Lexar NQ100, SATA

What I like about Lexar NQ100 SSD is that it is affordable and you will not feel any performance decline when you start adding files to this drive. In my testing the performance drop was so little that the average user won’t be able to notice it. Another interesting aspect of this SSD is that it does not have a DRAM cache chip which makes me think that there is some kind of fast caching happening on the controller. In any case, the performance of the drive was very close to what was advertised (550MB/s). The NQ100 handled mixed IO jobs just as well as simple read and write tests.

Today I will be reviewing the Lexar 480GB NQ100 2.5″ SATA III SSD. Are these types of drives still looked upon as a satisfactory option for gaming drives or even boot drives? Without question, yes they are! You can still feel the improvement over a spinner any day. As far as gaming goes you may notice a slight disadvantage compared to a M.2 drive but the cost is going to be a lot higher than what you are going to pay for a SATA III SSD. I still use a 10TB spinner for my game library and so far I am suffering through but if I had an affordable option to upgrade to a SATA SSD then I would do it in a heartbeat. Of course if you have the funds and can put your OS on a M.2 then definitely go that route but if you are looking for an area to save a few dollars so you can out that money towards something that offers better gaming graphics, then this SSD would allow you to do so! Lets move on and get to all the features and specs of this drive on the next page and then see how this drive performs!