As the market for NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSDs continue to grow, brands like PNY are not wasting any time in releasing their own Gen4 M.2 SSDs to the masses. To that end, the brand’s XLR8 CS3040 Gen4 SSD is officially here in Malaysia, and we have the pleasure to take it out for a spin. What Is It? Like almost all NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the current market, the CS3040 comes in the standard M.2 2280 form factor. Specs-wise, it is equipped with a Phison E16 NVMe controller, four 256 MB BiCS4 modules from Kioxia, plus 96 TLC layers.
Physically, the CS3040 is also sold in a variant that has a massive heatsink attached to it, although at the time of writing, PNY’s official distributor did not inform if that model is available for purchase in Malaysia.