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Toshiba RC500 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD Review

Today it is time to take a look at the newest SSD from Toshiba. Yes, they’ll soon be called KIOXIA, but that’s another story. I’m taking a closer look at the RC500 today with a capacity of 500GB.

Toshiba RC500 NVMe SSD

The RC500 is the first retail SSD featuring the 96-layer BiCS4 FLASH TLC 3D memory. While that probably doesn’t mean a lot to consumers as such, it’s a good thing as it allows the company to bring you more capacity at a lower price.

The RC500 is a default PCIe Gen3 drive utilising four PCIe lanes. It also defaults when it comes to the form factor. It comes in an M.2 2280 form factor which is the most common. The bare module design further allows for maximum compatibility for both portable and stationary systems.

Compared to the RC100, the RC500 is a big step up. While the RC100 was tiny, the RC500 brings things back to what we know and love. The drive has once again split the controller and NAND into separate packages on the module and you’ll also find a DRAM chip again to speed up things. The module is also gone full PCIe with the M-type connector.

SSD Performance and Endurance

Toshiba didn’t build the RC500 to break any records, instead, it’s meant to be affordable for the average user and PC builder. While that’s true, it doesn’t mean that the drive will perform badly in any way. It is rated for a sequential performance of up to 1700MB/s when reading and 1600MB/s when writing. The random performance is rated for up to 290K when reading and 390K when writing. That’s not bad at all.

Endurance isn’t too bad either, although not as high as some other drives. The TBW rating is set at 200TB for this capacity while the MTBF has a common 1.5 million hours rating. Toshiba backs the whole thing with a 5-year warranty.

What Does Toshiba Have To Say?

“Upgrading from a hard drive or SATA SSD should be easy and affordable and that’s where RC500 SSDs come in. TOSHIBA RC500 NVMe™ SSD Series is built to boost your mobile or PC experience and deliver well-balanced performance, reliability, and value that will transform your system. Leveraging 96-layer 3D flash memory (BiCS FLASH™), this new mainstream-class SSD series offers up to 1TB of capacity and a 5-year warranty in a M.2 2280 form factor suitable for both desktops and notebooks.”

You can read more about the drive and its details on the official product page.