This is an UPDATE TO AMAZON, not the product itself:

( I ordered and received this product on April 9th, 2019 and bought for $77.99 and literally less than 2 weeks later it was reduced to $64.99. I contacted Amazon but they refuse to price match even with their own stuff and basically told me I am out of luck and if I try returning it they will charge me a shipping return even being a PRIME member.

I buy a lot from Amazon and returned only once in my long-term membership and complained 0 times until now. I believe this is bad business for as much as I pay for the new PRIME cost and as much as I buy from here. Any other business would make right on this.

Considering this situation, I will be taking my business to a company that wants to make things right and keep my business. ) (Removing two stars due to Amazon)



In short, this is an excellent performer that I tested I am getting read speeds of 1700MB/s and write speeds anywhere from 590MB/s - 1200MB/s depending on the size of data.



It has always been more affordable to go with a 2.5" SATA SSD drive over an M.2 drive...until now. If your computer supports an M.2 boot drive it makes more sense to go with a PCIe NVME M.2 SSD drive for its shear performance. A spindle drive is going to garner you 100MB/s Read speed while a SATA SSD is up to 600MB/s. But this PCIe NVME M.2 drive is getting as high as 1750MB/s Read. You could go even higher for more dollars.



The reason this M.2 is so attractive is the speed + price. For the same amount money could get you a 2.5" Samsung EVO SSD but it's max speed is 600MB/s due to the SATA III bus speed. This M.2 drive uses x2 lanes on the PCIe interface giving you that 1750MB/s read speed and 1200MB/s write speed. For even more money you could even double that by going with x4 lanes on the PCIe bus but the cost per value is no longer there unless you really need that.



So I looked at my options with a Samsung EVO SSD for $78 at 600MB/s or this M.2 PCIe x2 NVME drive for $78 at 1750MB/s. It was an easy pick for me.



Homework time:

I wanted this for my Intel NUC (NUC7i5BNH) i5 7th gen. All the specs say I the M.2 had to be Key M slotted while this was Key B + M slotted. I wasn't all that familiar with the slotted key types on M.2 drives. I was kinda afraid it would either not work, back-support it to SATA speeds of 600MB/s, or work as intended as a 2 lane PCIe drive (which is what you want) - thankfully the latter came true. whew!



Here's what to look for: There are different types of M.2 SSD drives.

1. M.2 SATA SSD - key B + M - Runs at SATA bus speeds of 600MB/s (don't buy these if your PC supports the PCIe M.2)

2. M.2 PCIe NVME SSD (x2 lanes) - key B + M - Runs at PCIe using 2 lanes with speeds 1750MB/s (buy this kind)

3. M.2 PCIe NVME SSD (x4 lanes) - key M - Runs at PCIe using 4 lanes with speeds 3500MB/s (generally expensive)



And for the rest:

1. 2.5" and 3.5" Spindle drives at 5400rpm and 7200rpm - 100MB/s (these are really only great for storage or to use with an Intel Optane)

2. 2.5" SATA SSD drives - 600MB/s



Conclusion:

I really like this drive and would recommend it to any one that needs an upgrade. I will update this review again on reliability down the road. Hope this review helps your journey!