Mushkin’s Helix-L SSDs Available: Pushing the Price of 3D TLC

Mushkin this week said that it had started shipments of its Helix-L SSDs that promise to combine high performance and relatively low prices. The drives use Silicon Motion’s entry-level SM2263XT controller as well as 3D TLC memory.

Mushkin’s Helix-L SSDs are based on Silicon Motion’s SM2263XT controller that is paired with 250 GB, 500 GB, or 1 TB of usable 3D TLC NAND flash memory from an unknown maker. The M.2-2280 drives feature a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, and to save money do not use DRAM cache, as with other cheaper drives. When it comes to performance, the manufacturer says that the SSDs are capable of up to 2.1 GB/s sequential read speed as well as up to 1.7 GB/s sequential write speed, which looks rather good. As for random performance numbers, we are talking about the drives rated for up to 240K/260K random read/write IOPS.

Moving on to the endurance of the Helix-L SSDs, the 250 GB version is rated for 150 TBW (TB Written), while the higher-capacity 500 GB and 960 GB models are rated for 300 and 600 TBW, respectively. These are slightly below TBW ratings of more expensive SSDs based on SMI’s more advanced SM2262EN, which is perfectly reasonable. Meanwhile, Mushkin's Helix-L drives are rated for 1.5 million hours MTBF.

Mushkin’s Helix-L SSDs are already available in the US and will shortly be on sale in other regions. Large retailers like Amazon sell the 250 GB version for $40.99, the 500 GB model is available for $62.99, whereas the 1 TB SKU is priced at $117.99.

Related Reading

• Mushkin Unveils New Pilot & Helix-L M.2 SSDs at CES 2018: Up to 3.5 GB/s, Up to 2 TB
• Mushkin at CES 2019: Carbon X100 & Carbon Z100 External SSDs at Up to 2.2 GB/s
• Mushkin at CES 2019: SSDs With 96L 3D NAND in Q2
• The Mushkin Source 500GB SATA SSD Review: A Value Proposition For An Everyday PC

Source: Mushkin