Micron 960GB SSD M.2 2280

Enterprise endurance at a consumer-hostile price. The 1700 TBW rating is impressive, but 1400 MB/s writes in a PCIe 4.0 drive is like putting a governor on a sports car.

The read side is respectable at 5000 MB/s, landing it in the 65th percentile for speed. But that 1400 MB/s write speed is the elephant in the room. For context, most PCIe 4.0 drives in this class push 4000-7000 MB/s writes. The random read IOPS at 520K is actually solid, sitting in the 84th percentile, which means it handles lots of small file operations well. The 82K random write IOPS is fine for an enterprise read-intensive workload, but it's not going to impress anyone editing 4K video. The 2,000,000 hour MTBF is enterprise-grade bragging rights, and the hardware encryption is a nice touch for business users.

The Kingston FURY Renegade SFYRDK/4000G gives you 4TB of storage with faster writes for less money. The Samsung 9100 PRO and Western Digital Black SN850X both crush this drive on write speed while costing significantly less per gigabyte. The Crucial T500 is another one that makes the Micron look overpriced. If you need the endurance, the Micron makes sense. If you need actual performance for a workstation or gaming rig, any of those competitors will serve you better. The only scenario where the 7450 PRO wins is a write-intensive server workload where TBW matters more than throughput.

Here's where it gets ugly. Prices range from USD 749 to USD 2,122 in the US, with the best deal at the lower end of that spread. In Canada, you're looking at CAD 1,181 to CAD 3,434. For a 960GB drive. That's the 7th percentile for affordability, which is a polite way of saying this is one of the worst value propositions we've seen. You're paying enterprise tax for endurance most consumers will never need. Unless you're running a write-heavy server workload, this is a hard pass on price alone.

The Micron 7450 PRO is an enterprise drive wearing consumer clothes. It's built for data centers where endurance matters more than raw speed, and that shows in the spec sheet. You get a 1700 TBW rating that puts it in the 97th percentile for endurance, but the 1400 MB/s write speed is a head-scratcher for a PCIe 4.0 drive in 2024. This thing will outlive your laptop, your next laptop, and probably the one after that. But it won't win any drag races getting there.

If you're looking for a fast boot drive, a gaming SSD, or anything for a laptop, this isn't it. Go get a Samsung 9100 PRO or WD Black SN850X instead. You'll get faster writes, more capacity per dollar, and you won't need a second mortgage. This drive is for server admins who know exactly why they need 1700 TBW, not for someone building a PC.

Skip it unless you're building a server. The endurance is genuinely impressive, but the slow writes, small capacity, and eye-watering price make this a terrible fit for almost everyone reading this review. If you're a business buying for a data center, fine, the math works out. For everyone else, grab a Samsung 9100 PRO or WD Black SN850X and pocket the savings.