Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z540 2 TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Review – Graphene Cooled For $259

Earlier this year, we got our first taste of the latest PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs, offering up to 10,000 MB/s read and write capabilities. These drives were first but we knew that faster drives would be entering the market sooner or later as the technology matured. Furthermore, Gen5 platforms are more accessible to a wider range of audiences with the introduction of mainstream AMD & Intel motherboards.

While offering 10 GB/s speeds as a start, SSD manufacturers have quickly started rolling out faster drives by optimizing thermal designs and utilizing enhanced NAND solutions. T-Force is beginning its very own Gen5 journey with the Cardea Z540 series which is designed to offer the best speeds possible given the current limitations of NAND flash.

For today's review, we will be taking a look at the Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z540 2 TB SSD which is equipped with Phison's E26 controller and is aiming at the high-end storage segment. This SSD comes at a retail price of $259.99 US which is around where you'd expect 2 TB Gen5 SSD drives to fall.

The Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z540 is part of the CARDEA Z5 lineup. The CARDEA family has been around for many years now and we have looked at many products within the lineup from Gen3 to Gen4 SSDs. Now, we are looking at the Gen5 series which is branded under the "Z5" SSD series.

The Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z5 SSDs are based on the NVMe SSD form factor and feature the latest Micron 232-layer TLC NAND flash which offers larger capacities of up to 2 TB, twice the performance of Gen4 drives, & full compliance with Microsoft's DirectStorage API. The T-Force CARDEA Z540 SSDs are based on the high-end Phison E26 SSD controller which is in use by some of the fastest Gen5 drives at the moment.

T-Force has pushed the NAND speeds from 1600 MT/s to 2000 MT/s, allowing for higher read and write capabilities. We can expect further optimizations to these speeds in future Gen5 drives from T-Force.

As for the specs, the Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z540 SSD comes with the standard NVMe 2.0 PCIe Gen 5 x4 interface in the M.2 2280 form factor. The SSDs are currently only available in just two capacities (1 TB & 2 TB) with a rated speed of 12.4 GB/s (Sequential Read) and 11.8 GB/s (Sequential Write). The majority of Gen 5 drives available right now peak out at 10 GB/s Read and 9.5 GB/s Write speeds.

Note - The 2 TB model that we tested had a peak sequential read speed of 12,400 & a write speed of 11,800 MB/s. The Random Reads and Writes IOPS were rated at 1400K/1500K IOPS & endurance was rated at 1400 TBW.

The Team Group T-Force CARDEA 2 TB comes in a small package. The package is colored black and features large pictures of the SSD on it.

The front also lists some features such as capacities, the model name, & the various patents. The back of the package lists some specifications of the SSD and some performance figures which we will get to in a bit.

The inside includes the SSD and the singular graphene pad along with a T-Force sticker. Looks like T-Force is keeping things to a good minimum.

The SSD measures 80.0 (L) x 22.00 (W) x 3.7 (H) mm which is standard for a 2280 form factor device. The front has the Phison E26 controller, the LPDDR4 memory and two of the four NAND Flash dies.

The T-Force CARDEA Z540 features 4 GB of LPDDR4-4266 memory as a DRAM cache while the other two NAND Flash (232-layer 3D TLC) devices are packed at the back.

Since there is no cooling solution besides the graphene heat spreader, you can pretty much fit the SSD inside any M.2 slots without worrying about compatibility issues. This is a fast storage device so a proper heatsink solution is recommended and it would be better if you mount it under a heat sink that is already available with your motherboard or get one individually.

Our test platform for this review consisted of an Intel Core i9-13900K processor which ran at stock clocks on the MSI Z790 ACE motherboard. The platform was coupled with 32 GB of DDR5 memory from G.Skill (Trident Z5/ 16 GB x 2) and the MSI MEG Ai1300P PSU. For graphics, I used the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X. This rounds up as a high-end platform for tests with modern-day SSDs. The MSI Z790 ACE specifically houses a single Gen 5.0 x4 NVMe slot that sources its lanes from the Raptor Lake CPU.

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 of 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 measures sequential reads/writes speed, random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed, selects 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.

The whole Gen5 SSD ecosystem is relatively new and we are seeing gradual improvements coming with each new product release. So far, most companies have settled down at 12.4 GB/s which is a big improvement over what Gen4 SSDs offer and a 28% improvement over the first iteration of the Gen5 products. Pushing for high-speeds results in the E26 controller and NAND getting a bit toasty and that's why all manufacturers have put their engineering expertise in heatsink solutions which are some of the biggest we have seen for SSDs yet. Some of these cooling solutions even rival the entry-level CPU heatsinks as demonstrated in reviews by our CPU cooling reviewer & good friend, Albert Thomas.

There are currently three Gen5 solutions you can select from. There are the standard non-heatsink SSDs that come with Graphene pads, there are the pre-installed heatsink variants and then there are heatsink solutions that you can purchase separately. Team Group has introduced its first Gen, Gen 5 SSDs, in the form of the CARDEA Z5 series starting right off the bat with 12.4 GB/s transfer speeds.

In terms of performance, the T-Force CARDEA Z540 Gen 5 is a very speed storage solution which is one of the fastest devices we have tested to date. The upgraded NAND Flash running at 2000 MT/s, a large 4 GB LPDDR4 cache, and proper cooling drive some insane sequential reads & write speeds out of the box. Furthermore, the power peaked out at 9.4W and averaged around 5.1W during our testing.

Now one interesting choice that T-Force has made is that they are offering the CARDEA Z540 series without a heatsink variant. All of the other manufacturers either have a pre-installed heatsink or a heatsink variant but T-Force only offers Graphene heat spreaders which do the job but we start to notice some thermal throttling in sustained usage. Users can utilize the onboard motherboard heat sink which should do fairly well. We managed to get around 50C with an aftermarket solution with an active-fan cooler. The SSD does give users a choice to select the heatsink of their liking as there are many aftermarket options available but those come at an extra cost which leads us to the next topic and that's pricing.

The Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z540 2 TB Gen 5 SSD costs $259 US which is a decent price. For comparison, the Corsair MP700 costs the same $259.99 US but offers 10 GB/s speeds. On the other hand, we have the AORUS 12000 which features the same specs and even comes with a massive heatsink but has compatibility issues on certain motherboards at $259.99 US, it is a good option if you have the proper motherboard. Then there's the Crucial T700 heatsink SSD which is currently on sale for $229.99 US. That's a very disruptive pricing for a Gen5 SSD but we can expect other makers to follow suit as production expands.

But with all of that said, I believe that Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z540 is a great way to kick things off in the Gen 5 SSD ecosystem. It is an impressively fast storage solution and gives the user the choice to select the ideal cooling solution for their needs. Team Group also has an aftermarket cooler of their own which we will soon be testing out with this SSD so stay tuned for more soon!

Buy the Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z540 2 TB Gen5 SSD here [Affiliate Link]

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