addlink AddGame A93 4TB NVME SSD
2. Retail Package
The addlink ADDGAME A93 4ΤΒ SSD can be found online for ~$204 for the USA market or 280 Pounds over Amazon.co.uk, and so far doesn't have a retail price for EU customers. So retail prices will vary depending on your region and local VAT be sure to check the links on the first page before buying.
The retail package is small, well-designed, and includes all the needed information about the product at the front. The addGame line clearly aims at gamers and PS5 users.
Opening the retail package is easy and includes a printed manual as well.
The product is placed inside a plastic wrap that fully protects the product from transportation hazards.
The addgame A93 series can be used in all host devices that support the M2280 PCI-e Gen4x4 protocol, either in PC/MAC/Laptops or even the PS5 gaming console. The fast PCIe Gen4x4 interface can help this SSD to reach around 7400MB/sec reading & 6500MB/sec writing performance speeds. The included heatsink has a low profile and can easily be installed at a PS5 gaming console.
addlink says that the A93 series includes 3D NAND TLC memory and supports host memory buffer (HMB) technology, which helps the product achieve high performance by utilizing the memory resources of the host. In other words, the drive uses the system RAM to help it produce high-performance numbers. Usually, NVME drives with onboard DRAM have the advantage of keeping constant write levels high, whereas DRAM-less designs will drop writing speeds after a point. There is no indication about the used memory controller or memory chipsets on the product website... The heatsink is also well "glued" to the product, so we didn't remove the pre-installed heatsink in order not to damage the product.
While addlink offers its own Toolbox software, the current version doesn't seem to recognize the A93 series, so we guess a newer version will eventually will be released to support it as well.
Passing to the well-known CrystalDiskInfo, we can view also similar information. The drive was connected to a PCIe Gen 4.0 slot and was running at x4.0 speed. We didn't find a newer firmware version and it seems also supports NVM Express v2.0, while SMART/TRIM and VolateileWriteCache are present. Users can check with the CrystalDiskInfo if the drive has more warranty (5 years) or if they exceeded the TBW limits (which aren't however displayed in the drive's features).
After formatting the drive with NTFS, we got around 3.72GB of free space.