Apacer Commando PT920 SSD review: Yes, it’s an SSD that looks like a gun - lecomptetayin1984

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Fast PCIe/NVMe performance
Evocative assault rifle styled heat-sink
Decent price per gigabyte

Cons

Redolent assault rifle styled heat-sink (yes, we have it off)
Requires modern BIOS if you privation to boot from it

Our Finding of fact

It's not the fastest PCIe/NVMe SSD we've well-tried, but that's like saying the Lamborghini we tested isn't as instantaneous as the Ferrari. What the PT920 is, by far the most evocative. Simply information technology's evocative of an snipe rifle which bequeath limit it's solicitation to the shoot 'em up gaming crowd. For and then, great. For others… Just hide it in the case.

Apacer's Commando PT920 (Patrol Torpedo?) has a mission: to make a point your gaming ambitions aren't foiled away laggardly information handling. A SATA SSD might not check your lightning-fast moral and physical reflexes are rewarded, but with a PCIe/NVMe SSD much as the Ranger PT920, your failures leave be your own, we secure you.

Note: This review is part of our best SSDs roundup. Get there for details some competitive products and how we dependable them.

Design and features

There's unremarkably not a great deal to talk about with the outward design and appearing of an SSD. But when you're aiming at the gaming market, all bets are unsatisfactory—and the bling is on. Plextor's PCIe/NVMe SSDs are colorful, and the PT920 Commando, because of its cover/heat sink styling, is remindful of a famous house of weapons—the M-16/AR-15.

apacer pt920 commando pcie ssd 3 — Lock and load? We were tempted to go full auto/atomizer and pray, just there's no real switch along the Apacer Commando. Thankfully.

The rendition ISN't completely accurate, but the resemblance is plain ascribable the handle. That same, the soft-gold model we received takes enough of the discipline edge off that parents might not mind the wild overtones. It as wel stands out better than black surgery camouflage would. Okay, dark camouflage, anyway.

The PT920 Commando is an M.2 NVMe SSD on a PCIe Gen 3 X4 adaptor scorecard. The NAND is 2D MLC (non-layered, Multi-Level Cadre/2-tur), and the drive is forthcoming in $200/240GB and $270/480GB flavors. The larger capability is evidently the better deal in terms of terms per gigabyte, though the take down capacity model lets you in the crippled if you'ray happening a tight budget.

To maximize the PT920's potential, you'll deman at least unrivalled free PCIe 4X or greater slot, and foursome Gen-3 PCIe lanes from your CPU/chipset. Having enough PCIe lanes is generally a concern only with entry-plane gaming PCs, and usually only when swollen beyond their initial configuration—like when you add an PCIe/NVMe SSD.

Performance

Before you check knocked out the benchmarks, delight take the AS SSD results less than seriously. They'rhenium only here to march the engineering involved. They don't betoken rattling-world carrying out, as the programme issues a FUA, or Force Unit Access code require—not something in all probability to happen in a consumer PC, only in enterprise-unwavering servers.

SSDs that heed the command switch off all caching they'ray performing to ensure data being written isn't at sea if power is separate. With NVMe SSDs, there's a heap of caching going on. While the PT920 read just about as fast as the Intel 750 and OCZ RD400 in Eastern Samoa SSD, its write scotch was less than half. The 750 and RD400 ignored the FUA command, hence their commanding lead. Go around on to the next tests and you'll realize how the PT920 testament actually perform

apacer as ssd — Don't take the AS SSD psychometric test too in earnest. We include IT to illustrate the type of NAND applied science beingness utilized (MLC). AS SSD uses the FUA (Force Unit Memory access) which turns off whol caching. Non something that you'll ever be doing in a play rig.

The numbers you see in the CrystalDiskMark and real-world copy tests, but then,are indicative of what you'll actually experience and here the Apacer in reality outwrote the Intel 750 and OCZ RD400. Reading, IT was considerably slower.

apacer cdm — CrystalDiskManager is a better index than Atomic number 3 SSD of the real-life performance you'll get from an internal SSD.

apacer 20gb copies — As you can discove, the Apacer Commando holds its own with other PCIe/NVMe SSDs in real-world copy tests.

The copy tests above show that there's little practical difference between the three drives when it comes to moving information around victimization Windows Explorer. To be blunt, it's impossible subjectively to order the difference betwixt the drives when situated in the same organisation.

Conclusion

Though information technology's non the quickest PCIe/NVMe SSD we've time-tested at all tasks, the Apacer Ranger PT920 leave still deliver a kick down in the pants to your overall system performance. Assuming of course, your system privy boot from NVMe, which entirely fairly recent PCs can do. We're shot that if you're running a gaming rig, it testament. But even if not, you can run the games and direct any caching to the PT920 for a very nice boost in performance.

If you like the look, have at information technology.