Acer FA200 4TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD Review

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File Copy and Workstation Performance

DiskBench

With DiskBench, we run two different tests. First, we place a 50GB single file onto the test drive. We copy this file from the test drive to a new folder on the test drive, volume to volume. This tests the performance of the drive’s ability to copy a single large file from itself to itself as if you were copying files on the same drive; it replicates this drive being your primary and only drive. Second, we do the same thing but with the SteamLibrary folder. The SteamLibrary folder is a 243GB folder containing 570 smaller files. This replicates a folder with varying file sizes and copying those files. 

DiskBench 50GB File Copy Performance Graph

Copying a large 50GB file from volume to volume on the Acer FA200 4TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD took 16.296 seconds, which is about middling performance compared to the SSDs on this graph. This is not a bad result at all; it isn’t the fastest, but certainly not the worst. It puts it under the Netac NV7000-Q, which, interestingly, did very well here. The Acer FA200 4TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD is faster than the Teamgroup T-Force Cardea A440 Lite, even the Western Digital SN700, but the Teamgroup MP44 and Netac NV7000-Q and -t drives are much faster.

DiskBench Steam Game Library File Copy Performance Graph

When copying a very large Steam Library folder, the tables turn here, the Acer FA200 4TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD once again does surprisingly well at 1.583 minutes. This performance puts it near the top on this graph, on par with the Teamgroup T-Force Cardea A440 Pro. It naturally beats the Netac NV7000-Q because the Netac NV7000-Q wouldn’t even run this test, hitting the QLC buffer window and crawling to a dead stop, taking 30 minutes to complete. The Acer FA200 4TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD did not seem to encounter that problem, perhaps due to its larger 4TB capacity, but it worked just fine, moving this large folder of files easily and quickly, with a time that is very competitive.

SPECworkstation 3.1

We are using SPECworkstation 3.1 and specifically the WPCstorage test. “The storage workload is based on storage transaction traces from a wide variety of professional applications engaged in real work.” It includes media and entertainment, product development, life sciences, energy, and general operations. Each program receives a score, and they are averaged together for an overall score, higher is better.

SPECworkstation 3.1 Performance Graph

In SPECworkstation 3.1 WPCstorage testing, the Acer FA200 4TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD doesn’t do too poorly, to be honest. The Acer FA200 4TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD is no way shape or form meant to be a professional workstation-oriented SSD, but its performance for a QLC drive in these tests actually impresses. It is able to beat the Netac NV7000-Q by 68%, and overcomes many drives. The Samsung 990 PRO is certainly the best SSD for these workloads, but the Acer FA200 4TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD doesn’t fall too far behind the upper pack.

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REVIEW OVERVIEW

The FPS Review Score
8.8

SUMMARY

The Acer FA200 4TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD offers affordable PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 2.0 M.2 2280 SSD performance upwards of 7GB/s sequential read. It does this by using the Maxio MAP1602 controller, and YMTC Xtacking 3.0 3D NAND flash. This QLC-based drive shows that QLC drives have improved over time, and are viable options for large performance drives. Acer offers this in 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities to give you plenty of room for your games. It exceeded sequential performance, but does show its weakness in random 4K performance due to its QLC, DRAM-less nature. It does have some real weakness when it comes to small office type workloads, but otherwise does alright for gaming, or secondary storage needs, and hey, it's affordable.
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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