TEAMGROUP MP34 512GB PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSD Review

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Conclusion

Today we have reviewed the TEAMGROUP MP34 512GB PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD.  This SSD was released over a year ago, but now uses a Silicon Motion controller and Samsung DDR4 DRAM.  These updates, plus a new 5-year Warranty make this SSD very competitive today.  It lists for $79.99 but it at Amazon right now for $62.99 for the 512GB model we reviewed.  The 1TB model is at a very decent $110.99 as well if you need a larger option.  And remember, the 1TB model does have the highest speed specifications.

The 256MB variant of the MP34 has a max rated read speed of 2700 MB/s and a write speed of 850 MB/s.  The 512GB MP34 has a max rated read speed of 3000 MB/s and a write speed of 1700 MB/s.  The 1TB MP34 has a max rated read speed of 3000 MB/s and a write speed of 2600 MB/s.  All drives support NVMe 1.3 and operate at PCIe 3.0 x4 (PCIe Gen3 x4) in the M.2 form factor.

Temperature

The TEAMGROUP MP34 PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD does not come with a heatsink in the package. It is therefore recommended you use your motherboards M.2 heatsinks for this SSD. Since the SSD is double-sided with FLASH on both sides, both sides can get warm. Typically it is the controller that is the warmest component and that should make contact via thermal pads with the heatsink.

All of our SSDs are tested in the same way below, we have the same case fan blowing down on the SSDs with no heatsink attached, in an open-air system during benchmarking. We do this to ensure the best performance and no throttling when testing. Since we don’t install a heatsink, this active fan takes the place of the heatsink being installed. Temps should be similar when you install your M.2 heatsinks. For the temps shown in the graph below though, we have turned the fan off to see how hot each SSD can get with no heatsink installed and no active cooling.

TEAMGROUP MP34 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD Review Temperature Testing Graph

Out of all the SSDs, the TEAMGROUP MP34 SSD did get the warmest, but still very close to the ADATA XPG SX8100NP SSD. The SAMSUNG 970 EVO ran the coolest without a heatsink. We definitely started to see some throttling happen without any cooling. However, once we turned on a fan or installed a heatsink the temps went all the way down into the ’40s while operating. We definitely say, install that heatsink.

Performance

The 512GB model we reviewed is rated at 3000 MB/s read and 1700 MB/s write.  However, it sports a new Silicon Motion SM2262ENG controller versus the older Phison E12 controller.  This new controller is a well known and popular high-performance controller.  In addition, the 3D NAND Flash has been updated to TEAMGROUP branded flash that is on a newer process.  Finally, the DRAM cache has been changed from DDR3L to Samsung DDR4 at higher frequencies.  All of these components make this a competitive SSD on a very pretty blue PCB.

In our performance testing, we found that it performs above expectations, above average for what it is.  It is weak in some areas, but then it is stronger in others.  It has a very strong and consistent read performance.  It can sustain over its rated 3000 MB/s read speed.  It can burst up to 3400 MB/s.  That speed is right up there with the fastest PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs.  On average it’s closer to around 3100 MB/s, but again this is above average for the drive itself, but yes there are faster SSDs available, but they do cost more money than this one.

The weakest part is probably the write performance, though it is certainly more than adequate.  In terms of competition, there are SSDs with faster write performance on the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, but once again they cost more.  The Team Group MP34 actually performs above its specification, and therefore above average for the drive.  That’s a good thing.  It sustains about 1770 MB/s, but it can actually burst to 2300 or 2400 MB/s write for smaller files.  This is really spectacular for what this SSD is rated for.  Also, keep in mind that the 1TB model has a higher rated write speed, so it should perform write performance better than the 512GB model we reviewed.

Benchmarks

All of the system drive benchmarks seem to prefer the TEAMGROUP MP34 512GB PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD over the ADATA XPG SX8100NP and even the SAMSUNG 970 EVO.  PCMark 10 and Anvil Storage Utilities show the drive to be better than those.  Though drilling in on Anvil you find it’s the Read score that’s superior to the SAMSUNG 970 EVO, but the Write score is not.  Results go back-and-forth with MiniTool Partition Wizard Disk Benchmark, but overall, it shows strong results.

We found the File Copy benchmark to also be interesting.  With a 100GB file copy, it was slower than we expected.  Though once we tried a 10GB file or 1GB file it was the fastest.  This is of course only a 512GB SSD, so we were filling it up quite a bit and that probably affected the 100GB file copy performance.  With the faster DDR4 DRAM cache it can handle small file sizes very fast.

Gaming

If you are a gamer this would be a great gaming SSD.  It has high read speeds, and that’s what you need for gaming.  It has very consistent performance reading and low CPU utilization.  Above all, it has a very low latency, it is the latency and access time winner among all the SSDs compared, even the SAMSUNG 970 EVO.  This reduced access time is what you want for gaming.  That’s a huge plus.

Final Points

The real advantage of the TEAMGROUP MP34 512GB PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD is the value.  It provides generally better performance compared to the ADATA XPG SX8100NP, and very close performance in many respects compared to the SAMSUNG 970 EVO, yet it’s a lot less expensive.  It’s a perfect middle-SSD between the XPG SX8100NP and SAMSUNG 970 EVO.  You can get it now for $62.99.  This beats the price of the SAMSUNG 970 EVO 500GB SSD which is $89.00. 

You save $26 with the TEAMGROUP MP34 512GB NVMe SSD, and you get a few more GB capacity with it as well at performance that sits between the XPG SX8100NP and SAMSUNG 970 EVO.  That’s a really good value, and the components on this SSD are top-notch and the 5-year Warranty makes you feel comfortable with the purchase decision.

Discussion

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TEAMGROUP MP34 512GB PCIe SSD

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Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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