PNY Pro Elite V3 review: This SSD looks like a USB drive—and it’s fast

USB sticks are now not the slowish commodity merchandise they as soon as have been. Using the quick 10Gbps USB 3.2 protocol, Kind-C connectors, and NVMe internals they’re now extra akin to what we name exterior SSDs than these dime-a-dozen thumb drives of the previous.

Whereas not the quickest (it’s nonetheless quick) such beastie I’ve examined, the PNY Professional Elite V3’s elegant retractable design and uber-small form-factor received me over. At the very least for on a regular basis workloads — it’s not the very best for super-large file transfers.

Learn on to be taught extra, then see our roundup of the very best exterior drives for comparability.

What are the PNY Professional Elite V3’s options?

The Professional Elite V3 is a diminutive 10Gbps USB thumb drive that’s roughly 2.5-inches lengthy, 0.75-inches extensive, and 0.4-inches thick. It’s a two-part affair.

The principle physique marries the grippy, textured headpiece (with a lanyard attachment level) and the Kind-C connector. A reasonably beefy, captive sleeve slides away from the headpiece to cowl/shield the Kind-C connector, and slides in direction of that headpiece to disclose it to be used.

Not like many retractable designs, the place a swap, lever, or some such is used to push the connector out of the primary physique of the gadget, the one-piece Professional Elite V3 isn’t finicky torture to insert. We prefer it.

Additionally, the protecting sleeve being captive means there’s nothing to lose or hold observe of apart from the drive itself. If it looks as if I’m a bit aglow over the Professional Elite V3’s design, it’s due to the numerous oaths I’ve uttered through the years because of ill-conceived retractable mechanisms and misplaced thumb drive caps.

Although I’m not aware of the precise controller/bridge chip, the internals of the Professional Elite V3 are clearly NVMe — the drive’s efficiency exceeds something SATA is able to. Additionally, the way in which the drive slowed to 280MBps through the 450GB write take a look at reminds us of some older TLC.

That stated, 280MBps is a bit quicker than the 75MBps to 150MBps write charges we sometimes see with QLC written natively, i.e. with out write-as-SLC secondary caching.

PNY warranties the drive for 2 years, however it’s a restricted promise. We’re guessing the same old {qualifications} abrogate it: extreme bodily injury or an excessive amount of information written. PNY declined to supply a flat-out TBW (terabytes that could be written) score, however typically, this score is anyplace from 250TBW per TB of capability for QLC to 600TBW for TLC.

Word that most individuals don’t write almost as a lot information as they suppose they do — the Professional Elite V3 ought to give you may have an extended and productive lifespan.

How a lot is the PNY Professional Elite V3?

The PNY Professional Elite V3 is out there in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB (examined) capacities for $32, $53, $84, and $152, respectively. That’s 12 cents, 10 cents, 8.4 cents, and seven.6 cents per gigabyte — not an enormous unfold so far as these items go.

In comparison with the like-performing competitors you’ll see listed within the charts, pricing is just about a wash — i.e., they’re all priced equally.

How briskly is the PNY Professional Elite V3?

Whereas efficiency just isn’t fairly on par total with the SK Hynix’s Tube T31 or Seagate’s Extremely Compact SSD, the PNY Professional Elite V3 is shut and turned in superb numbers. Much better than its V2 predecessor.

Word that the Teamgroup X1 Max truly carried out much better once we restricted CrystalDiskMark 8’s information set to 16GiB. Nevertheless, our customary requires the 64GiB exams in order that’s what the X1 Max was caught with — like all the opposite drives within the charts. Additionally, the PNY Professional Elite V2 was a 256GB drive, and due to this fact unable to take part within the 450GB.

The PNY Professional Elite V3 was once more a bit slower than its two prime opponents in CrystalDiskMark 8’s random 4K exams.

Once more, whereas the PNY Professional Elite V3 is quick, it wasn’t fairly as quick because the Tube T31 or Extremely Compact SSD in our 48GB switch exams.

The PNY Professional Elite V3 actually fell off the tempo within the 450GB write, barely edging out the Corsair Survivor Stealth which is extra about climate resistance than efficiency. Once more, the Professional Elite V2 was solely 256GB and unable to retailer a 450GB file — therefore the absence of a time.

Beneath you’ll be able to see the slowdown because the PNY Professional Elite V3 ran out of secondary cache in pretty quick order throughout our 450GB write take a look at. This native write pace seemingly means older TLC or some type of new, quicker QLC. Trendy TLC NAND triple this native write charge, whereas all of the QLC we’ve examined is round 100MBps or extra slower.

Whereas not fairly the quickest of the 10Gbps USB stick litter, the Professional Elite V3 is loads quick sufficient for on a regular basis duties.

Must you purchase the PNY Professional Elite V3?

The PNY Professional Elite V3 is third in keeping with the already mentioned opponents providing round 10 % extra pace total and much better large-file efficiency. Nevertheless, the PNY Professional Elite V3’s svelte, super-convenient design makes it the one we’d almost definitely throw in a pocket for regular, on a regular basis chores.

When purchasing, as you’ll be able to inform from the charts above… Make very positive you’re shopping for and receiving V3, not the far slower V2.

How we take a look at

Our storage exams presently make the most of Home windows 11 (22H2) 64-bit operating on an X790 (PCIe 5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 modules (64GB of reminiscence complete). Intel built-in graphics are used. The 48GB switch exams make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk taking over 58GB of the 64GB complete reminiscence. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Professional 2TB, which additionally comprises the working system.

Every take a look at is carried out on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Word that as any drive fills up, efficiency will lower because of much less NAND for secondary caching, and different components.

The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we have been shipped in addition to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can differ by capability because of extra or fewer chips to learn/write throughout and the quantity of NAND out there for secondary caching (writing TLC/QLC as SLC). Distributors additionally often swap elements. If you happen to ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report (programs being roughly equal), by all means—tell us.