Review of Mushkin Pilot M.2 NVMe SSD – Performance and Features

Mushkin Pilot NVMe SSD

Today, we are going to talk about the Mushkin Pilot NVMe SSD. It is made with a Silicon Motion SM2262 controller which is paired with the Micron 64-layer 3D TLC. The standard-sized M.2 2280 module has a green PCB and a blue sticker. If you put it under a heatsink, which many motherboards feature these days, you won’t even notice that part then.

The available capacities of this drive include 120GB, 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB which can meet different kinds of needs. And all of them feature LPDDR4 memory for getting better performance.

Drive Performance

When talking about SSD, most of you must concern about the performance of the drive. You may know that most of the SSD performance depends on the capacity.

Take the 1TB version as an example. It is the fastest one which has 2710/1775 MB/s sequential read and write performance, and the random performance comes in at 28K/28K IOPS.

As to the 2TB version, it has 2705MB/s and 1600MB/s sequential read and write performance, and the random performance comes in at 28K/28K IOPS which are the same with 1TB version.

However, the 500GB version hits the sweet spot. It performed with 2680/1755 MB/s sequential read and write and 335K/277K IOPS random read and write.

The rest two smaller version have the lowest read and write speed, but they are still faster than SATA3 drives. In detail, the 250GB version has 2470/1000 MB/s sequential and 179K/257K IOPS and the 120GB version gets up to 1215/515 MB/s sequential and 91K/133K IOPS random.

Endurance and Warranty

As a matter of face, endurance is an important factor when referring to the SSD drives and many of you must care about this point. From the official introduction, you can see that the drive can run when the operating temperature is between 0°C-70°C, and the storage temperature is -40°C-85°C. Besides, it can tolerate a 1500G shock resistance.

Additionally, you can get a 3 years’ warranty when you buy this Mushkin Pilot M.2 NVMe SSD drive.

Features

Then, we will talk about the features about this Mushkin Pilot M.2 NVMe SSD drive.

Mushkin added the MEDS system to the Pilot NVMe drive. Here, MEDS means Mushkin Enhanced Data-protection Suite, and this system can guarantee that the valuable files on the drive can be well protected.

In addition, this MEDS system includes LDPC ECC error checking and data correction, end-to-end data path protection, data shaping, static data refresh, and global wear-levelling.

Additionally, the Mushkin Pilot M.2 NVMe SSD also uses SLC caching which can accelerate burst performance and support L1.2 power mode for ultra-low power consumption.

It supports both NVMe Security Erase and NVMe Deallocate (NVMe equivalent of TRIM command) function. You can also obtain the S.M.A.R.T. support which enables you to monitoring the health situation of the drive.

Package and Accessories

The Mushkin Pilot M.2 NVMe SSD is packaged in a blister pack showing the included drive right away. However, the front of the package doesn’t show more information about the drive.