Good price for a 4TB unit. Price now jacked to $239.45 from $233.99
Same controller and NAND as the Lexar NM790
Maxio MAP1602 controller with YMTC 232-layer TLC NAND
Review of 2TB version can be found here: https://www.servethehome.com/fanxiang-s880-2tb-pcie-gen4-nvm…
Seems to be the same price as the October deal - might be of interest to some.
Link to previous deal - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/809255
@netsurfer is the better person to ask
As a deal, the Lexar rep has already promised some BF promos so there is no reason to buy these C tier drives with questionable warranty and support
Interested in your view on this. I cannot really offer an objective view on this as I own a Lexar NM790 SSD.
How does the NM790 compare to the KC3000? Which is a better drive to get?
@stuffandthat: KC3000 is a better SSD. However, most people probably won't be able to tell the difference, unless they use their PCs for a lot of reads + writes at the same time (mixed usage) often, but even so, unless you actually compare the two side by side, it is unlikely you will notice. Do bear in mind that, most OZBers bought their Lexar NM790 2TB SSDs at $129 or lower each.
Lexar NM790, the SSD utility to do the firmware upgrade is subpar, as you need to manually download the firmware (not that there is currently any firmware update for NM790) and manually select it via the app.
Nice thanks for sharing ☺
@chatGPT can explain it in a more concise, straight to the point manner than me. The bits to watch out:
Fanxiang S880 2TB - Uneven ATTO benchmark result: reads are fine, writes are all over the place.
Fanxiang S880 2TB - Sustained Write Post SLC cache: decent but not great.
Interestingly, the site also did a review for NM790 4TB (which is great, so we can compare). Based on the reviews, my thoughts:
Overall, reads perform well, writes can be uneven depending on the situation.
TL;DR: you get what you paid for. A 4TB SSD at this price is attractive. Performance is good for general usage, but it's not in the same class as a proper flagship SSD. You are unlikely to get proper firmware updates. Also, you are looking at warranty from an eBay international seller.
I think the write consistency is a product of the YMTC 232L instead of just the controller. While the Maxio controller only has 2 Cortex R5 cores, my suspicion is that the inconsistent write performance is a result from design choices of the YMTC 232L NAND optimising for density/bandwidth but not latency, along with relatively immature control logic design for the NAND chips.
@systema: It's more likely to be a controller issue. Samsung 990 Pro and WD SN850X are examples of better controller getting better performance out of the same type of NAND (vs 980 Pro and SN850). Only 990 Pro 4TB uses Samsung's 232L NAND so far.
Maxio controller is known to be on the slower side for high queue depth random writes. Also, when you compared Fanxiang S880 and Lexar NM790, you can tell Fanxiang S880 is likely older / unoptimised. NM790 was able to get better performance… unless you are implying YMTC gave Fanxiang inferior grade NAND chips.
@netsurfer: The YMTC 232L can be peculiar with its performance characteristics, especially considering that it s a hexaplane design. While the hexaplane design helps the flash pump out more bandwidth per die, it comes at the cost of latency gains and logic required to utilise the internal parallelisation for higher bandwidth. Down busing NAND with subpar control logic isn't exactly something that has not been done before, especially in the budget end of the market.
AFAIK, Fanxiang's SSD is using the reference firmware as part of a turn key solution based around the Maxio controller, while Lexar / Longsys has done some further optimisation to better mask the performance inconsistencies in the NM790, but you can still see similar (but not identical) issues in ATTO.
@systema: When you take both results into consideration, it doesn't make sense the issue is the NAND (there are ones which S880 did well, but NM790 did poorly and vice versa). If the issue is indeed the NAND, then they should both do poorly. Being DRAMless and the way the reviewer tested it could explain the issue.
The way the reviewer tested it, it could reveal the weak side of DRAMless SSDs with a "cost effective" controller.
Sounds like the cheapest Lexar option would be at $275 according to the rep - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/14616000/redir
I think this one has sdram cache. The Lexar NM790 does not.
edit
my bad the Fanxiang S880 is dramless.
The Fanxiang S770 has dram cache and heatsink. It was on ozbargain before for about this price. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/809288
if you have $250 to throw away from buying a random branded drive with prolly no warranty and data loss. Why not buy a reputable branded drive by spending more ? Some choices make no sense to me..
buy a 2TB samsung drive or even crucial, corsair or lexar.
This is the way
They've been around for a while now.
prolly no warranty and data loss
Don't make shit up.
Have you claimed warranty with them ? quick google shows the drive sucks. https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/13oizvf/is_fanxia…
Who is making up stuff ?
And I bet Samsung, Crucial, Corsair and Lexar's warranty is perfect…lol.
Everyones got a budget, dude.
@The Value: Sure, but at least you have a local store to deal with warranties if you live close enough to one.
@The Value: Yeah then buy a 2TB drive from a retailer so you have local warranty and dont have to deal with companies and not throw away money.
There is no guarantee for those well known brands when we’re speaking on data loss.The product provides 5 years warranty as others mentioned below
It doesn't mean much if the seller is overseas and you can't enforce it. You are pretty much at the sellers mercy if they want to honour it or not
Personally, I've been burnt so often by SSD controllers crapping out, that I'm willing to fork out extra for reputable brands. I find it quite frustrating when that happens, even if it fails within warranty period
They have 5 years warranty. Nothing to lose tbh.
warranty from a China based company on ebay …dont think it exists. You cant even see your orders past 3 years on ebay.
Does eBay not help triage it? (Genuine question)
As a side note, I've had 3 SSDs fail in the past and they were all well-known brands (Crucial, Gigabyte Aorus 4th gen, Samsung)..
![[eBay Plus] Fanxiang SSD M.2 S880 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD 4TB $239.45 Shipped @ Fanxiang eBay](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/60/813960.jpg?h=14d3721d)
@ChatGPT I summon thee. Is this a good nvme for casual storage? (Like is it dramless, QLC etc)