Lexar 4TB SSD PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2280

The Lexar NM790 is a 4TB PCIe 4.0 drive with excellent sequential speeds and endurance. It's DRAM-less but HMB 3.0 keeps performance strong. Worth buying if you find it at the low end of the price range, especially from Best Buy.

Sequential speeds are right at the top of what PCIe 4.0 can do, with 7400 MB/s reads and 6500 MB/s writes. Random IOPS land at 1000K read and 900K write, which puts it among the best drives we track. The DRAM-less design doesn't hurt much here thanks to HMB 3.0, and Lexar claims up to 40% less power draw than DRAM-equipped Gen 4 drives. That's a real perk for laptops. The 3000 TBW endurance rating is also well above average for a 4TB drive, so you can hammer it with big file transfers without sweating the lifespan.

Against the WD Black SN850X, the NM790 trades blows on sequential speed but gives up the DRAM cache and some sustained write consistency. The Samsung 9100 PRO is a newer, faster drive overall, but you'll pay more for it. The Kingston FURY Renegade G5 and Crucial T500 are both strong alternatives with better brand recognition and more reviews. If you want proven reliability and don't mind spending a bit more, those are safer picks. If you want max capacity per dollar and don't care about the badge, the Lexar is worth a look.

Pricing is all over the place. In the US you'll see it from $690 to $850 depending on the vendor, and Best Buy tends to have the lowest everyday price in our data. In Canada the spread is even wilder, from CAD 790 to CAD 1,268, so shopping around matters a lot. At the low end it's a solid deal for 4TB of fast storage. At the high end you're paying a premium for capacity and endurance that most people won't fully use.

The Lexar NM790 is a 4TB PCIe 4.0 drive that hits 7400 MB/s reads and 6500 MB/s writes without a DRAM cache. It leans on HMB 3.0 to borrow system memory instead, which keeps costs down and thermals in check. For a big, fast storage slab, it's a pretty clean pitch. Our database puts it in the 93rd percentile for capacity and 92nd for endurance, so it's built to hold a lot and last a while.

Skip this if you need a drive for a portable enclosure, since the portable score is a rough 20.3 out of 100. Also skip it if you want a drive with a long track record and lots of user reviews, because this one has almost no social proof. And if you're doing constant, massive sustained writes, a DRAM-equipped drive like the SN850X will hold up better.

This drive is for people who need a lot of fast storage and don't want to pay Samsung or WD prices. Gamers with huge libraries, video editors working with 4K footage, and anyone tired of juggling multiple smaller drives will appreciate the 4TB capacity and top-tier sequential speeds. It's not the best choice for portable enclosures, and the lack of DRAM means it's not the absolute best for heavy sustained writes, but for most real-world use it's a strong performer.