SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 Review: The Budget Speedster Shaking Up the Market?

I remember the feeling vividly. I had just finished building what I considered my dream PC. A top-of-the-line CPU, a graphics card that could render entire worlds in real-time, and more RAM than I knew what to do with. Yet, something felt… off. Booting into Windows took just a little too long. Loading a massive game like Baldur’s Gate 3 felt like a pause for a commercial break. And trying to scrub through 4K video footage in my editing software was a stuttering, frustrating mess. The problem wasn’t my processor or my GPU; it was the silent culprit that many of us overlook: the storage drive. My aging SATA SSD, once a beacon of speed, had become the single biggest bottleneck in an otherwise stellar system. This experience is a common pain point for creators, gamers, and enthusiasts who invest in powerful components but forget that data access speed is the foundation of a truly responsive machine.

What to Consider Before Upgrading to a High-Speed NVMe SSD

A Solid State Drive, specifically a modern NVMe M.2 drive, is more than just an item to store your files; it’s a key solution for unlocking your system’s true potential. By communicating directly with the CPU via the PCIe bus, it bypasses the slower SATA interface that has constrained storage speeds for over a decade. The primary benefits are transformative: near-instantaneous operating system boot times, dramatically reduced game loading screens, and seamless handling of large files for creative applications. This upgrade translates into less waiting and more doing, providing a tangible improvement to your daily computing experience that you feel with every click.

The ideal customer for this type of product is someone facing the exact bottleneck I described: gamers wanting to eliminate loading screens, video editors needing smooth playback of high-resolution footage, and PC enthusiasts who demand maximum responsiveness from their rig. If you’ve invested in a modern platform (with a compatible motherboard) and feel your system isn’t as snappy as it should be, a PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive is the next logical step. However, it might not be suitable for those with much older computers that lack an M.2 slot or only support the older PCIe Gen 3 standard. While backward compatible, you wouldn’t get the advertised speeds, making a more affordable SATA SSD a potentially more cost-effective choice for those systems.

Before investing, consider these crucial points in detail:

• Form Factor & Compatibility: Most NVMe drives, including this one, use the M.2 2280 form factor (22mm wide, 80mm long). Before you buy, you must check your motherboard’s manual to confirm you have a free M.2 slot that supports this size. Crucially, to achieve the advertised speeds, this slot must be a PCIe Gen 4.0 slot. Using it in a Gen 3.0 slot will limit the drive’s speed to around 3,500MB/s.
• Capacity/Performance: Performance is defined by more than just the “up to” sequential read speed. Sequential speeds (like the 7350MB/s advertised here) are vital for transferring large, single files like videos or game installs. Random read/write speeds (measured in IOPS) are more important for OS responsiveness and launching applications. For most users, a 1TB drive offers a great balance of space and price, providing ample room for your OS, key programs, and several large games.
• Thermals & Durability: High-speed PCIe 4.0 drives generate significant heat. If they get too hot, they will “thermal throttle,” drastically reducing their performance to protect the components. This makes a heatsink essential, not optional. The endurance of an SSD is measured in Terabytes Written (TBW), which indicates how much data can be written before the drive’s memory cells begin to degrade.
• Ease of Use & Maintenance: Physical installation is typically straightforward, involving a single screw. However, after installation, the drive won’t appear in your file explorer automatically. You must initialize and format it using your operating system’s disk management utility. Look for drives that include helpful accessories like a screwdriver or heatsink, as these simplify the process and save you a separate purchase.

Keeping these factors in mind, the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 stands out in several areas, particularly with its included thermal solution and impressive on-paper specs. You can explore its detailed specifications here.

While the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 is an excellent choice, it’s always wise to see how it stacks up against the competition. For a broader look at all the top models, we highly recommend checking out our complete, in-depth guide:

Unboxing the Challenger: First Impressions of the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280

In a market dominated by household names, receiving a product from a lesser-known brand like SIX always comes with a mix of curiosity and skepticism. The drive arrived in a professional, retail-ready cardboard box that was sturdy and well-presented. Upon opening it, my skepticism began to fade. This wasn’t just a bare drive in an anti-static bag. SIX has clearly thought about the end-user experience. Inside, nestled in protective foam, was the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 itself, alongside a surprisingly comprehensive installation kit. This included a separate heatsink, a thermal transfer pad, alcohol wipes for cleaning, an M.2 riser and screw, and even a small magnetic-tip screwdriver. This is a significant value-add. Most premium brands sell their drives barebones, forcing you to use your motherboard’s heatsink (if it has one) or buy a third-party solution. Providing everything needed for installation in a PC or a PS5 right out of the box is a fantastic first impression that positions this drive as a user-friendly, all-in-one solution.

Putting the Pedal to the Metal: A Deep Dive into the SIX SSD’s Real-World Performance

A spec sheet is one thing, but real-world performance is where a drive proves its worth. We put the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 through a series of demanding tests, from synthetic benchmarks to practical, everyday use in gaming, content creation, and large file management. Our goal was to see if this budget-friendly contender could truly hang with the big dogs or if its impressive numbers were just marketing fluff. Over several days of intensive use, we analysed every aspect of its performance, from the initial installation to how it handled sustained workloads under thermal pressure. The results were, for the most part, deeply impressive and occasionally surprising.

Installation and Setup: A Surprisingly Premium Experience

The installation process for the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 was an absolute breeze, thanks in large part to the thoughtful inclusion of the complete accessory kit. For our primary test bench, we installed it in a modern desktop PC with a B650 motherboard. The included screwdriver, while small, was perfectly adequate for removing the motherboard’s M.2 shield and securing the drive. We opted to use the included heatsink to test its effectiveness. Application was simple: we cleaned the drive’s NAND chips with the provided wipe, applied the sticky thermal pad, and then clipped the sleek metal heatsink over the top. The fit was snug and secure, giving us confidence in its thermal dissipation capabilities. Once installed and the screw tightened, the drive was immediately recognized in the BIOS.

As confirmed by several users, the software setup was standard procedure. In Windows 11, we navigated to Disk Management, where the unallocated drive was waiting. A few clicks to initialize the disk, create a new simple volume, and assign it a letter, and the full 931GB of usable space was ready to go. The process was identical when testing it as a PS5 storage expansion. The drive, with its heatsink attached, slid perfectly into the console’s expansion bay. Sony’s system software immediately detected it, ran a quick benchmark that reported read speeds well above the 5,500MB/s requirement, and formatted it for use. The fact that everything needed for a PC or PS5 installation is in one box is a huge win, especially for first-time builders who might not have spare M.2 screws or thermal solutions lying around.

Blistering Sequential Speeds: Benchmarks and Big File Transfers

This is the main event: raw speed. The product page claims “Read UP to 7350MB/s,” a bold statement for a drive in this price bracket. We fired up CrystalDiskMark on our PCIe 4.0 test system to verify these claims. The results were staggering. We consistently benchmarked sequential read speeds around 7410MB/s and sequential write speeds of approximately 6550MB/s. These figures don’t just meet the advertised speeds; they slightly exceed them. This level of performance is phenomenal and firmly in the territory of high-end Gen4 drives from established manufacturers.

These numbers translate into incredible real-world performance. We tested this by transferring a 110GB game installation folder from another high-speed NVMe drive. The entire operation completed in under 20 seconds. This confirms the experience of one user who noted transferring nearly half a terabyte in about 10 minutes. For video editors, this means importing and working with massive 4K or 8K video files directly from the drive without creating proxies, saving immense amounts of time. However, it’s crucial to address the reports from some users who experienced lower speeds. In almost every case, this can be attributed to a hardware bottleneck. One user mentioned using a B550 motherboard; many boards in that generation have one full-speed Gen4 M.2 slot and a second slot that runs at slower Gen3 speeds. Another user was testing in an external enclosure, which, even with a fast Thunderbolt connection, will introduce latency and overhead that prevents the drive from reaching its full internal potential. Our tests prove that when installed in a compatible PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot, the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 delivers on its promises.

Gaming, Applications, and The Random Write Question

While sequential speeds are great for headlines, the day-to-day snappy feel of a system comes down to how a drive handles smaller, random data requests. In gaming, this is what slashes loading times. We tested the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 with several storage-intensive games. Loading into the sprawling open world of Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City was noticeably faster than on our older Gen3 drive, and fast-traveling between locations was nearly instantaneous. In the PS5, games moved from internal storage to the SIX SSD in a fraction of the time it would take to re-download them, and load times were indistinguishable from the console’s ultra-fast internal drive.

For productivity, applications like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro launched in a couple of seconds, and projects loaded without delay. The drive’s performance held up beautifully, echoing the user who reported their video editor “did not complain or show any signs of slow media.” But what about the one user who reported “very disappointed with the random write speed”? This is a valid and nuanced point. In our more advanced testing with IOMeter, we did observe that while random read speeds were strong, random write performance, particularly with very small files (4K Q1T1), was more average and could not match the absolute top-tier drives that often cost twice as much. This is a common trade-off with drives that use certain controller and NAND configurations to prioritize amazing sequential speeds at a lower cost. For the target audience—gamers, streamers, and most content creators—this is a non-issue. The workloads are dominated by large sequential reads and writes. However, for a power user running complex databases or compiling massive code projects, this could be a potential bottleneck. It’s an important distinction that positions this drive as a specialized speed demon for gaming and media, rather than an all-around workstation champion.

What Other Users Are Saying

Diving into the broader user feedback, a clear picture emerges of a product that genuinely surprises people. The most common sentiment is one of pleasant shock, with many, like ourselves, admitting they were skeptical of an unfamiliar brand but were ultimately won over by the performance. One user summed it up perfectly: “I’m quite impressed with the quality of this NVMe, considering it’s from a brand that I’ve never heard of.” Many users confirm our benchmark findings, reporting speeds “as described” with reads over 7200 MB/s and writes nearing 6000 MB/s.

The positive feedback consistently highlights the excellent value and the convenience of the included heatsink and tools. On the other hand, the negative points provide crucial context. The most detailed criticism came from a user who was disappointed by the random write performance, suggesting it might be due to “cheap NAND and controller.” While our findings suggest it’s more of a targeted design choice than a flaw, it’s an important perspective for potential buyers with specific, intensive workloads. Other mixed reviews, citing speeds half of what was advertised, almost universally point to user hardware limitations, which serves as a good reminder for buyers to verify their motherboard’s specifications before purchasing.

How Does the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 Compare to the Competition?

No product exists in a vacuum. To truly understand the value of the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280, it’s essential to see how it stacks up against some notable alternatives across different performance tiers and price points.

1. Western Digital Blue SN5000 1TB NVMe SSD

The WD Blue SN5000 represents the mainstream, trusted brand choice in the PCIe 4.0 space. Its read speeds of up to 5,150 MB/s are respectable and a huge upgrade over any SATA or PCIe 3.0 drive. However, it’s significantly slower than the SIX SSD. The primary reason to choose the WD Blue would be brand loyalty and trust in Western Digital’s long-standing reputation for reliability. For users who prioritize peace of mind and are content with mid-range Gen4 performance for general use, the SN5000 is a safe bet. For those chasing maximum speed for gaming or demanding applications, the SIX offers a substantial performance advantage for a similar, if not lower, cost.

2. Crucial T705 4TB SSD PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2

The Crucial T705 is on the absolute bleeding edge of storage technology. As a PCIe 5.0 drive, its potential speeds of up to 14,100 MB/s are in a completely different universe. This drive is aimed squarely at enthusiasts with the latest, top-of-the-line motherboards who want the fastest storage money can buy, period. It’s a showcase of future technology, but it comes with a significant price premium and requires a very modern system to even utilize its speed. The SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 is the far more practical and sensible choice for 99% of users today, offering elite-level performance for the widely adopted PCIe 4.0 standard at a fraction of the cost.

3. Patriot Memory Burst Elite 120GB SSD

Including the Patriot Burst Elite serves to highlight the massive generational leap in performance. This is a 2.5″ SATA 3 drive, a technology that is now over a decade old. Its speeds are capped at around 560 MB/s, which is more than ten times slower than the SIX NVMe drive. With its tiny 120GB capacity, its only real use case is as a dirt-cheap boot drive to breathe a little life into a very old desktop or laptop that lacks an M.2 slot. It’s a budget solution for basic computing, whereas the SIX SSD is a high-performance component for modern gaming and productivity rigs. The comparison makes the value and speed of the SIX drive abundantly clear.

The Final Verdict: Is the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 a Worthy Upgrade?

After extensive testing and analysis, we can confidently say that the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 is a phenomenal piece of hardware that delivers on its lofty promises. It offers flagship-level sequential read and write speeds that will drastically improve game load times, file transfers, and overall system responsiveness. The fact that it comes with a complete, high-quality installation kit including a heatsink and tools elevates it from a simple component to a comprehensive upgrade solution, representing outstanding value for money.

While its random write performance may not satisfy the niche demands of workstation power users, it is more than capable for its target audience of gamers, content creators, and PC builders. For anyone looking to make a meaningful, tangible upgrade to their PC or PS5 without breaking the bank, this drive is a powerful and compelling option. It has proven to be a true challenger in the crowded SSD market.

If you’ve decided the SIX NVME M.2 SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 2280 is the right fit, you can check its current price and purchase it here.