Colorful CN600 512GB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 NVMe SSD

A budget M.2 2280 NVMe drive for boot duty or as secondary storage in a system that has spare M.2 slots. Silicon Motion SM2263XT controller paired with 3D TLC NAND, rated at 2000 MB/s sequential read and 1600 MB/s sequential write over a PCIe 3.0 x4 link. Also sold under the Warhalberd name.

Key specifications

• Form factor: M.2 2280
• Interface: PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3
• Controller: Silicon Motion SM2263XT, dual core, 4 channel
• NAND: 64 layer 3D TLC
• Sequential read: up to 2000 MB/s
• Sequential write: up to 1600 MB/s
• DRAM cache: none, uses Host Memory Buffer
• Warranty: 3 years

Before you buy

This is a DRAM-less drive. Sustained write speed drops sharply once the SLC cache fills, so large transfers such as game installs or video ingest will not hold the 1600 MB/s headline figure. It also borrows system RAM through Host Memory Buffer, which means it behaves worse on low memory machines and in some non Windows or pre boot contexts.

PCIe Gen3, not Gen4 or Gen5. Fitting it into the Gen5 M.2 slot of a B850 or X870E board gains nothing at all. If you bought a modern board expecting modern storage numbers, this is not the drive for that slot.

The CN600 and the CN600 PRO are different products. The PRO runs roughly 3300 to 3500 MB/s read and 2600 to 3100 MB/s write against this drive's 2000 and 1600. They sit in a similar price bracket and are easy to confuse. Read the carton.

Random 4K performance is modest. Around 67 MB/s read at QD1. This is a budget boot or secondary drive, not a workstation scratch disk.

In the box

M.2 2280 NVMe SSD.