Lexar NM800 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD Review

SPECworkstation 3.0.2 Storage Benchmark

SPECworkstation benchmark is an excellent benchmark to test systems using workstation-type workloads. In this test, we only ran the Storage component, which is fifteen separate tests.

The NM620 had results I called “embarrassing” in SPECworkstation. The NM800 Pro is absolutely fine. Solid results in Product Development land the NM800 Pro in the middle of the pack, while the General Operations score would place the Lexar drive at the top of the chart.

Sustained Write Performance

This is not necessarily a benchmark so much as trying to catch the post-cache write speed of the drive. While I am filling the drive with data to the 85% mark with ten simultaneous write threads, I monitor the drive for the write performance to dip to the lowest steady point and grab a screenshot.

The post-cache write speed on the NM800 Pro comes in at 1450 MB/s, which is excellent. Some of the very best 2TB drives can top 2 GB/s, but anything over 1000 MB/s I consider a top-shelf result.

Temperatures

We monitored the idle and maximum temperature during testing with HWMonitor to get some idea of the thermal performance and requirements of the drive. Please keep in mind that our test bench is an open-frame chassis in a 22C room, but with no direct airflow. As a result, this is not representative of a cramped low airflow case and is instead intended to model temperatures of a drive ‘on its own’.

Thanks to the heatsink, temperatures on the NM800 Pro were quite reasonable. Since this drive is so similar to the HP FX900 Pro, which ships with a weird “graphene thermal pad” instead of a heatsink, I am glad to see the efficacy of the “traditional” heatsink since HP’s pad did not perform well under load.

Final Words

The Lexar NM800 Pro 2TB drive is currently $230 with a heatsink and $220 without one on Amazon. This is a bit more expensive than the HP FX900 Pro 2TB, but you might need to add a heatsink to that drive to keep things fair. Meanwhile, the faster drives on my test like the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus and Seagate FireCuda 530 are both more expensive, at $300 and $240 each without heatsinks. I think the price of the NM800 Pro is fair, given the performance demonstrated and the very nice included heatsink.

I said everyone loves a redemption story, and for me, the Lexar NM800 Pro definitely qualifies. The point of this review was not to beat up on the previous NM620 drive, but the NM800 Pro is in such stark contrast to that previous offering that I could not help myself a bit. If you are in the market for a high-performance PCIe Gen 4 SSD that will also not break the bank, the Lexar NM800 Pro should be considered.