Silicon Power UD90 4TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2280

The Silicon Power UD90 is a 4TB PCIe 4.0 drive with solid sequential speeds but no DRAM cache. It's fine for everyday use and gaming, but sustained workloads will expose its limits. Shop around, prices vary by $55 across US retailers.

Sequential speeds of 5,000 MB/s read and 4,500 MB/s write are respectable for PCIe 4.0, roughly double what you'd get from a Gen3 drive. The SLC caching helps keep bursts fast, but without DRAM the drive can stumble on sustained writes or heavy random workloads. Random performance sits at the 61st percentile, which is fine for everyday use but not great for heavy content creation. Endurance is also middle of the pack at 64th percentile, so don't expect this to be a write-heavy workhorse.

The Western Digital Black SN850X and Crucial T500 both have DRAM caches and faster sequential speeds, so they'll feel snappier under load. The Kingston FURY Renegade G5 is another step up if you want top-tier Gen4 performance. The Samsung 9100 PRO is in a different league entirely, but you'll pay for it. The UD90's main advantage is capacity per dollar, but that gap narrows when you factor in the $55 price spread across vendors.

Pricing is a bit scattered. US listings range from $465 to $520, so shop around before you buy. At the low end, that's a decent deal for 4TB of TLC Gen4 storage. At the high end, you're creeping into territory where better drives live. The 19th percentile affordability score suggests this isn't the bargain it might look like at first glance, especially when competitors with DRAM caches aren't much more.

The Silicon Power UD90 is a 4TB PCIe 4.0 drive that skips the DRAM cache to hit a lower price point. You get 5,000 MB/s reads and 4,500 MB/s writes, which is solid for a Gen4 drive but nowhere near the 7,000+ MB/s flagships. It's aimed at people who want a lot of storage without spending a fortune.

Our database puts capacity at the 93rd percentile, which makes sense for a 4TB drive. Speed lands at 74th percentile, so it's above average but not a chart-topper. The DRAM-less design and middling endurance score tell you this is a value play first.

Skip this if you do heavy video editing, run virtual machines, or constantly move large files. The DRAM-less design and average endurance will frustrate you. Also skip it if you need a portable drive, the portable score of 18.2 out of 100 is one of the worst we've seen in that category.

This drive makes sense if you need 4TB of storage for games, media, or general use and you're on a budget. The 5-year warranty and TLC NAND give some peace of mind. But if you're editing video, running databases, or doing anything write-intensive, the DRAM-less design will hold you back. Casual users and gamers will be fine. Power users should look elsewhere.