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Lexar NM610 1 TB NVMe PCIe x4 SSD Benchmarked

NVMe for cheap. At about $155 USD, the 1 TB Lexar is retailing for slightly more than the popular 1 TB Western Digital SN550. We dive deeper into the benchmarks to see how it compares to other entry-level options.
(Image source: Amazon)
(Image source: Amazon)

Options are growing if you're looking to upgrade your SSD. Though nearly all laptops come with drives from Samsung, Intel, Toshiba, Lite-On, or SK Hynix, lots of aftermarket parts are available like Kingston, Western Digital, or the Lexar we have here.

The Lexar NM610 is a series of affordable M.2 NVMe SSDs ranging from 250 GB up to 1 TB for a starting price of $59 with 3-year warranty as standard. Most sizes offer read and write rates of up to 2100 MB/s and 1600 MB/s, respectively, compared to just 1650 MB/s and 1000 MB/s on the older NM500 series. The NM610 series offers additional capacities over the NM600 series without impacting performance or IOPS.

See the official product page here for a more detailed spec sheet of the NM610. Alternatives include other entry-level NVMe drives like the Kingston A2000, Western Digital SN550, or the Intel SSD 660p.

Lexar NM510Sequential Read/WriteIOPS Random Read/Write MTBF (hours)TBWDWPD
250 GB2000 MB/s, 1200 MB/s110K, 151K1,500,0001250.46
500 GB2100 MB/s, 1600 MB/s188K, 156K1,500,0002500.46
1 TB2100 MB/s, 1600 MB/s188K, 156K1,500,0005000.46


Test System

Walmart EVOO Gaming 17
Walmart EVOO Gaming 17

Our host system is the 17.3-inch Walmart EVOO Gaming 17 laptop which houses two M.2 2280 PCIe x4 bays to support two individual NVMe drives. For our setup, the Lexar is installed as a secondary drive. Users will need to initialize the drive through Disk Management first before it can be used.

Owners will also need their own screws to secure the drive in place once installed since Lexar does not include one in the box. Depending on the laptop or desktop, however, that extra screw may not be available.

The packaging does not include any screws or thermal pads
The packaging does not include any screws or thermal pads
No major chips on underside of module unlike on the 2 TB HP EX950. Note the M-key interface
No major chips on underside of module unlike on the 2 TB HP EX950. Note the M-key interface
Lexar NM610 SSD sitting next to the primary Intel 660p SSD inside our Walmart EVOO Gaming 17 host system
Lexar NM610 SSD sitting next to the primary Intel 660p SSD inside our Walmart EVOO Gaming 17 host system

AS SSD & CrystalDiskMark

We're able to reach the manufacturer claim of 2100 MB/s read and 1600 MB/s write when running CrystalDiskMark with a queue depth of 32 on a single thread. Read rate of smaller 4K blocks is slightly slower than expected at only about 35 MB/s compared to over 50 MB/s on the Western Digital Blue SN550 or Intel 660p.

CDM 7
CDM 7
CDM 5.5
CDM 5.5
AS SSD
AS SSD
Walmart EVOO Gaming 17 Lexar NM610
Lexar NM610 1TB
Walmart EVOO Gaming 17 HP SSD EX950
HP SSD EX950 PCIe x4 NVMe 2TB 5MS24AA#ABC
Western Digital Blue SN550 NVMe
Western Digital Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1 TB WDS100T2B0C
MSI GP65 10SFK-047US
Samsung SSD PM981 MZVLB1T0HALR
Asus ZenBook Duo UX481FL
Intel SSD 660p 1TB SSDPEKNW010T8
AS SSD
14%
5%
63%
-10%
Seq Read
1411
987
-30%
1852
31%
2066
46%
1237
-12%
Seq Write
1440
2085
45%
1322
-8%
2418
68%
1069
-26%
4K Read
31.57
47.99
52%
26.84
-15%
54.2
72%
52.1
65%
4K Write
153.3
121.2
-21%
165.7
8%
129
-16%
134.7
-12%
4K-64 Read
839
1279
52%
386.4
-54%
1865
122%
585
-30%
4K-64 Write
685
826
21%
1098
60%
1878
174%
854
25%
Access Time Read *
0.021
0.025
-19%
0.024
-14%
0.042
-100%
0.05
-138%
Access Time Write *
0.252
0.088
65%
0.096
62%
0.091
64%
0.117
54%
Score Read
1011
1426
41%
598
-41%
2126
110%
761
-25%
Score Write
982
1156
18%
1396
42%
2249
129%
1095
12%
Score Total
2516
3373
34%
2280
-9%
5482
118%
2255
-10%
Copy ISO MB/s
1633
1772
9%
1496
-8%
2927
79%
1714
5%
Copy Program MB/s
737
147.2
-80%
799
8%
728
-1%
511
-31%
Copy Game MB/s
1458
1587
9%
1488
2%
1614
11%
1187
-19%
CrystalDiskMark 5.2 / 6
12%
38%
38%
10%
Write 4K
114.9
109
-5%
234.3
104%
145
26%
140.7
22%
Read 4K
35.11
52.7
50%
53.1
51%
46.84
33%
55.6
58%
Write Seq
1451
1922
32%
1978
36%
2377
64%
1415
-2%
Read Seq
1528
850
-44%
1102
-28%
2185
43%
1516
-1%
Write 4K Q32T1
392.4
425.3
8%
573
46%
463.5
18%
474.5
21%
Read 4K Q32T1
477.8
488.5
2%
763
60%
527
10%
403.4
-16%
Write Seq Q32T1
1695
2689
59%
2011
19%
2395
41%
1796
6%
Read Seq Q32T1
2107
1907
-9%
2355
12%
3470
65%
1913
-9%
Write 4K Q8T8
1469
Read 4K Q8T8
1434
Total Average (Program / Settings)
13% / 13%
22% / 17%
51% / 53%
0% / -3%

* ... smaller is better

Lexar NM610 1TB
CDM 5/6 Read Seq Q32T1: 2107 MB/s
CDM 5/6 Write Seq Q32T1: 1695 MB/s
CDM 5/6 Read 4K Q32T1: 477.8 MB/s
CDM 5/6 Write 4K Q32T1: 392.4 MB/s
CDM 5 Read Seq: 1528 MB/s
CDM 5 Write Seq: 1451 MB/s
CDM 5/6 Read 4K: 35.11 MB/s
CDM 5/6 Write 4K: 114.9 MB/s

ATTO

ATTO tests read and write speeds of multiple I/O sizes ranging from half a kilobyte to 64 MB or greater to paint a bigger picture of SSD performance. In this scenario, we can observe that read performance stabilizes at around 256 KB or higher while write performance would stabilize even sooner at around 32 KB.

Lexar NM610
Lexar NM610
HP EX950
HP EX950
Asura Genesis Xtreme
Asura Genesis Xtreme
Western Digital SN550
Western Digital SN550
Walmart EVOO Gaming 17 Lexar NM610
, , Lexar NM610 1TB
Walmart EVOO Gaming 17 HP SSD EX950
, , HP SSD EX950 PCIe x4 NVMe 2TB 5MS24AA#ABC
Western Digital Blue SN550 NVMe
, , Western Digital Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1 TB WDS100T2B0C
Intel NUC8i7BEH Asura NVMe SSD
Iris Plus Graphics 655, i7-8559U, Asura Genesis Xtreme NVMe M.2 SSD 1 TB
Samsung 960 Pro 1TB
Titan X Pascal, E5-2680 v4, Samsung SSD 960 Pro 1TB m.2 NVMe
ATTO Disk Benchmark
28%
9%
41%
49%
8192KB write
1570000
2680000
71%
1830000
17%
1960000
25%
2079890
32%
4096KB write
1580000
2700000
71%
1760000
11%
1960000
24%
2090010
32%
2048KB write
1580000
2700000
71%
1760000
11%
1970000
25%
2090010
32%
1024KB write
1610000
2680000
66%
1780000
11%
1960000
22%
2100230
30%
512KB write
1600000
2700000
69%
1810000
13%
1960000
23%
2090010
31%
256KB write
1470000
2680000
82%
1780000
21%
1920000
31%
2098690
43%
128KB write
1580000
2480000
57%
1780000
13%
1940000
23%
2078800
32%
64KB write
1550000
2140000
38%
1740000
12%
1870000
21%
2073620
34%
32KB write
1510000
1710000
13%
1640000
9%
1620000
7%
2054220
36%
16KB write
1150000
1240000
8%
1390000
21%
1160000
1%
1102410
-4%
8192KB read
1910000
1810000
-5%
2260000
18%
2970000
55%
2960680
55%
4096KB read
1930000
1690000
-12%
2310000
20%
2960000
53%
3019900
56%
2048KB read
1940000
1790000
-8%
2290000
18%
2920000
51%
3026480
56%
1024KB read
1940000
1980000
2%
2260000
16%
2860000
47%
3263860
68%
512KB read
1860000
1900000
2%
1630000
-12%
2820000
52%
3197250
72%
256KB read
1870000
1580000
-16%
2280000
22%
3080000
65%
3230230
73%
128KB read
1700000
1800000
6%
2070000
22%
2670000
57%
3003310
77%
64KB read
1480000
1590000
7%
1430000
-3%
2550000
72%
2458920
66%
32KB read
1210000
1320000
9%
917140
-24%
2190000
81%
2432300
101%
16KB read
799250
1040000
30%
550840
-31%
1440000
80%
1257110
57%

Data Compression

Data compression could have been more stable when writing. While fluctuations are common, the Lexar would occasionally dip down the 300 MB/s range even after multiple retries.

Lexar NM610
Lexar NM610
HP EX950
HP EX950
Kingston A2000
Kingston A2000
Western Digital SN550
Western Digital SN550

Temperature

SSD temperature peaks at around 50 C when running CDM 7 compared to the advertised operating temperature of up to 70 C. Results will likely be higher if the drive is reading and writing at its sequential Q32T1 peak for extended periods. Still, temperature is generally not an issue on budget-oriented M.2 SSDs.

System idle
System idle
Vitals after running CDM 7 twice
Vitals after running CDM 7 twice

Verdict

In review: 1 TB Lexar NM610 NVMe SSD. Test unit provided by Lexar
In review: 1 TB Lexar NM610 NVMe SSD. Test unit provided by Lexar

Competition in the 1 TB space is fierce at the moment. The Western Digital SN550, for example, offers faster read and write rates, longer TBW, longer base warranty, and a cheaper price than our NM610. That's not to say that the Lexar drive isn't a good value, but the target audience of price sensitive users might easily overlook the new Lexar drives since cheaper and potentially faster alternatives are already available.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Lexar NM610 1 TB NVMe PCIe x4 SSD Benchmarked
Allen Ngo, 2020-05- 3 (Update: 2020-05- 7)