The MSI Spatium M470 is a well-rounded M.2 NVMe SSD that delivers PCIe 4.0 performance of up to 5/4.4 GBps sequential read/write throughput coupled with highly competitive durability ratings, OPAL-compatible encoding, and affordable prices. It lacks the flashy appeal of SSDs that come with slim heatsinks, but it competes well with the best SSDs and offers a solid value option that falls between the best PCIe 3.0 SSDs and the latest flagship PCIe 4.0 SSDs.
Like the recently reviewed Spatium M480, MSI’s M470 PCie 4.0 delivers performance, but isn’t quite as fast. Equipped with Phison’s PS5016-E16 SSD controller and BiCS4 TLC flash, MSI’s Spatium M470 comes with the latest generation of components, but is still faster than your average PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD on most workloads. With enough performance and stamina for demanding tasks, the Spatium M470 is a solid addition to any build as the price is right at the time of purchase.
Specifications:
| Product | 1TB | 2TB |
|---|---|---|
| Prices | $129.99 | $299.99 |
| Capacity (User / Raw) | 1000GB / 1024GB | 2000GB / 2048GB |
| form factor | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
| Interface / Protocol | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3 | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3 |
| controller | Phison PS5016-E16 | Phison PS5016-E16 |
| drama | DDR4 | DDR4 |
| Memory | BiCS4 96L TLC | BiCS4 96L TLC |
| Sequential Read | 5,000MBps | 5,000MBps |
| Consecutive writing | 4.400MBps | 4.400MBps |
| Random reading | 600,000 IOPS | 600,000 IOPS |
| Random write | 600,000 IOPS | 600,000 IOPS |
| Security | AES 256-bit encryption | AES 256-bit encryption |
| Endurance (TBW) | 1600 TB | 3,300TB |
| part number | S78-440Q090-P83 | S78-440Q090-P83 |
| Guarantee | 5 years | 5 years |
The MSI Spatium M470 is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities. Each is reasonably priced, but the 1TB model is currently the best value at just $129.99. The 2 TB model, priced at $300, has a slightly higher price per gigabyte.
MSI rates the M470 for sequential speeds of up to 5.0/4.4 GBps read/write, and both capacities up to 600,000 random read/write IOPS. This performance is in part due to the M470’s unique SLC cache implementation that differs from many of the previous E16 and BiCS4-equipped SSDs. Unlike those with large dynamic caches, the SLC cache on the M470 is very small, but also quick to recover.
The Spatium M470 also comes with a five-year warranty and high endurance. With a solid 9.9% of its flash allocated to overprovisioning and utilizing Phison’s fourth-generation LDPC engine, the 1 TB model can handle up to 1,600 TB of writes, while the 2 TB model can absorb up to 3,300 TB.
MSI’s Spatium M470 supports Trim, end-to-end data path protection, SMART data reporting capabilities, and for those working with more sensitive data, the drive has OPAL 2.0 compliant AES 256-bit encryption functionality. It can also be securely erased quickly and easily by your motherboard’s UEFI tool or otherwise. MSI’s SSDs do not currently have software support, but a future update to MSI Center, the company’s software program, will allow monitoring.
A closer look
The MSI Spatium M470 comes in an M.2 2280 form factor in both 1TB and 2TB capacities, which will put off most Ultrabook users looking to upgrade. However, it is fine for most desktop applications. Aesthetically, the design of the M470 is great. The label is nicely designed and the black print is a nice touch. As we like to see, all the compliance information and SKUs for internal use are on the back, out of sight.
The SSD has Phison’s PS5016-E16 SSD controller, which is essentially an upgraded version of the E12. The eight-channel quad-core controller uses Cortex R5 cores built on a 28nm process. That said, it can and will gobble up power and get hot without proper cooling.
To ensure data integrity and device reliability, this controller uses end-to-end data path protection along with features such as Active State Power Management (ASPM), Autonomous Power State Transition (APST) and enable thermal throttling support if the SSD is insufficient. cooling.
The controller uses a DRAM cache; our example has two 4Gb SK hynix DDR4 DRAM ICs. There are four NAND packages on our 1TB example, each containing eight 256Gb chips of BiCS4 96L TLC. Each has a dual-plane architecture for higher levels of interleaving, improving performance over the single-plane designs found on older flashes. However, this is still only half the number of aircraft on the latest BiCS5 112-layer and BiCS 6 162-layer flash.
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