Acer FA200 4TB SSD Review - Another Powerful Bargain

TweakTown Rating: 90%

Our Verdict

Acer's FA200 4TB SSD is a gaming masterpiece with tons of capacity and it's among the best bargains going.

Pros

• Sequential throughput performance
• Single-sided design
• Gaming performance
• Pricing

Cons

• None

Should you buy it?

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Introduction & Drive Details

Acer has yet another Biwin-made Maxio MAP1602A controlled YMTC arrayed SSD on offer. This time it's targeted directly at value minded gamers looking for mass solid state storage expansion at bargain pricing. Acer's new FA200 Series SSD comes arrayed with QLC flash which is where most of the bargain proposition stems from.

4-bit flash, better known as QLC (Quad Level Cell), has been in circulation for many years at this point. Being 4-bit per cell as opposed to 3-bit per cell (TLC), QLC flash offers more density per wafer/die within the same footprint and this is why its price per gigabyte of storage is less than TLC flash, thereby making QLC arrayed SSDs a less expensive alternative.

In its infancy QLC flash was often and usually rightly maligned as not worth the performance tradeoff vs. its lower cost per gigabyte. Fast forward to today and the stigma of QLC has all but been eradicated because 4-bit technology has matured to a point where in the read-centric consumer space, QLC SSDs are offering a user experience that can rival that of more expensive TLC alternatives. This is exactly where Acer's new FA200 comes into play.

The FA200 comes arrayed with super-fast 232-Layer 2,400MT YMTC X3-6070 QLC flash. This flash is some of the best of its kind in the world, able to blur the demarcation line between QLC and TLC flash. It's not the first time we've encountered it, so we know from experience that most end users aren't giving up much, if anything at all, in the way of user experience, thereby presenting a value proposition that cannot be ignored.

Acer advertises its FA200 as a cutting-edge PCIe 4.0 SSD designed for gamers and content creators. With its high-performance controller, premium NAND flash, and NVMe 2.0 interface, it achieves an impressive 7200 MB/s sequential read speed. Its M.2 2280 single-sided design ensures compatibility with desktops, laptops, and PS5, making it ideal for adding extra storage and for upgrading speed and performance.

Okay, now let's dive in and see what Acer's FA200 4TB can do for you by the numbers.

Drive Details

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Here we see that with YMTC X3-6070 QLC flash, endurance is nearly on par with most TLC flash. Impressive.

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As a value-add, Acer offers for free a copy of Acronis True Image software. With it, you can easily migrate your system to your new Acer SSD. Get it HERE.

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 Intel Core Ultra 200 Series and 9000 Series AMD platforms going forward for the foreseeable future. Because Intel still delivers the best real-world storage performance, our running chart will continue to be Intel-based until AMD can deliver better real-world storage performance than its rival.

Please note that we have completely retested all the 50 SSDs that comprise our comparison products using our new Intel Ultra Core 9 285K test platform. Results going forward cannot be compared with our previous 14th Gen Intel results or previous AMD results, as we've updated there as well. We believe it is important to keep our platforms current in terms of the latest hardware and operating system versions. We have also updated our OS to Windows 11 Pro 24H2. Overall, the pecking order has remained the same just at roughly 5% lower real-world performance than before.

Best Deals: Acer FA200 2TB SSD

	Today	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$129.99 USD	-	-	Buy
	$129.99 USD	-	-	Buy
	£98.99	-	-	Buy
	$129.99 USD	-	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 5/11/2025 at 2:43 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission from any sales.

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 are including results for PS5-compatible SSDs we test as a part of our reviews going forward.

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For 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 Sabrent's 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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As our chart demonstrates, Acer's FA200 makes for an excellent choice for fast PS5 storage expansion.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Max IOPS, ATTO

CrystalDiskMark

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We employ CDM as our standard measurement for both sequential throughput and Q1T1 random read. In terms of sequential throughput, the drive's factory spec'd up to sequential throughput is given at up to 7,200/6,100 MB/s, which is more or less what we are getting between our Intel and AMD platforms.

Max IOPS

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Max 4K random read performance for the FA200 4TB is factory specified for up to 1 million IOPS and that's exactly what we are getting from AMD test platform. 4K random write is factory spec'd at up to 820K IOPS and here we come up just a bit short.

ATTO

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ATTO gives us a clear picture of what transfer sizes a particular SSD favors in terms of QD4 sequential throughput. We chart 128K transfers. At a queue depth of four, the FA200 4TB favors sequential transfers of 512KB or larger when serving data to the host (reading) and 64KB or larger when programming (writing) data.

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 such, we do not consider it to be an important performance metric in the consumer space. An example being how many times a game is installed vs. how many times it's played. Exceptional performance here, right in there with its TLC arrayed counterparts.

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Unlike programming (writing) data, serving data to the host (reading) is typically an important performance metric as it relates to the consumer space. Again, right in there with most of its TLC arrayed counterparts. Excellent.

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 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 most DIY consumers, especially for the enthusiast crowd that TweakTown caters to. Now we've reached the point where results start to matter as they are a direct reflection of user experience.

Stunning performance here where it matters most to most of you. Acer's FA200 4TB not only beats most of its TLC arrayed counterparts, but it even beats the most powerful QLC arrayed SSD we've ever tested, Crucial's P310. If you are looking for an ultra-high-capacity yet affordable gaming SSD, you cannot do better than this. 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. These tests directly correlate with mainstream user experience.

PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark

This test writes 204GB of 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 such as 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.

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Excellent consumer workload performance here. Easily on par with its TLC arrayed brethren, making the FA200 4TB a fantastic choice for everyday computing tasks. Impressive.

PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark

The Quick System Drive Benchmark writes 23 GB of data over the duration of the test.

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Of all the benchmarks we run, it can be argued that this one offers the best reflection of a typical consumer use case scenario. We would like to see a bit more here, but it's still plenty good enough considering its massive value proposition.

Final Thoughts

There is a lot to like about Acer's FA200 4TB SSD. First and foremost, it is an absolute gaming beast - best-in-class, to be exact. It's the best QLC arrayed SSD for gaming duties that we've ever tested. This applies to both PC and PS5 storage expansion. Its physical attributes also make it highly desirable, being a single-sided 4TB SSD. It can fit more places than common double-sided designs. And finally, because it is a 4-channel controlled, DRAMless SSD, it is inherently cool running and power efficient.

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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. Currently, we consider a user experience score of 15K or more to verify an SSD as a TweakTown Elite performer. It's not elite, but certainly respectable.

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It's a gaming masterpiece with tons of capacity and it's among the best bargains going, making it a Must Have - Best Value award winner.