Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD Review: The Budget Behemoth for Mass Storage

I remember the moment clearly. I was trying to install a new patch for a hefty game, a title that already occupied a significant chunk of my old spinning hard drive. A dreaded pop-up appeared: “Not Enough Disk Space.” It was a familiar frustration. My laptop, once a trusty companion, had become a digital tortoise, groaning with every click, taking ages to boot, and forcing me to constantly play a miserable game of “what can I delete next?” This digital bottleneck isn’t just an inconvenience; it stifles creativity, interrupts workflow, and turns simple tasks into tests of patience. For gamers, it means uninstalling beloved classics to make room for new ones. For creators, it’s the endless struggle with scratch disks and project archives. This is the slow, grinding reality that prompts the search for a massive, affordable storage upgrade—a search that often leads directly to products like the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD.

What to Consider Before Buying a Solid State Drive

A Solid State Drive is more than just an item; it’s a key solution for breathing new life into aging hardware and expanding the horizons of new systems. Unlike traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) that rely on spinning platters and a mechanical arm, SSDs use flash memory, similar to a USB stick. This fundamental difference eliminates moving parts, resulting in silent operation, incredible durability against shocks and drops, and most importantly, a monumental leap in speed. The primary benefits are dramatically faster boot times, near-instantaneous application loading, and a snappier, more responsive operating system experience that can make a five-year-old computer feel brand new.

The ideal customer for this type of product is someone facing the exact problems I described: a user with an older laptop or desktop equipped with a SATA interface who is desperate for a performance boost and a huge capacity increase without breaking the bank. This includes gamers with massive libraries, digital media enthusiasts with terabytes of photos and videos, or even professionals who need a large, fast drive for local backups. However, it might not be the best fit for those building a top-of-the-line PC from scratch. Modern motherboards support the much faster NVMe M.2 interface, and users seeking the absolute pinnacle of performance should look towards those drives instead. For basic users who only need to speed up their operating system, a smaller, less expensive boot drive might suffice.

Before investing, consider these crucial points in detail:

• Dimensions & Space: The Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD uses the standard 2.5-inch form factor, which is the default size for laptop hard drives and has common mounting points in most desktop PC cases. It’s crucial to ensure your device has a compatible 2.5-inch bay and a SATA port available. While its slim profile fits virtually anywhere a traditional HDD would, some ultra-thin laptops may have non-standard connections or no room for a 2.5-inch drive at all, so always check your machine’s specifications first.
• Capacity/Performance: Capacity is straightforward: 4TB is a colossal amount of space. However, performance is more nuanced. The SATA III interface has a theoretical maximum speed of around 600MB/s, which this drive pushes close to. It’s important to understand this is magnitudes faster than an HDD, but slower than modern NVMe drives. This drive uses QLC NAND, which allows for high capacity at a lower cost but typically has lower endurance than the more expensive TLC NAND technology.
• Materials & Durability: The Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD features a plastic enclosure made of ABS and PC. This is standard for budget SATA SSDs as it’s lightweight and cost-effective. The real durability of an SSD comes from its lack of moving parts, making it highly resistant to shocks and vibrations that would destroy a traditional HDD. The key long-term durability metric is its write endurance, which is a consideration for users with extremely heavy, constant write workloads.
• Ease of Use & Maintenance: Physically installing a 2.5-inch SSD is typically a simple plug-and-play affair. The more complex part is migrating your data. Many premium SSDs come with cloning software, but budget models like this one often do not, requiring you to use free third-party applications. Once installed, SSDs are maintenance-free and benefit from features like TRIM support within modern operating systems to maintain performance over time.

Keeping these factors in mind, the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD stands out in several areas, particularly its incredible value proposition. You can explore its detailed specifications and current offers here.

While the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD is an excellent choice for its intended purpose, it’s always wise to see how it stacks up against the competition. For a broader look at all the top models, especially for console gaming, we highly recommend checking out our complete, in-depth guide:

First Impressions: Unboxing the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD

The Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD arrived in a no-frills, frustration-free package. There’s no lavish presentation here, just a simple box containing the drive itself, securely nestled in a plastic tray. This minimalist approach is common in the budget SSD space and is perfectly acceptable—the money, after all, should be spent on the internal components, not the box. The drive itself is incredibly light, a stark contrast to the dense, heavy mechanical drives it’s designed to replace. The black plastic casing feels sturdy enough for its purpose as an internal component. It features the standard SATA power and data connectors on one end and four screw holes on the bottom for mounting. There are no accessories included—no screws, no SATA cable, and no software CD. This is an important note for first-time builders who will need to source their own SATA cable. Overall, the first impression is one of pure utility; it’s a component built to do a job, not to be flashy, and at this price point, that’s exactly what we expect.

A Deep Dive into the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD’s Performance

On paper, the Ediloca ES106 promises a lot: massive storage and a huge speed boost. But specifications only tell half the story. We put this drive through its paces in a real-world setting to see if this budget behemoth could truly deliver on its promises. Our primary test bench was a 7-year-old HP laptop, a perfect candidate for this kind of upgrade, previously encumbered by a slow 5400 RPM mechanical hard drive.

Real-World Speed and Performance

The advertised speeds for the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD are “up to 550MB/s read” and “500MB/s write.” These numbers represent the upper limit of the SATA III 6Gb/s interface, and in our testing, the drive performed admirably, coming very close to these theoretical maximums. After cloning the old drive and booting up for the first time, the difference was not subtle; it was transformative. The Windows 10 boot time plummeted from over 90 seconds to just 15. Applications like Chrome, Photoshop, and Microsoft Office, which used to chug along, now snapped open almost instantly. This is the magic of moving from mechanical to solid-state storage.

To get objective numbers, we ran benchmarks like CrystalDiskMark, and our results mirrored those shared by other technical users, confirming sequential read speeds consistently above 530MB/s and write speeds hovering around 480MB/s. But benchmarks don’t capture the full experience. We then tested a large file transfer, moving a 23GB folder of mixed photos and videos. This is a task that would have taken the old HDD nearly 15 minutes. The Ediloca ES106 handled it in just under two minutes, a result that impressed us immensely and lines up perfectly with one user’s experience using it as an external backup drive. For gaming, the impact was just as profound. Load times in games like Grand Theft V and The Witcher 3 were cut by more than half, eliminating those long, immersion-breaking waits and making the entire experience smoother and more enjoyable.

The 4TB Capacity Advantage: A Digital Hoarder’s Dream

The single most compelling feature of this specific model is its cavernous 4TB capacity. In an era of 100GB+ games, 4K video files, and ever-expanding photo libraries, storage space is a premium commodity. The Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD offers a solution to storage anxiety at a price point that was unthinkable for this capacity just a few years ago. For our test laptop, this meant we could install our entire Steam library with room to spare. It’s an liberating feeling, freeing you from the constant need to manage and delete files.

This drive is an ideal candidate for several use cases. For gamers, it can serve as a massive, dedicated games drive. For video editors or content creators on a budget, it can be a lightning-fast scratch disk or a project library. It also excels as a main system drive for a desktop workstation, providing ample room for the OS, all applications, and a massive amount of user data. It’s important to address a common point of confusion mentioned by users: formatted capacity. When you install the 4TB drive, Windows will report a capacity of around 3.63TB. This is not a defect. It’s due to the difference in how manufacturers market storage (in decimal gigabytes/terabytes) and how operating systems calculate it (in binary tebibytes). This discrepancy is universal across all storage devices.

Installation, Compatibility, and The QLC Question

Physically installing the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD is straightforward for anyone comfortable opening a computer case. Its standard 2.5-inch form factor and SATA connectors ensure broad compatibility with desktops and laptops from the last 15 years. The drive is also backward compatible with older SATA II ports, though its speed will be limited by that older interface. The main hurdle for less experienced users is the lack of included cloning software. As one user noted, a proprietary software tool would be welcome. However, powerful and free tools like Macrium Reflect or Clonezilla are widely available and can handle the process of migrating your operating system and files from your old drive to the new SSD. We used Macrium Reflect, and the process was smooth and error-free.

We must discuss the technology at the heart of this drive: 3D QLC NAND. QLC, or Quad-Level Cell, is a type of flash memory that stores four bits of data per cell. This allows for incredibly dense and therefore cheaper storage, which is how a 4TB drive can be so affordable. The trade-off is that QLC generally has lower write endurance and can have slower sustained write speeds (after its cache is filled) compared to more expensive TLC (Triple-Level Cell) NAND. Some user reviews reflect this concern, with a few reporting drive failure after several months. While these reports are concerning, they represent a small minority. For the vast majority of users—gamers, media consumers, and general office workers—the write endurance of a modern QLC drive is more than sufficient for many years of typical use. The drive is backed by a 3-year limited service agreement, which provides a crucial safety net. For those with extremely write-intensive server or workstation loads, a more expensive enterprise-grade TLC drive would be a better choice, but for its target audience, the cost-to-capacity ratio offered by the Ediloca ES106 is exceptionally compelling.

What Other Users Are Saying

Synthesizing feedback from a wide range of buyers confirms our own findings. The overwhelming sentiment is positive, with most users celebrating the drive’s incredible value. One user, who installed a smaller version in an external enclosure, was “pleasantly fooled” and found it “WAY better than expected” for the price. Another Italian user stated it “renewed my 7-year-old HP laptop,” allowing it to work “very fast.” These stories are common, highlighting the product’s core strength: delivering a transformative upgrade for aging machines at a minimal cost.

However, the feedback isn’t universally perfect, and the criticisms are important to consider. The most serious complaint comes from a handful of users who experienced total drive failure within a few months. One user reported, “it suddenly stopped working… not happy that the drive has stopped working after a few months.” Another bluntly stated, “drive is dead on August 26th 2023. Don’t buy, not worth.” While these reliability issues appear to be outliers, they underscore the potential risk associated with budget QLC drives. Other, less critical complaints focus on the discrepancy between advertised and usable storage, a common issue we’ve already explained.

How Does the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD Compare to the Alternatives?

In the vast world of storage, context is everything. The Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD occupies a specific niche, but there are other compelling options depending on your system, needs, and budget. Let’s see how it stacks up against some popular alternatives.

1. fanxiang S690Q 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD

The fanxiang S690Q represents the next generation of storage technology. As a PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 drive, it operates on a completely different level of performance, boasting speeds up to 4800MB/s—roughly eight times faster than the Ediloca SATA drive. This is the clear choice for users with modern motherboards that have a free M.2 slot. It’s perfect for a super-fast OS boot drive, a high-performance gaming drive in a new PC build, or a PS5 internal storage upgrade. However, it offers only a quarter of the Ediloca’s capacity for a comparable price and is incompatible with the older laptops and desktops that are the Ediloca’s target audience.

2. Lexar NM790 2TB SSD

If the fanxiang is the next generation, the Lexar NM790 is the top tier of current consumer technology. With staggering read speeds of up to 7400MB/s, this drive is aimed squarely at enthusiasts, professional content creators, and hardcore gamers who demand the absolute best performance. It’s an ideal choice for a primary drive in a high-end workstation or as a premium PS5 expansion. The trade-off is, once again, price and capacity. You get half the storage of the Ediloca for a significantly higher price. Someone would choose the Lexar if their workflow involves moving massive files daily or if they want to eliminate loading screens in the latest games and have the modern hardware to support it.

3. Patriot Memory P210 256GB SSD

The Patriot P210 is a direct competitor in the SATA 2.5-inch category, but it targets a different user. With a much smaller 256GB capacity, this drive isn’t for storing a massive game library. Instead, it’s the perfect ultra-budget solution for someone who simply wants to replace an old, slow boot drive in a secondary computer or a family laptop used for web browsing and office tasks. Its purpose is to provide that snappy SSD feel for the operating system and essential applications without the investment in large capacity. Someone would choose the Patriot P210 over the Ediloca if their budget is extremely tight and their storage needs are minimal.

Our Final Verdict on the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD

After extensive testing and analysis, our verdict on the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD is overwhelmingly positive, albeit with a clear understanding of its place in the market. This is not a chart-topping performance drive; it’s a capacity king. It succeeds brilliantly in its mission to deliver a colossal amount of fast-enough storage for an incredibly aggressive price. For anyone with an older laptop or desktop still running on a mechanical hard drive, this SSD is nothing short of a revelation. It offers the single most impactful upgrade you can make, transforming a sluggish, frustrating machine into a responsive and capable tool.

The concerns about QLC NAND and long-term reliability are valid, but they are mitigated by the 3-year service period and the fact that for its intended use—storing games, media, and general files—it is more than adequate. We recommend it wholeheartedly to gamers looking to consolidate their entire library, media enthusiasts needing space for their collections, and any budget-conscious user looking to maximize their storage-per-dollar ratio in a SATA-based system. It’s a pragmatic, powerful, and profoundly valuable piece of hardware.

If you’ve decided the Ediloca ES106 4TB SATA III SSD is the right fit for your storage needs, you can check its current price and purchase it here.