Apacer AS2280F4 PCIe Gen5 1TB M.2 SSD Review

How Much Does it Cost?

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I couldn’t find the UK stock of this drive, but you can check Amazon for up-to-date stock and prices here. However, I can see it for sale in the US at NEWEGG, with the 1TB model I tested today listed for $299.99 and the 2TB for $499.99. Obviously, that’s not cheap, but keep in mind, that this is one of the fastest drives on the market, so you get what you pay for.

Overview

Apacer is well known for its high-end hardware, and its latest SSD is certainly no exception. It promised big read and write speeds, and it certainly delivered on both fronts. However, while we got closer to the theoretical read speeds than we did the write, both were still exceptionally fast. Why we didn’t reach the full write speed, I’m uncertain, but it can be any number of factors, but is not something I’m overly concerned about as it’s quite common to be hard to hit the peak speeds given by brands in all be the most perfect testing scenarios.

This drive comes with its own premium heatsink with an active PWM-controlled fan, and while it may not look like much, it’s more than powerful enough to keep this drive running at its absolute best. An uncooled M.2 Gen5 drive can quickly exceed 100c under heavy load. When this happens, the drive performance is throttled to bring temperatures back down, which is far from ideal. However, the heatsink ensured the drive never exceeded 66c, meaning it performed flawlessly even after multiple stressful benchmark runs.

It’s also quite an attractive drive, I like the heatsink design and think the little fan looks cool too. Plus, the fan is pretty small and very quiet, so by the time you install this into your PC case, I doubt you’ll ever hear the fan over the noise of any other single fan in your system.

With the latest NVMe 2.0 and PCIe Gen5 x4 interface, you will need a fairly modern motherboard to support it, and even then, a strong CPU and RAM configuration to really make the most of it too. While an SSD can be a quick upgrade to an older system, these Gen5 drives demand a fast PC to get the full benefit of them, but that’s hardly surprising given how much these drives still cost.

• Fully compliant with NVMe 2.0 & PCIe Gen5 x4
• Extreme read/write speeds of up to 12,000MB/s and 11,800MB/s
• Features an active cooling system custom-designed for Gen5 SSDs, realizing a remarkable temperature decrease of up to 25%.
• Wide range of storage capacities, up to 4TB
• Features SLC caching, advanced wear levelling, and auto-error correction
• 5-year global warranty

Should I Buy One?

Apacer has built a very fast drive with the Apacer AS2280F4 PCIe Gen5 1TB M.2 SSD, and with SLC caching, advanced wear levelling, and auto-error correction, its premium cooling solution, top-quality components and Phison controller, and a 5-year global warranty, you can push it to its limits with peace of mind. It may not be a cheap drive, but if you want fast and reliable performance, you won’t be disappointed.