The MSI Spatium M470, part of gaming titan MSI’s first foray into the consumer SSD market, is a PCI Express 4.0-compatible M.2 internal solid-state drive. Midrange in price ($179.99 for 1TB) and sequential read speeds (5,000MBps), the M470 proved a solid overall performer in our testing. A particularly nice touch is that its durability rating is among the highest of the internal SSDs we’ve reviewed, so it’s likely to still be going strong even after its five-year warranty has expired.
Now Entering the SSD Arena: MSI
The M470 is one of three lines of internal M.2 drive that MSI recently launched under its new Spatium (from the Latin for “space”) line, each available in 1TB and 2TB capacities. (Each also has a 500GB version, and the M370 a 256GB version as well, but they aren’t currently available in the U.S.) The low-end model, the M370, is a PCI Express 3.0 SSD with a sequential-read speed rating of 2,400MBps. The Spatium M480, the top of the line, is a high-performance PCIe 4.0 SSD with a sequential-read speed of 7,000MBps. It’s available with or without a heatsink, an addition that adds $10 to the price.
Concurrently with the 1TB Spatium M470, we reviewed the heatsink-equipped flagship, the MSI Spatium M480 HS, in its 2TB capacity. MSI doesn’t offer a heatsink for the M470, even as an option. Peelable stickers that cover the drive do promote heat dissipation. Although the M470 doesn’t come with an SSD management software suite, it incorporates data security and error-correction capabilities including S.M.A.R.T., TRIM, low-density parity check (LDPC) error-correction code, end-to-end data protection, and AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption.
As for the Spatium M470 itself, it is a four-lane PCI Express (PCIe) 4.0 NVMe drive manufactured in an M.2 Type-2280 (80mm long) “gumstick” design. It employs the NVMe 1.4 protocol over the PCIe 4.0 bus, and features a Phison E16 controller. The drive is based on Toshiba’s 96-layer 3D triple-level-cell (TLC) NAND flash. (Puzzled by this lingo? Check out our handy SSD dejargonizer.)
The M470 is available in two capacities, 1TB and 2TB. Based on list pricing provided by MSI—which matches its current Amazon pricing—the 1TB drive sells for 18 cents per gigabyte and the 2TB model for 16 cents a gig. Currently, the 1TB version of the Editors’ Choice Samsung SSD 980 Pro sells for 19 cents per gig and the 2TB model for 18 cents per gig. Another Editors’ Choice award winner, the ADATA XPG Gammix S70, currently sells for 16 cents per gigabyte in both 1TB and 2TB capacities. The Crucial P5 Plus sells for 18 cents per gig in both 1TB and 2TB flavors.
With a sequential-read speed rating of 5,000MBps, the Spatium M470 is in the middle of the PCI Express 4.0 pack in terms of raw speed, alongside the TeamGroup T-Force Cardea Ceramic C440, the Silicon Power US70, the Seagate FireCuda 520, and the Mushkin Delta, rated for a read speed of 4,975MBps. This puts it between speedsters like the ADATA XPG Gammix S70, the Samsung SSD 980 Pro, and the Mushkin Gamma (all of which have rated read speeds of 7,000MBps or higher) and value propositions like the Editors’ Choice-winning ADATA XPG S50 Lite (whose read speed is rated at 3,900MBps).
A selling point for the M470 is its high durability rating, measured in terabytes written (TBW), of 1,600TBW for the 1TB drive and 3,300TBW for the 2TB version. This is very close to the Corsair Force Series MP600 and the Silicon Power US70, each of which are rated at 1,800TBW for 1TB and 3,600TBW for 2TB. This exceeds the durability of the Editors’ Choice Samsung SSD 980 Pro, whose 1TB version is rated at 600TBW, and the 1TB Crucial P5 Plus. At the other extreme, the Mushkin Delta—which uses less write-durable QLC memory—is rated at just 200TBW for 1TB, 400TBW for 2TB, and 800TBW for its 4TB model.
The “terabytes written” spec is an estimate, according to the manufacturer, of how much data can be written to the drive before some cells begin to fail and get taken out of service. (TBW tends to scale 1:1 with capacity, as it does here.) The M470’s warranty is good for five years or until you hit the rated TBW figure in writes, whichever comes first. Most likely your warranty will be good for the full five years.
Testing the Spatium M470: Sequential Speeds Are the Strength
We test PCIe 4.0 solid-state drives on a desktop system with an MSI Godlike X570 motherboard and AMD Ryzen 9 CPU installed. The testbed has 16GB of DDR4 Corsair Dominator RAM clocked to 3,600MHz and an Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card. (See more about how we test SSDs.)
PCMark 10 Overall Storage and Trace Testing
The PCMark 10 overall storage benchmark, from UL—the world’s leading independent benchmark developer—runs a full slate of typical drive-access tasks. The Overall Scores reported below are the software’s sanctioned results, representing how well a drive does throughout the entire PCMark 10 run.
The Overall Score is followed by some more granular measures derived from PCMark 10’s background “traces.” These represent a simulation of how quickly a drive is capable of executing the key kinds of file reads to launch a particular program, or in the case of our first trace, Windows 10, completing the operating system startup procedure.
The M470’s PCMark 10 Overall score of 2,066 is in line with its sequential read/write speeds, trailing that of the MSI Spatium M480 HS (2,334) and several other high-performance PCIe 4.0 drives like the ADATA S70 (2,795), Crucial P5 Plus (3,022), and Samsung 980 Pro (2,655) while beating out some midrange and lower-priced devices like the Corsair Force Series MP600 (1,881), Seagate FireCuda 520 (2,021), and Silicon Power US70 (1,227). The MSI’s scores in the PCMark 10 trace tests were generally in the middle of the pack, with above-par ISO copy results.
Sequential Speed and Copy Tests
The Crystal DiskMark 6.0 sequential tests provide a more traditional speed measure, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. After them come a trio of tests, which consist of copying large files or folders from one location on the test drive to another, using the SSD benchmarking utility AS-SSD.
The M470’s Crystal DiskMark sequential read and write scores of 4,983MBps and 4,274MBps are both very close to its rated speeds of 5,000MBps and 4,400MBps. Its 4K read and write scores were below average among the drives in our comparison group. The drive’s AS-SSD program speed scores were average, while its AS-SSD ISO and game loading scores were below par.
A PCIe 4.0 Drive for the Long Run
The MSI Spatium M470’s test scores were largely commensurate with its rated speed, though its 4K write and AS-SSD scores were lackluster. Still, the M470 marks a strong effort as one of MSI’s first M.2 solid-state drives; it lacks some of the brawn and power of its M480 stablemate (which had stronger 4K read and write scores) but comes in at a more modest price. And with a high durability rating, the M470 should easily last through or outlive its warranty. Consider it if heavy write activity is the main stress to which you’ll subject your new SSD.
