At a look
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Handsome heatsink design
- Priced attractively
- Decent write efficiency for its class
Cons
- Slower in some ways than the plain Play 2280
- Marketed at Playstations that won’t assist HMB
Our Verdict
The attractively heatsinked QLC Lexar Play 2280 — a Costco unique — trails its TLC Play 2280 (non-SE) HMB PCIe 4.0 cousin in efficiency.
Price When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
$225
Best Prices Today: Lexar Play 2280 SE
There’s little question that the presently Costco-exclusive Lexar Play 2280 SE, which I assume stands for “Special Edition,” is a looker. The included stylized heatsink positively renders it a lower above the norm in look. However, whereas it’s a very good real-world performer for host reminiscence buffer (HMB) PCIe 4.0, it’s slower with random operations than the older (and pricier) Lexar Play 2280 that’s obtainable elsewhere.
And that’s in a PC. The Play 2280 SE will work within the PlayStation 5 that it’s marketed for, however that gaming console doesn’t assist host reminiscence buffer, which suggests you’re working off of secondary cache on a regular basis.
In different phrases, it received’t carry out in addition to a DRAM design in Sony’s {hardware}. The identical is true for all HMB designs, however Lexar is among the solely corporations I do know of that markets its HMB as if it’s specifically suited to the PlayStation. Come on now…
Read on to be taught extra, then see our roundup of the best PCIe 4.0 SSDs for comparability.
What are the Lexar Play 2280 SE’s options?
Created within the widespread 2280 (22mm vast, 80mm lengthy) type issue, the Play 2280 SE is a PCIe 4.0 x4, M.2, NVMe SSD sporting an Innogrit IG5236 controller, and layered QLC (Quad-Level Cell/4-Bit) NAND. The older Play 2280 makes use of a Maxio MAP1602A controller and TLC (Triple-Level Cell/3-bit) NAND — it’s not the identical drive.
Like the Play 2280, the Play 2280 SE is a number reminiscence buffer design, i.e. it makes use of your system’s reminiscence for main caching duties, versus devoted reminiscence on the SSD itself. HMB designs usually carry out on par or higher than DRAM designs in Windows Explorer giant file transfers, or sustained throughput, however lag in small file, random operations. The latter was very true within the Play 2280 SE’s case.
The guarantee for the Play 2280 SE is 5 years.
How a lot is the Lexar Play 2280 SE?
At the time of this writing, the Play 2280 SE was solely obtainable in a 4TB capability, solely at Costco, and priced at $225, together with the heatsink. On Amazon, the older 4TB Play 2280 is just over $250 on the time of this writing, and in addition obtainable in 2TB capability for $188.
The SE’s $225 is an efficient value, however I’ve seen WD’s wonderful SN7100 on sale for lower than both the Play 2280 SE or Play 2280, albeit with no heatsink. A heatsink is mostly a $10 to $15 add on.
Again, the Play 2280 SE is presently a Costco unique product so that you probably received’t discover it on sale for some time. Lexar did intimate that the drive may finally be obtainable from different distributors.
How does the Lexar Play 2280 SE carry out?
While not the quickest PCIe 4.0 host reminiscence buffer design I’ve examined, the 4TB Lexar Play 2280 SE isn’t far off general. That mentioned, it was mysteriously sluggish at single-queue reads in CrystalDiskMark 8 — even in comparison with the older Play 2280. AS SSD and ATTO didn’t agree, although the latter had the 2280 SE pegged as a slower author with its 2MB and 48MB knowledge units than any of the opposite measurement knowledge units.
You can see the story within the charts beneath.
The Play 2280 SE is presently a Costco unique product so that you probably received’t discover it on sale for some time
There was additionally a curious and distinct drop-off in random efficiency with a number of queues in comparison with the older 2280 Play.
The 48GB switch occasions had been basically a draw, although the WD Black SN7100 simply edged out the Play 2280 SE general.
Again, there’s not a lot to differentiate one in all these PCIe 4.0 HMB SSDs from the opposite within the 450GB write check. But once more, that is in a Windows PC with assist for host reminiscence buffer. The Playstation 5 doesn’t have that assist.
Despite the distinction in NAND sorts (QLC vs. TLC) the Play 2280 SE didn’t droop horribly in comparison with the Play 2280 when secondary cache was exhausted throughout a 950GB write. The SE dropped at across the 650GB mark to the 300MBps to 500MBps vary — roughly SATA SSD speeds. The plain Play 2280 averages about 200MBps sooner.
Regardless, 500MBps isn’t tragic and a testomony to only how far QLC has come within the final couple years. Once upon a time we noticed 50- to 75MBps native writing. Yuck.
Note that you will notice this drop-off sooner with lower-capacity Play 2280 SEs as they’ve much less NAND to deal with as secondary cache (writing the NAND as single bit SLC).
Another caveat: The Play 2280 SE didn’t like our Highpoint 7604A PCIe 5.0 card in any respect, delivering a somewhat haphazard efficiency in CrystalDiskMark 8. Make certain it’s joyful in your system throughout the merchandise return interval. CrystalDiskMark 8, AS SSD 2, ATTO 4 are all good measuring sticks.
As to the Playstation. Yes, the 2280 SE will work in that system, and also you’ll probably be proud of it. NVMe is extraordinarily quick, even when it’s counting on secondary cache. But DRAM designs will work higher in a Playstation, albeit for extra money.
Should you purchase the Lexar Play 2280 SE?
Though not the most effective performer in its class, the Play 2280 SE is nice in real-world sustained throughput — and I just like the seems. It’s additionally aggressive price-wise. What I don’t like is it being marketed for a system that it’s not ideally suited to. For your PC — 4 stars. For the PlayStation — 3.5 stars.
How we check
Drive checks presently make the most of Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit operating off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of reminiscence whole). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are built-in and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. PCIe 5.0 SSDs concerned in testing are mounted in a Asus ROG PCIe 5.0 M.2 adapter card and a HighPoint 7604A 16x PCIe 5.0 4-port M.2 adapter card.
We run the CrystalDiskMark 8 (and 9), AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 artificial benchmarks (to maintain article size down, we solely report one) to search out the storage system’s potential efficiency, then a sequence of 48GB and 450GB transfers checks utilizing Windows Explorer drag and drop to point out what you’ll see below Window, in addition to the far sooner Xcopy and FastCopy to point out what’s attainable.
A 25GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Highpoint 7604A is used because the second drive in our switch checks. Formerly the 48GB checks had been executed with a RAM disk.
Each check is carried out on a NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Note that in regular use, as a drive fills up, efficiency could lower attributable to much less NAND for secondary caching, in addition to different components. This situation has abated somewher with the present crop of SSDs with extra mature controllers and much sooner late-generation NAND.
Caveat: The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we had been shipped and to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can and can range by capability attributable to extra or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes throughout and the quantity of NAND obtainable for secondary caching. Vendors additionally sometimes swap elements. If you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report, by all means, tell us.