SSTC HammerHead E18 2TB SSD Review - Massive throughput on the cheap

At $149.99 for 2TB of TLC flash capable of delivering up to 7,400/7,000 throughput, SSTC's HammerHead E18 is offering up some serious value.

Published
Manufacturer: SSTC (-PHI-E182048)
6 minutes & 37 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 91%
TweakTown award

The Bottom Line

SSTC's Hammerhead E18 series offers the most throughput per dollar we've seen to date.

Pros

  • + Pricing
  • + Throughput
  • + PS5 / PC gaming performance

Cons

  • - Consumer workloads

Should you buy it?

AvoidConsiderShortlistBuy

Introduction & Drive Details

For years now, we've seen the brand SSTC here and there and have always been interested in getting our hands-on some of the SSDs they sell. SSTC is a Vietnamese computer hardware retailer that seems to be on the rise as of late, so when they asked us if we would review their HammerHead series Gen4 SSDs, we jumped at the chance.

The Hammerhead E18, as the name insinuates, is a Phison E18-controlled SSD. The 2TB model we have on our bench today is arrayed with Micron B47R TLC. The good stuff. We asked for pricing, and we had to do a double take when we arrived at the drive's Amazon link. What is this? $149.99 for a 2TB E18 SSD arrayed with B47R flash? That's only 7.5 cents per gigabyte. Amazing, and easily the best pricing we've ever seen for a 2TB E18 controlled SSD.

How can they sell this drive so cheaply? Part of the reason is there are various grades of Micron's B47R flash. SSTC is employing mid-tier grade B47R, known as Media grade. This flash runs at lower speeds than Fortis grade B47R, and we see the difference manifest itself as lower random read throughput. The good news for you throughput enthusiasts out there is sequential throughput for the Media grade is the same as Fortis grade.

Interestingly enough, the 1TB model comes arrayed with Fortis grade B47R for the performance enthusiast crowd. Stay tuned for our upcoming thorough review of the 1TB model that also features best-in-class pricing of $89.99 or roughly 9 cents per gigabyte.

SSTC states that its products are value-focused first and foremost, and our test subject can attest to this claim. Additionally, SSTC is an environmentally conscious company, as demonstrated by our test subject's completely biodegradable packaging. SSTC states they are dedicated to minimizing plastic, and even when they have to use plastic in the packaging, that plastic is biodegradable as well. Nice.

Drive Details

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Pricing is exceptional for a TLC SSD. The endurance rating is about as good as it gets for a consumer SSD, and a 3-year warranty is plenty good enough for our liking.

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A removable label? Hey, we like this! SSTC allows users to remove the label to optimize heat dissipation without voiding the warranty. Additionally, SSTC makes RMA's easy. The user can scan the QR code to access the RMA site and arrange for onsite warranty, including free two-way pickup and return.

Jon's Test System Specifications

Intel Test System

AMD Test System

Because we at TweakTown like to be first at everything whenever we can, we will present our storage performance results for the test subject on both 13th Gen Intel and 7000 Series AMD platforms going forward for the foreseeable future. Because Intel still delivers the best real-world storage performance, (Look Here), our running chart will continue to be Intel-based until AMD can deliver better real-world storage performance than its rival.

Sony PlayStation 5 - M.2 Storage Expansion

PS5 Read Performance

With Sony's wildly popular PlayStation 5 console now enabled for M.2 NVMe SSDs to be used as fast storage expansion, we include results for PS5 compatible SSDs we test as a part of our reviews going forward.

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For 5,500 MB/s plus capable SSDs that don't have an adequately sized PS5 compatible heatsink or other SSDs where the heatsink provided doesn't fit right and can be removed, we both use and recommend Sabrents unparalleled PS5 heatsink available here.

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We only chart SSDs that can deliver a minimum of 5,500 MB/s read, which is Sony's original recommendation.

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At more than 6,200 MB/s, the 2TB HammerHead E18 makes for excellent PS5 storage expansion. Better pricing than the InnoGrit drives and generally faster as well. Looks good to us.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Anvil, ATTO

CrystalDiskMark

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And there you have it. At 7.5 cents per gigabyte, you get up to 7,400/7,000 MB/s throughput. Outstanding.

Anvil's Storage Utilities

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10K here, along with nearly 770K random read at QD128, is somewhat better than we were expecting from an SSD arrayed with Media grade B47R.

ATTO

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More than anything else, ATTO gives us a clear picture of what transfer sizes a particular SSD favors in terms of sequential throughput. The HammerHead E18 favors sequential transfers of 128KB or larger when serving data to the host (reading) or when programming (writing) data. Hitting full stride at 128K is exactly what we want to see. Excellent.

Real-World Testing: Transfers, 3DMark SSD Gaming Test, PCM10 Storage

Transfer Rates

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Our 100GB data transfer test is not your ordinary 100GB of data. Ours is a crushing mix composed of more than 62K files. Write performance random or sequential, is an infrequent operation, and as such, we do not consider it to be an important performance metric in the consumer space. An example being how many times is a game installed vs. how many times it's played. Beats the 980 Pro. Enough said.

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Again, better than expected. Our test subject is outperforming many of the premium class SSDs here and doing so for far less of your hard-earned dollars. Impressive.

3DMark SSD Gaming Test

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. We consider it superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs on the actual game itself. This test is in fact the same as running the actual game, just without the inconsistencies inherent to application testing.

In short, we believe that this is the world's best way to test an SSDs gaming prowess and accurately compare it against competing SSDs. The 3DMark SSD Gaming Test measures and scores the following:

  • Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
  • Loading Call of Duty Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
  • Loading Overwatch from launch to the main menu.
  • Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
  • Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
  • Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.
  • Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.
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Gaming is a performance metric that matters to the majority of DIY consumers, especially to the enthusiast crowd that TweakTown caters to.

We see the 2TB HammerHead E18 primarily as a bargain-priced gaming SSD due to its throughput capabilities and high capacity. This is where we most want to see this drive deliver and we get what we are looking for. As it relates to gaming storage duties, we are of the considered opinion that our test subject currently offers PC or Console gamers the best bang for the buck. Outstanding.

PCM10 Storage Tests

PCMark 10 Storage Test is the most advanced and most accurate real-world consumer storage test ever made. There are four different tests you can choose from; we run two of them.

The Full System Drive Benchmark and the Quick System Drive Benchmark. The Full System Drive Benchmark writes 204 GB of data over the duration of the test. The Quick System Drive Benchmark writes 23 GB of data over the duration of the test. These tests directly correlate with mainstream user experience.

PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark

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This particular test writes 204GB data and covers a broad range of common consumer tasks, including booting Windows 10, file transfers, Adobe and Office applications, and startup times for games, including Battlefield V, COD Black Ops 4, and Overwatch. Unlike synthetic numbers, this is comprehensive real-world data which is why we use it to rank SSDs in terms of user experience.

As expected for what it is, our test subject steps on a rake here.

PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark

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More rakes are stepped on here as well, and as expected.

Final Thoughts

As previously mentioned, we see SSTC's HammerHead E18 2TB primarily as a gaming SSD for both Console and PC. As we see it, this drive offers a value for gamers that's not to be missed. In fact, we are of the opinion that the HammerHead E18 2TB is the current gaming value leader. 7.5 cents per gigabyte for up to 7,400 MB/s throughput? Yes, please.

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We rank SSDs in terms of overall user experience (performance where it matters most) as expressed by PCMark 10 storage and 3DMark gaming storage tests. We consider a user experience score of 13K or more to verify an SSD as a TweakTown Elite performer.

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Consumer workloads aside, this SSD is definitely intriguing if you are an avid gamer in need of fast game-related storage expansion that won't break the bank. Based on its throughput and gaming performance, SSTC's HammerHead E18 is deserving of one of our highest awards. Best Value.

Photo of product for sale

Performance

85%

Quality

90%

Features

90%

Value

100%

Overall

91%

The Bottom Line

SSTC's Hammerhead E18 series offers the most throughput per dollar we've seen to date.

TweakTown award

Jon joined the TweakTown team in 2013 and has since reviewed 100s of new storage products. Jon became a computer enthusiast when Windows XP launched. He was into water cooling and benching ATI video cards with modded drivers. Jon has been building computers for others for more than 10 years. Jon became a storage enthusiast the day he first booted an Intel X25-M G1 80GB SSD. Look for Jon to bring consumer SSD reviews into the spotlight.

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