Acer FA100 M.2 NVMe SSD Benchmarked
Through a partnership with BIWIN, Acer has now made available several new flash products including the 2.5-inch SA100 SSD, M.2 FA100 NVMe SSD, and HT100 RAM module. Our benchmarks below are for the single-sided 1 TB FA100 NVMe SSD with other capacities available ranging from 128 GB up to 2 TB.
Prices and availability of the SA100, FA100, and HT100 series have yet to be announced at the time of writing. Other key details like the NAND Flash technology and Terabytes Written (TBW) remain unknown as well. More information on various Acer storage products can be found on its official website here.
| Acer FA100 1 TB | HP EX900 Pro 1 TB | SK Hynix Gold P31 1 TB | Samsung PM981 1 TB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAND Flash | -- | -- | 128-layer 4D NAND | 64-layer V-NAND |
| Controller | -- | SM2263EN | SK Hynix Cepheus | Phoenix |
| Sequential Read | 3300 MB/s | 2100 MB/s | 3500 MB/s | 3200 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 2700 MB/s | 1950 MB/s | 3200 MB/s | 2400 MB/s |
| Warranty | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | -- |
| TBW | -- | 650 | 750 | -- |
| Price (USD) | TBA | $150 | $135 | $260 |
potential competitors in comparison
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
v (old) | 04 / 2021 | Acer FA100 1 TB | x | ||||
v (old) | 09 / 2020 | Eluktronics RP-17 HP EX900 Pro SSD | x | ||||
v (old) | 09 / 2020 | Eluktronics SK Hynix Gold P31 | x | ||||
| 87.5 % v7 (old) | 05 / 2021 | Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model Early 2021 i7-10875H, GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU | 2 kg | 16.99 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | |
v (old) | 06 / 2019 | Intel NUC8i7BEH Asura NVMe SSD i7-8559U, Iris Plus Graphics 655 | 683 g | 51 mm | x |
Test System
Our host system is the Intel NUC11TNKi5 mini PC which can accept up to two M.2 SSDs. Most notably, it fully supports PCIe 4.0 SSDs meaning we've installed our Acer FA100 PCIe 3.0 drive onto a slot with wider bandwidth than it can handle.
See our review on the Intel NUC for more information on the system and its features.
AS SSD & CrystalDiskMark
| Acer FA100 1 TB Acer SSD FA100 1TB | Eluktronics RP-17 HP EX900 Pro SSD HP EX900 Pro 1 TB | Eluktronics SK Hynix Gold P31 SK Hynix Gold P31 1TB SHGP31-1000GM-2 | Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model Early 2021 Samsung PM981a MZVLB1T0HBLR | Intel NUC8i7BEH Asura NVMe SSD Asura Genesis Xtreme NVMe M.2 SSD 1 TB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS SSD | 3% | 53% | 16% | 17% | |
| Seq Read | 2784 | 1486 -47% | 2211 -21% | 2112 -24% | 2288 -18% |
| Seq Write | 2340 | 1768 -24% | 2953 26% | 2024 -14% | 1908 -18% |
| 4K Read | 43.05 | 63.3 47% | 66.7 55% | 46.53 8% | 51.9 21% |
| 4K Write | 82.3 | 175.1 113% | 178.2 117% | 89.7 9% | 173.3 111% |
| 4K-64 Read | 1325 | 1095 -17% | 1991 50% | 1747 32% | 1222 -8% |
| 4K-64 Write | 1119 | 988 -12% | 2878 157% | 1962 75% | 1829 63% |
| Access Time Read * | 0.054 | 0.026 52% | 0.02 63% | 0.052 4% | 0.031 43% |
| Access Time Write * | 0.326 | 0.088 73% | 0.064 80% | 0.04 88% | 0.083 75% |
| Score Read | 1647 | 1306 -21% | 2279 38% | 2004 22% | 1502 -9% |
| Score Write | 1435 | 1340 -7% | 3352 134% | 2254 57% | 2193 53% |
| Score Total | 3905 | 3345 -14% | 6841 75% | 5280 35% | 4454 14% |
| Copy ISO MB/s | 2306 | 1792 -22% | 1787 -23% | 2128 -8% | 1542 -33% |
| Copy Program MB/s | 1218 | 607 -50% | 1199 -2% | 707 -42% | 747 -39% |
| Copy Game MB/s | 1869 | 1290 -31% | 1725 -8% | 1471 -21% | 1577 -16% |
| CrystalDiskMark 5.2 / 6 | -22% | 3% | -19% | 1% | |
| Write 4K | 250 | 126.1 -50% | 209.9 -16% | 138 -45% | 272.4 9% |
| Read 4K | 64.6 | 58.3 -10% | 60.5 -6% | 47.41 -27% | 57.1 -12% |
| Write Seq | 2481 | 1978 -20% | 3072 24% | 1922 -23% | 2019 -19% |
| Read Seq | 1862 | 1941 4% | 2716 46% | 1673 -10% | 1701 -9% |
| Write 4K Q32T1 | 630 | 470.1 -25% | 453.3 -28% | 445.5 -29% | 844 34% |
| Read 4K Q32T1 | 748 | 557 -26% | 523 -30% | 534 -29% | 884 18% |
| Write Seq Q32T1 | 2641 | 2117 -20% | 3405 29% | 2976 13% | 2110 -20% |
| Read Seq Q32T1 | 3216 | 2253 -30% | 3461 8% | 3232 0% | 3463 8% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | -10% /
-6% | 28% /
35% | -2% /
3% | 9% /
11% |
* ... smaller is better
Disk Throttling: DiskSpd Read Loop, Queue Depth 8
ATTO
Data Compression
Verdict
The new NVMe SSD from Acer faces stiff competition from the SK Hynix P31. Not only can the latter offer faster maximum read and write rates, but it is also able to reach those speeds at smaller block sizes to make it the faster budget SSD overall.
Currently, the 1 TB SK Hynix P31 retails for $135 USD on Amazon. Acer will have to launch its competing FA100 for much less if it hopes to attract a sizable userbase.
Price and availability
The 1 TB Acer FA100 is currently available for pre-order for $125 USD on Newegg.
Price comparison
