The SSD has a 2280 format, with a weight of 13 grams with the graphene radiator and 46 grams with the aluminum radiator that it includes, being very convenient that the company gives us the choice depending on whether our motherboard includes or not. a protector with heat sink included for PCIe SSD slots.
Unpacking and external analysis
The box of CARDEA Z44Q TEAM GROUP, like everyone’s NVMe SSD, it is quite compact. There we find important information, such as the most relevant technical specifications or instructions on how to place the aluminum and graphene heat sinks.
Taking everything out of the box, we find five different parts: the SSD, the aluminum heatsink, the metal bay in which to insert the SSD with the heatsink and the graphene heatsink.
If we go to the SSD itself, we find a controller Phison PS5016-E16, which is designed to achieve speeds of up to 5 GB / s read and 4.4 GB / s read. Hence, it pairs perfectly with this SSD drive. It is manufactured by TSMC under a 28nm node. Just above it is 1GB DDR4 RAM made by SK Hynix, and another one which is on the other side of the SSD, so we have 2GB RAM cache.
Regarding memory chips, we find four 512 GB modules each; two on one side and two on the other. On the label we can read “IA7HG66AWA», Which does not give us a lot of information when we Google more that they are manufactured by Micron and that they are QLC NAND 3D 96 layerss. Out of curiosity, we find that these memory chips are exactly the same as those found in solid state drives such as the Corsair MP400 and MP600.
Evidence of TEAM Cardea Z44Q
For performance testing, we used the latest AMD hardware to get the most out of this SSD with PCIe 4.0 interface. For this, we used the following computer with Windows 10 21H1 updated to October 24, 2021:
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
- Base Placa: ASUS ROG X570-E Gaming (BIOS 4002, AGESA V2 PI 1.2.0.3 Patch A)
- RAM memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3600MHz PC4 28800 32GB 2x16GB CL18
- Food: rest assured! Dark Power Pro 11 750 W
- Graphics card: MSI GeForce RTX 3070 VENTUS 2X OC 8 GB GDDR6
CrystalDiskInfo
From CrystalDiskInfo we can get some interesting information from the solid state drive, such as EGFM52.3 firmware that the controller has installed, or the 4 × 4 interface. We also see compatibility with NVMe 1.3 standard, and features such as SMART, TRIM and VolatileWriteCache. Curiously, the manufacturer specifies that the SSD disk is compatible with NVMe 1.4, but that only 1.3 is detected on the computer.
CrystalDiskMark
Moving on to the most important performance test of this SSD unit, we find a performance that not only achieves what the company promised in this same test, but even exceeds the official specification. In sequential read speed we get 4,993MB / s, which is almost the 5GB / s promised by the company, while in read we get 3,797MB / s, which is more than the 3,700MB / s of the official specification.
Performance on other reads and writes is also good, even at 4K random read. However, the best PCIe 4.0 drives on the market generally exceed 200MB / s read, and here we are down to 150MB / s.
AS SSD Benchmark
After CrystalDiskMark, the next test of the CARDEA Z44Q TEAM GROUP We did this with AS SSD Benchmark, which also gives us some interesting information. In addition to sequential and random read and write, we also have access times when reading or writing to the drive. In this case, we see that we are not facing one of the fastest disks, having 0.038ms reading and 0.025ms writing. Random performance data is similar to CrystalDiskMark, although in the sequential part we get a little less performance.
In this program we also have two other additional tests. In the first one we can see the speed of SSD when copying from ISO, program and game. Performance on large files like ISO is very good, while on programs it is very good. drop a bit to just 433MB / s. In games, we have acceptable performance.
Finally, we have the SSD performance test on uncompressible files. The reading performance is excellent and remains stable without any drop. In writing, we have a little less speed and occasional drops, which is generally normal.
ATTO disc benchmark
Continuing the tests, we now have ATTO Disk Benchmark, an ideal test to carefully analyze the performance of an SSD drive with files of all types of sizes, from 512 bytes to 64MB. the minimum performance of an SSD, and to see at what point its performance stabilizes.
The minimum performance we see is 38MB / s read. As we increase the size, we see that the speed increases, exceeding the gig with 16KB files. From 256KB, the speed stabilizes. We even get a bit more speed compared to the manufacturer’s official read specification with up to 5.26 GB / s, although a little less than the write specification with 3.45 GB / s.
Anvil reference
Finally, we have the Anvil Benchmark, which, although it hasn’t been updated for nearly eight years, at least serves to take a look at some interesting data such as IOPS as the storage unit. reached in read and write.
Unfortunately, in our testing we find that the unit falls far short of the official specification, with rather unstable performance and a figure that reaches 166,480 read IOPS and 251,671 write IOPS. The write speed reaches figures similar to those of ATTO Disk Benchmark, but the read speed drops considerably.
Temperature
The temperature of this Cardea Z44Q is similar to that found in other units of the company like the Cardea A440. We performed measurements with three different heatsink settings: one with the aluminum heatsink, one with the graphene heatsink, and one without the heatsink. For the aluminum heat sink you need to use the included yellow heat pad, while the graphene one is applied directly. The maximum temperatures indicated are for repetitive charging.
The ventilation at the front of the box has been set to maximum to ensure correct air flow. With an ambient temperature of 25 ºC, the temperature delta obtained was as follows:
As we can see, at rest the temperature between the aluminum radiator and the graphene one is identical, with a delta of 9 degrees. It is when we put high loads that the temperature rises to 59 degrees with the aluminum radiator, and up to 61 degrees with the graphene one. In general, both solutions are very good for cooling our SSD, but the aluminum heatsink is the option that gives the best performance when charging.
In the case of using the SSD without a heat sink, this is not a good option, because at rest the temperature rises up to 12 degrees delta, and under load it reaches 44 degrees higher than the ambient temperature up to at 69 degrees. This temperature is the maximum at which the unit can operate, and from then on its performance drops slightly to keep the temperature below the maximum 70 ºC specified by the company in the official specifications.
It is therefore mandatory use a radiator if we don’t want to experience thermal throttling. For a desktop, it is better to use the aluminum one, but if we have space issues because it collides with a component, we will also get good performance with the graphene one. In the case of placing it in a laptop, it is essential to use the graphene one to avoid temperature problems.
Conclusion of this Cardea Z44Q
The use of QLC memories is noticeable in this Z44Q case, which remains a more affordable version of the A440, and which is in fact an improved version of the Z440 with a controller that allows it to achieve quite acceptable performance. The Z44Q has memories with slightly lower durability and speed than the A440, but in return for a more contained price in what is one of the few PCIe 4.0 SSDs that can be found on the walked with QLC memory.
The performance is good enough to be able to use it without problem for games and for future features like DirectStorage, with 5 GB / s read and 3.7 GB / s write. Unfortunately, this speed is lower than the PS5’s minimum 5.5 GB / s requirement, although some users say they were able to install and configure it without a hitch. In addition, when the drive is full and the cache becomes full when writing information, the speed plummets to numbers of a few hundred MB / s.
Regarding the price, we have not found the official figure in dollars, but in US dollars it is $ 269.99 for this version. This makes it the cheapest PCIe 4.0 SSD on the market, where in this price range you can usually find PCIe 3.0 units with lower performance, and you have to go up to 300 dollars to find equivalent units in performance.
In exchange for that lower price, we have lower performance than we find in other more expensive solutions, but with a lot of versatility in terms of cooling options. Therefore, if you are looking for an SSD in which you prefer to sacrifice speed in exchange for more capacity for the same price, this drive is a great option; especially for storing games and getting the best performance out of them at specific times. To work with constant read and write access, you might be better off spending a little more.
For all this, the CARDEA Z44Q SSD TEAM GROUP M.2 PCIe receives the gold medal, and our recommendation for its value for money.
Table of Contents
