PNY CS900 M.2 SSD review: A perfect pairing with the Satechi Stand Hub

Storage is something we all tend to need more of at some point. Files are getting bigger, and storage is becoming smaller. The PNY CS900 M.2 SSD is an excellent way of adding storage to many different devices. You could even buy an enclosure for this M.2 and create your own external portable storage if you wanted.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

But the PNY CS900 was the perfect choice to go inside of our Satechi Stand Hub for Mac mini. So this review is based on its use inside of the Satechi Stand Hub. M.2 SATA technology is still used, but it has mostly given way to NVMe. But M.2 SATA still has its uses, and the Stand Hub is proof of that. Read on for the review!

Specifications

The PNY CS900 M.2 SSD has the following features and specifications:

• Interface: SATA-III (6 Gb/s); Backwards compatible with SATA-II
• Capacities: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB (US$33.99, US$57.99, US$109.99)
• Form Factor: M.2
• NAND Flash Memory: 3D Flash Memory
• Sata Link Power Management: Idle, Partial, Slumber
• Max Sequential Read/Write:
  • 250GB: 535 MB/s (Read), 500 MB/s (Write)
  • 500GB: 550 MB/s (Read), 500 MB/s (Write)
  • 1TB: 535 MB/s (Read), 515 MB/s (Write)
• OS Compatiability: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows VistaTM, Windows XPTM, Linux, Mac OS X, Ubuntu 14
• Dimensions (L x W x H): 22 x 80 x 4 mm (Max)
• SKU: M280CS900

What’s In The Box

• PNY CS900 M.2 SSD
• Documentation and Warranty Information

Design

There’s not much to say about the design of the PNY CS900. It’s your typical M.2 SSD SATA drive. One thing of note for those who are new to drives. The M.2 SATA differs in design from an NVMe drive in that it has two slots in its connector. NVMe SSD’s have only one slot, and if you’re not familiar with this, you could confuse the two.

Overall, this is a simple design with nothing big happening other than the PNY label.

Installation

I installed the PNY CS900 into the Satechi Stand Hub as secondary storage since my Mac mini only has 500GB of storage. Installation is simple, slide the M.2 drive into the correct slot and secure it down with the provided screw.

This procedure would be the same for any device that takes these drives. These are plug-and-play drives, and once you have them installed, the operating system will see them and prepare them for use.

Overall, the installation is simple. There’s very little to do beyond slotting the PNY CS900 and screwing it in place.

Performance

The advertised speeds for the PNY CS900 are:

• 250GB: 535 MB/s (Read), 500 MB/s (Write)
• 500GB: 550 MB/s (Read), 500 MB/s (Write)
• 1TB: 535 MB/s (Read), 515 MB/s (Write)

These are maxed values and are dependent on the hardware you install it on. The Satechi Stand Hub we installed the CS900 on could not deliver the max speeds, but it did well enough. Our BlackMagic Disk Speed test is below.

For our needs, the CS900 performed very well. Knowing the limitations of our hardware, we weren’t expecting to see full max speed results.

Price/Value

The PNY CS900 starts at US$33.99 and goes up to US$109.99. This is actually a really great price because I found several other brands priced higher than these. I think the PNY brand offers tons of value for the money.

Wrap Up

The CS900 has plenty of use cases, but we used it inside the Satechi Stand Hub and felt it perfectly paired with this hub. You can, of course, use the CS900 in plenty of other compatible devices, and it should deliver the same or better performance than we experienced.

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