third third-best overall score on PCMark 10. As of this writing, it is only available as a 1TB stick, though a 2TB version is due out soon. Many Gen 5 SSDs, including the Editors’ Choice-winning Crucial T705 and the Corsair MP700 Pro SE, are already available in both 2TB and 4TB capacities.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The T705, which has the highest rated and tested throughput speeds of any SSD we have reviewed, performed better than the CS3150 on our major benchmarks, especially on the gaming-oriented 3DMark Storage test. The XLR8 CS3150 costs slightly more than the T705 in its 1TB version—which includes a passive (finned) heatsink—but it has one thing that the Crucial SSD lacks: a cool RGB lighting display, in line with its gaming-centric DNA, to help trick out your PC. Just be sure to mod your rig if need be to get the full performance benefits of a Gen 5 SSD.
Pros
Comes with dual-fan heatsink in place
Colorful RGB lighting
Speedy performance, especially on gaming-centric 3DMark Storage benchmark
Meets TCG Opal 2.0 encryption standard
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The Bottom Line
PNY’s XLR8 CS3150 is a 1TB PCIe 5.0 SSD with a dual-fan heatsink and cool RGB lighting, making it a good choice for desktop PC builders who don’t need a ton of space.
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About Tony Hoffman
Senior Analyst, Hardware
Since 2004, I have worked on PCMag’s hardware team, covering at various times printers, scanners, projectors, storage, and monitors. I currently focus my testing efforts on 3D printers, pro and productivity displays, and drives and SSDs of all sorts. Over the years, I have reviewed iPad and iPhone science apps, plus the occasional camera, laptop, keyboard, and mouse. I’ve also written a host of articles about astronomy, space science, travel photography, and astrophotography for PCMag and its past and present sibling publications (among them, Mashable and ExtremeTech), as well as for the PCMag Digital Edition.
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