Phison's S10 SATA SSD controller has taken over a large chunk of the SSD market. It works with both MLC and TLC and is sold as part of an off-the-shelf SSD solution that allows companies to purchase complete drives with the controller, NAND (from Toshiba), and firmware, awaiting only branding. Many companies that formerly developed and manufactured their own drives based on controllers from the likes of SandForce have switched over to Phison's platform, saving lots on R&D but sacrificing almost all opportunities for product differentiation. The most recent entrants in the SSD market only came into being because Phison made it so accessible. Even Toshiba, with their large resources, has adopted the Phison S10 as the heart of their TC58 controller used in the Q300 and OCZ's Trion product line.

The latest member to join the Phison legion - and the subject of today's review - is PNY. PNY's latest refresh of their consumer SSDs has shifted their product lines entirely over to the latest iteration of Phison S10 platform. In focusing their lineup around the S10 platform, the company has introduced two new drives: the CS1311 and the CS2211. The CS1311 is the entry-level model of their refreshed lineup and uses Toshiba's 15nm TLC NAND. Meanwhile the CS2211 is the performance-oriented model with their XLR8 (accelerate...) branding, and uses Toshiba's 15nm MLC.

PNY CS1311 Specifications
Capacity 120GB 240GB 480GB
Controller Phison PS3110-S10C-12 Phison PS3110-S10-X
NAND Toshiba 15nm TLC
Sequential Read 550MB/s 550MB/s 550MB/s
Sequential Write 510MB/s 520MB/s 520MB/s
4KB Random Read 86K IOPS 87K IOPS 90K IOPS
4KB Random Write 90K IOPS 90K IOPS 90K IOPS
Idle Power 170mW
Active Power 2.2W
Warranty Three years
Price (Amazon) $39.99 $59.99 $109.99

PNY CS2211 XLR8 Specifications
Capacity 240GB 480GB
Controller Phison PS3110-S10C-12 Phison PS3110-S10-X
NAND Toshiba 15nm MLC
Sequential Read 560MB/s 565MB/s
Sequential Write 470MB/s 540MB/s
4KB Random Read 87K IOPS 95K IOPS
4KB Random Write 95K IOPS 95K IOPS
Idle Power 200mW
Active Power 3.3W
Warranty Four years
Price (Amazon) $84.96 $134.96

As the latest S10 based drives to hit the market, the specifications and expected performance of the CS1311 and CS2211 should not surprise anyone. With very limited room to differentiate through firmware, the two drives should perform very similar to the drives we've looked at in the past.

But unlike other vendors' lineups, PNY's S10-based lineup gives us the interesting opportunity to make a direct comparison between MLC and TLC on the Phison S10 platform. With the same PCBs and the same controller, the CS1311 and CS2211 differ only in the choice of flash and the firmware. This is perhaps our best chance to compare MLC and TLC to date; In the past we've been able to compare Samsung's flash with close relatives like the 850 Pro vs the 850 EVO, but never with two drives quite so similar as the PNY S10 drives. The end result is that although this won't quite be an apples-to-apples comparison since we can't rule out the impact of firmware - the performance and endurance characteristics of TLC means that it's not treated exactly like MLC - but we are nonetheless getting a unique look at NAND performance on identical platforms.

Taking a look at our individual drives then, it is interesting to note that the standard Phison S10 drive has undergone significant physical changes since our first encounter with it via the Corsair Neutron XT. The case still consists of two metal parts that snap together, but they now interlock more at the edges instead of the top piece encircling all four sides. Inside we find PCBs with a familiar layout save for two major changes. As with the transition from OCZ's Trion 100 to the Trion 150, we find that the 15nm NAND is in TSOP packages where the earlier drives with A19nm NAND used BGA packages for the flash.

The bigger change is that the 120GB and 240GB drives are using a smaller variant of the S10 controller. The full-size controller we're familiar with is the PS3110-S10-X, and the newcomer is the PS3110-S10C-12. The S10C has only four NAND channels instead of eight, and the PCB for that variant only has space for one DRAM chip rather than one on each side as found with S10-X. This narrowing of interfaces has the potential to introduce bottlenecks, but this is only being done for the two smallest capacities that would have trouble fully exploiting the parallelism available from the larger controller.

The last hardware change of note is that the controller and DRAM chips on the CS2211 sealed around the edges with a soft potting compound. I'm told this will be rolling out to other S10 products.

Both model lines are priced attractively. Of current-generation drives, the CS1311 competes against the likes of ADATA's SP550 and OCZ's Trion 150, plus lingering supply of older drives with 19+nm TLC NAND. The CS2211 competes against drives like Crucial's MX200, Samsung's 850 EVO, and the various MLC drives with Silicon Motion's SM2246EN controller (eg. Mushkin Reactor, Crucial BX100).

AnandTech 2015 SSD Test System
CPU Intel Core i7-4770K running at 3.5GHz
(Turbo & EIST enabled, C-states disabled)
Motherboard ASUS Z97 Deluxe (BIOS 2501)
Chipset Intel Z97
Memory Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1866 2x8GB (9-10-9-27 2T)
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 4600
Desktop Resolution 1920 x 1200
OS Windows 8.1 x64
Performance Consistency
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  • Ascaris - Friday, April 29, 2016 - link

    My PNY 760 is still going strong too. No plans to replace it at present, as it still does what I need.
  • StrangerGuy - Friday, April 15, 2016 - link

    I know this is an SSD, but...

    PC industry: "Hey, let's continue to make gaudy looking hardware to appeal to the xtremez hardcorez teenage gamerz crowd instead of adult gamers with actual disposable income."
  • deeksha - Saturday, April 16, 2016 - link



    yours idea is really good and innovative , these resources are really awesome thanks for sharing those information and i got more in formation about this concept.
  • watzupken - Saturday, April 16, 2016 - link

    I have to agree that at the mid/low range, currently the Samsung 850 Evo seems like the best buy in terms of performance and endurance. Still I wonder why so many manufacturers are jumping in and piling up with budget SSDs.
  • hlmcompany - Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - link

    They want a piece of the pie. They figure that with their brand on a popular item, they will be able to reap some profit. Over the years, my best selling SSD's have been Intel and Samsung. Lately, I've been impressed with SanDisk and have included them to my lineup.
  • hlmcompany - Monday, April 18, 2016 - link

    The SanDisk X400 512GB SATA SSD at $122.00 from Amazon USA is also a good option.
  • slowdemon21 - Thursday, April 28, 2016 - link

    you guys are so two-faced, the #1 complaint of SSD is too expensive, so a new lower cost SSD appears and your answers are, i.e. "not worth it...pay a little more for better" LOL bi-polar much?
  • Ascaris - Friday, April 29, 2016 - link

    Do you know for sure it's the same people making those comments? It's not hard to imagine that one site could have readers of both types commenting.
  • slowdemon21 - Thursday, April 28, 2016 - link

    one more thing...if your looking for 3 or SSD's, the extra $$ adds up. e.g. a desktop, laptop. PS4...maybe a 2 year old laptop. Bingo! four already... [talking real world]
  • slowdemon21 - Thursday, April 28, 2016 - link

    OCZ TRION 150 BENCHED IN THE MIDDLE OF MOST OF THESE TEST, there's the Winner

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