PNY CS3140 2000GB

The PNY CS3140 2000GB is a high-performance implementation of the Phison E18 reference design and serves as the flagship model in PNY’s NVMe lineup. The drive uses the 8-channel Phison PS5018-E18 controller paired with Micron 176-layer 3D TLC NAND (B47R) and a dedicated DDR4 DRAM cache for address mapping, allowing it to nearly saturate PCIe 4.0 bandwidth. The CS3140 exhibits significant thermal output under heavy load and typically requires a substantial thermal solution—either a motherboard heat spreader or the SKU with PNY’s extruded aluminum heatsink—to avoid thermal throttling during extended write operations. The 2TB variant has historically maintained a consistent bill of materials featuring the E18 controller and Micron B47R NAND.

Key Specifications

• Interface: PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4
• Controller: Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm process)
• NAND Flash: Micron 176-layer 3D TLC
• DRAM Cache: Yes (DDR4)
• Max Sequential Read: 7500 MB/s
• Max Sequential Write: 6850 MB/s
• Physical Characteristics: Double-sided PCB (2TB model), M.2 2280 Form Factor

Hardware Alternatives

• Seagate FireCuda 530: Shares the same Phison E18 ecosystem hardware lineage and differs mainly in firmware tuning and overprovisioning
• Kingston KC3000 2000GB: Shares the same controller and NAND architecture, with minor differences from firmware tuning and overprovisioning
• Corsair MP600 PRO XT 2000GB: Direct hardware sibling in the Phison E18 ecosystem with similar underlying components
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus: Part of the same third-party controller family, with performance differences driven by firmware and overprovisioning
• WD Black SN850X 2000GB: A vertically integrated proprietary solution often positioned against Phison E18-based drives while offering similar throughput metrics
• Samsung 990 PRO 2000GB: Another vertically integrated competitor providing comparable throughput as a proprietary design