SK hynix Platinum P51 Gen5 Solid State Drive Review @ ThinkComputers

ThinkComputers examined the Platinum P51 as SK hynix’s first fully in-house consumer PCIe 5.0 drive, built with the Alistar Gen5 controller and 238-layer TLC NAND. It offers impressive theoretical speeds of 14,700 MB/s read and 13,400 MB/s write. In tests, the drive delivered strong real-world performance closely aligned with its ratings, showcasing solid throughput, efficient power use (around 10 W), and robust thermal stability. Its single-sided design makes it suitable for laptops and consoles, while the inclusion of DRAM further enhances its efficiency in demanding workloads.

"One of my favorite Gen4 solid state drive was the SK hynix Platinum P41, it had great performance and no thermal throttling issues. Enter the new Platinum P51, SK hynix's first consumer-based Gen5 (PCI-Express 5.0) solid state drive. Just like the P41, everything on this drive is made by SK hynix. So you are going to have the SK hynix Alistar Gen5 8-channel NVMe controller teamed with SK hynix 238-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory, as well as a SK hynix DRAM cache chip. With this combination the drive offers sequential read and write speeds of 14700 MB/s and 13400 MB/s respectively. Is this the Gen5 drive you need for your new build? Read on as we take a look!"

Despite the strong performance, the review noted a few trade-offs. The price premium felt steep compared to competitors, and the absence of a heatsink variant means adequate motherboard cooling is required in many builds. Also, random I/O performance didn’t always match top-tier rivals in every scenario. Still, ThinkComputers concluded that for users seeking a polished, in-house Gen5 SSD with excellent balance and mature engineering, the Platinum P51 is a very solid option to consider.

Related Web URL: https://thinkcomputers.org/sk-hynix-platinum-p51-g...