KLEVV CRAS C930 2TB M.2 SSD Review

KLEVV is one of the best memory and storage brands on the market, with a product range that's packed with flagship hardware and premium quality products, a trend I hope to see continue with today's review of their brand-new CRAS C930 2TB SSD. Featuring the fast speeds of PCIe Gen4 technology and utilising the NVMe 1.4 interface, this won't be the fastest drive we've ever tested, but it certainly won't be slow either! The KLEVV CRAS C930 unleashes the performance of the NVMe hardware thanks to its high-performance heatsink (optional), and comes with a range of features to ensure it can maintain its performance throughout its lifespan. The KLEVV CRAS C930 is also compatible with the PlayStation 5, making it appealing to both console and PC gamers wanting to boost their performance and capacity. KLEVV CRAS C930 Features Optional Add-on Aluminum Heatsink - Offering highly efficient attachable aluminium heatsink for user to freely install based on ones preference. Performance Enhancing DRAM Cache Buffer - Equipped with DRAM cache as a buffer to improve both speed performance & durability as a whole significantly. Intelligent SLC Caching Algorithm - Enhanced durability and read/write performance with the application of SLC caching technology. S.M.A.R.T. for Condition Monitoring - Maximize product stability through the built-in S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology). LDPC ECC & Global Wear Leveling - Provide satisfying data retention/protection and overall lifespan extension. Powerful AES 256-bit Encryption - Support AES 256-bit Hardware-based Encryption to ensure superior data security. For in-depth features and specifications, please visit the official KLEVV CRAS C930 SSD product page here. Packaging & Accessories The box is pretty busy but has a clear photo of the SSD on the front, and badges show the capacity, speeds and features, covering just about everything you need to know on the front. Around the back, there's a quick rundown of the key features, and showing the differences between the speeds of the 1TB and 2TB models. It's well protected on the inside, with the SSD on one half and the heatsink on the other, but the two just clip together anyway, so it's easy enough to assemble. Overall, simple enough, it's plug-and-play ready, so let's get to it! A Closer Look The drive itself is what you would expect from an M.2, and comes in the most common 2280 form factor, with the controller and VRAM on the left, and two memory ICs on the right. Everything is well laid out, so if you're using the included cooler, or using your own heatsink that may be on your motherboard already, it should be easy to keep cool. Plus, since this is only PCIe Gen 4, not the later Gen5, these drives generally run a fair bit cooler anyway. Around the back, there's a simple sticker over the rear of the PCB, nothing fancy, but pretty much what we expected. The included heatsink is really nice, with a single-piece construction and made from aluminium. There are some added fins on one side, increasing the surface area, and every little bit will help improve the cooling performance. The heatsink has a 3M thermal pad and adhesive on the back, so just peel off the cover and clip it onto the SSD. Now that it's fully assembled, it's ready to use, so let's get it onto the test bench and see what it can do! Preparation The drive will be formatted as NTFS with default settings, as most users will do. The quick format option isn’t used as that might affect the performance the first time data is written. Modern operating systems all take care of the TRIM command in the background and it isn’t something to worry about for regular users. However, for these reviews, I will add a waiting period between each benchmark to make sure that the TRIM command has been fully executed and finished. After all, we want a clear picture of the drive’s performance with minimal interference from the operating system. Data We will start with a typical benchmark analysis of the formatted drive with various fillage scenarios. However, depending on how a drive is built, the performance may differ depending on how much data it is already storing. The drive will be tested empty and at 25%, 50%, and 75% space usage for this area. We’re using Anvil’s Storage Utilities and CrystalDiskMark for this part of the review. Hardware Processor: Intel Core i9 12900K Graphics Card: XFX Speedster RX 6800 XT MERC Motherboard: ROG MAXIMUS X690 EXTREME RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5200Mhz 32GB(2x16GB) Storage: Seagate FireCuda 530 PCIe Gen 4 2TB M.2 (Primary Drive) Power Supply: NZXT C1000 Gold Case: NZXT H7 Flow Cooling: NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Software CrystalDiskMark Anvil’s Storage Utilities ATTO Benchmark Windows 11 64-bit Straight away, this drive is flying, with PCIe 4 limits being around 7000 MB/s and this drive smashes through that to 7133.25, so definitely maxing out the interface here, and even the write speeds are very high, at 6791.55. Again, the IOPS are very high, easily maxing out the PCIe 4.0 hardware, and no signs of throttling here. This is a great score for a PCIe 4 drive, hitting over 23000 points in the Anvil benchmark, and excellent read and write speeds, with similarly high IOPs here too. With ATTO, we see the drive getting up to its maximum speed very quickly, hitting 6.33 GB/s from around 512KB write transfers, and the read peaking from around 2 MB/s. AS SSD is showing fast loading times for both programs and gaming, all under four seconds. A strong score of near 10,000 here, with extremely fast read and write access times of 0.010 and 0.014ms. And very consistent, the exact same score while testing the IOPs. AJA is great for testing the drive for high-end camera devices and with the 10bit YUV 1GB test file, it scored around 6000 MB/s, so definitely no issues here. For PCMark, we can see fast loading times for all games, and excellent disk access times, which can help reduce unwanted stutters when loading new scenes, saving games, etc. Running our compression test, the write speeds are extremely consistent, and while there is some drop in the read speeds at around 80% it's quite small, and on par with what we expect to see in this test. Final Fantasy XIV can have quite long load times, but with this drive, each scene loaded in around two seconds and the total load time was just over 11 seconds, coring an "extremely high" rating overall. The included heatsink is clearly working very well, with the drive never exceeding 52c throughout all of our testing, and given we run quite a few demanding benchmarks, this is very impressive. How Much Does it Cost? Unfortunately, at the time of writing, we didn't up any retail links, but you can check Amazon for up-to-date stock and prices here. Of course, we will update this as soon as we have more information. However, it's our understanding that the MSRP for the 1TB will be $79.99 and the 2TB $143.99. Overview KLEVV doesn't have a big presence here in the UK, at least, not yet, but based on the quality of the few products they have brought to our shores in the last few years, we wish we had a heck of a lot more of them. The quality and performance they deliver, time and time again, is second to none. The new drive may not be a flagship performer, but honestly, not everyone needs or more importantly, wants to pay for the best of the best. While this uses the last generation PCIe 4.0, not PCIe 5.0, it does have some benefits though. Firstly, it is cheaper, that much is a given. It's also very very fast, and while Gen5 can break 10000 MB/s, there's nothing I would call slow about a 7000+ MB/s drive. Gen4 is also a much more mature platform, so the overall efficiency of their manufacturing, design, efficiency and cooling is all figured out, so there's never been as good a time to get a Gen4 drive as now. The model we reviewed came with a heatsink, but the drive will be available without it should you wish to use it without a heatsink or use one you already own. However, I'm pleased with the heatsink that is included, it's stylish and easy to install, and with the temperatures not going much above 50c despite our relentless benchmarking, it's clearly more than capable, so I highly recommend it. Should I Buy One? While stock does seem to be an issue right now if you can find one available at your retailer of choice, the KLEVV CRAS C930 2TB M.2 SSD is a fantastic bit of kit. While it uses the last-gen PCIe 4 interface, it's really got a lot to offer, with a reasonable price, fantastic read and write speeds, and low temperatures, and it's going to make an excellent addition to any gaming PC or the PlayStation 5.