MSI SPATIUM M450 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Review – Gen 4 For Mainstream

MSI is one of the most renowned hardware manufacturers in the PC industry. The brand is mainly known for its graphics cards and motherboards but just like every major manufacturer, the brand has been expanding into other ventures such as peripherals, casings, cooling solutions, laptops & pre-builts. The latest expansion to MSI's diverse portfolio is their brand new SSD range known as Spatium.

The new MSI Spatium lineup is aimed at both high-performance and mainstream segments. The high-end series includes the M480 while the mainstream segments include the M470, the M390 & the newly introduced M450 series SSDs. The M400 series drives are based on the PCIe Gen 4.0 protocol while the M300 series drivers are based on the PCIe Gen 3.0 protocol.

MSI is announcing the launch of its solid state drive (SSD) product line with the introduction of SPATIUM. The initial product offering will include M480, M470, and M390, which are Gen4 & Gen3 PCIe NVMe SSDs in compact M.2 2280 form factors that can be installed into compatible desktop motherboards and laptops.

MSI continues to refine its identity as a high-performance PC brand and SPATIUM was envisioned to expand our ecosystem and cover the high-performance storage category. These SSDs are built with high-quality, high-density 3D NAND flash that deliver the best compromise of performance and endurance for professionals, content creators, and gamers. Among the performance improving technologies include a DRAM cache buffer for M480 and M470, and a SLC cache for all announced models.

Today, I will be testing the MSI Spatium M450 1 TB Gen 4 SSD which will be priced at an MSRP of $114.99 US. The drive features the PCIe Gen 4.0 protocol along with mainstream pricing, making it ideal for mainstream solutions and budget PC builds.

MSI SPATIUM M450 is part of the latest MSI SPATIUM family and hence, it comes with a new design language that features an IHS spreader based on a copper film.

The MSI SPATIUM M450 SSDs are based on the NVMe SSD form factor and feature a 176-layer TLC-based 3D NAND flash which offers larger capacities, better performance, and slightly lower power input. The M450 SSDs are also based on the Gen 4 Phison E19T controller.

In terms of performance, MSI's SPATIUM M450 1 TB has sequential read speeds of 3600 MB/s and write speeds of 3000 MB/s. The Random read speed of the drive is up to 420K IOPS and the write is 550K IOPS. The MSI SPATIUM M450 1 TB SSD has an idle power draw of 40mW and a maximum operating power of 4W. The endurance of the lineup is rated at 600 TBW or 1,500,000 hours which should last a good amount of time with these drives. You are also looking at a 5-year limited warranty through the entire lineup.

The SSD comes in a small package. The package is colored black and features large pictures of the SSD featured on it. The front also lists down some features such as capacities, maximum read speeds, PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 form factor.MSI SPATIUM M450 SSD – Unboxing and Closer Look

The back of the package lists down some specifications of the SSD and some performance figures which we will get to in a bit.

The Spatium M450 package includes the SSD itself along with a drive manual. The higher-end drives come with a lucky comic book too.

Out of the package, the drive comes in the standard M.2 2280 form factor and features a blue PCB which is a common sight for entry-level and mainstream storage devices.

The front of the drives includes a specifications sticker and you can place the copper film on the exposed side of the PCB.

The MSI SPATIUM M450 1 TB holds two NAND Flash chips (176L) and a Phison E19T controller in a DRAM-less package. The MSI M450 measures the same at 80x22x2.15mm (LxWxH).

MSI SPATIUM Series SSD Installation:

Our test platform for this review consisted of an Intel Core i9-12900K  processor which ran at stock clocks on the Z690 AORUS Master motherboard. The platform was coupled with 32 GB of DDR5 memory from G.Skill (Trident Z5/ 16 GB x 2) and the ASUS ROG Thor 1200W PSU. For graphics, I used the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X. This rounds up as a high-end platform for tests with modern-day SSDs.

First up, we have the official performance stats for these drives as listed by their manufacturers. You can compare these stats with the rest of the drives I tested in the following chart:

AS SSD Benchmark download is a Windows 10 utility software program that tests the performance of solid-state drives. With its help, you can find out the speed of all installed SSDs and take care of any issues that the tests may reveal. The free app performs three separate tests to provide you with conclusive evidence on your driver's general behavior while it copies, reads, and writes data.  The app determines the access time of an SSD, along with its speed and performance capabilities

As the industry’s leading provider of high-performance storage & network connectivity products, ATTO has created a widely-accepted Disk Benchmark freeware software to help measure storage system performance. As one of the top tools utilized in the industry, Disk Benchmark identifies performance in hard drives, solid-state drives, RAID arrays as well as the host connection to attached storage. Top drive manufacturers, like Hitachi, build and test every drive using the ATTO Disk Benchmark.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturer's RAID controllers, storage controllers, host bus adapters (HBAs), hard drives, and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.

CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software.It measure sequential reads/writes speed,measure random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed,select test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill),

To test the maximum average transfer speeds of the drives, I used a 100 GB file to test the limits.

The PCMark 10 Storage benchmark is designed to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 10 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices.

We have tested quite a few SSDs based on the Phison E18 controller over the past few months & well all SSDs have proven to be at the high-end of the spectrum when it comes to performance. It is time we take a step back and look at the mainstream performance where the market is crowded & MSI is adding another 1 TB drive to its Spatium portfolio. The M450 series promises Gen 4 at value and hence, comes with a DRAM-less package unlike the higher-end M470 and M490 drives.

Also looking at the temperatures above, you can see that the SSD performs normally in the 60-70C range which is to be expected of a heatsink-less SSD but we have been told that the sensors aren't working properly right now so we will do additional testing to confirm the real temperatures but I did check it by touching the NAND dies and it wasn't as warm as the other drives I had tested without the heatsink.

As for performance, the SSD is right where it should be, offering decent 4K Random IOPs performance with sustained writes in a mainstream package. It should make for a really decent storage device for your games and files while offering you Gen 4 compliance. The only question that remains is the pricing which is an unknown at the moment.

Knowing that the M390 1 TB currently goes for $99 US, we can expect the M450 at around $119-$129 US. Anything below $120 US will make it decent but anything above that will make it seem far less attractive compared to the other options available in the market, especially the DRAM-equipped Gen 3 solutions which offer close performance at a sub-$100 US pricing. As of right now, the Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB is on sale for $149 US so MSI really needs to put out very competitive pricing for the M450 to be competitive.

Update: MSI has announced that the official pricing for the 1 TB Spatium M450 is going to be $114.99 US which is a really good price given its Gen 4 compliance and performance. It looks like the M450 can be now given a recommendation and is definitely one of our picks in the $110-$120 US SSD segment, offering about the right balance of performance and value for gamers and users who want that extra speedy storage.

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