Phison Pascari X200P 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - Sequential Read Champion

TweakTown Rating: 96%

Our Verdict

Phison's Pascari X200P 7.68TB enterprise SSD is the sequential read leader of PCIe Gen5 SSDs.

Pros

• Highest sequential read
• Mixed workloads
• 8K random read
• Consistency

Cons

• Sequential write

Should you buy it?

AvoidConsiderShortlistBuy

Introduction and Drive Details

Due to the current AI Storage compute boom, the Phison Pascari X200 Series is selling as fast as Phison can make them; in fact, the controller company cannot make them fast enough, which is currently a common thread across the industry. And even though the X200 Series has been superseded by the Pascari X201 Series, having newer and faster NAND arraying its various PCB configurations, the X200 Series is still selling out globally and is still very much a top performer that is highly sought after, making it a great candidate for another in-depth TweakTown evaluation.

Having already reviewed the 3-DWPD variant and its 60-DWPD SLC variant we already know that the X200 Series is a top of the food chain platform and that our 1-DWPD test subject should be another extraordinary enterprise solution, this time for read intensive applications.

Phison advertises its Pascari portfolio of enterprise SSDs as being built on over two decades of experience driving innovation in NAND technologies. The Pascari portfolio enables highly customized and off-the-shelf solutions to address specific storage deployment scenarios and workloads. With turnkey solutions for every enterprise application, Phison enables its partners and customers to identify and make the most of emerging opportunities across the data storage ecosystem.

The fabless controller company describes its massively popular Pascari X200 Series as having already attained design wins across the computing spectrum. These design wins include high-performance computing to video delivery platforms by hyperscale customers. The X200 platform is currently servicing a wide range of workloads in enterprise environments and datacenters worldwide. As we stated previously, Phison cannot make them fast enough to keep up with demand.

Phison's Pascari X-Series comes in the latest form factors and is unmatched in features, giving you custom SSD results with an off-the-shelf buying experience. The Phison X200 exists to support your diverse requirements in a single series. X200 delivers both single-port and dual-port modes while shipping in U.2 and E3.S form factors, empowering your datacenter with reliable, consistent, and predictable performance that exceeds current industry standards.

Okay, now let's see what kind of performance it can deliver via our enterprise test bench.

Specs/Comparison Products

29

Phison Pascari X200P 7.68TB PCIe Gen5 x4 U.2 SSD

The drive we have in hand is a 1-DWPD design, U.2 form factor, 7.68TB in capacity, SK hynix V7 eTLC arrayed, and Phison X2 PS5302-X2 16-channel controlled. This configuration is rated for up to 3.2 million IOPS and up to 14.8 GB/s sequential throughput. Pascari Series SSDs are compatible with major operating systems such as RHEL, SLES, CentOS, Ubuntu, Windows Server, and VMware ESXi.

Test System Specs & Enterprise Testing Methodology

Enterprise SSD Test System

A special thank you goes to Allyn Malventano, without whose help we wouldn't be where we are with our Linux-based Enterprise SSD testing platform.

Testing Methodology

TweakTown strictly adheres to industry-accepted Enterprise Solid State Storage testing procedures. Each test we perform repeats the same sequence of the following steps:

1. Secure Erase SSD
2. Write the entire capacity of SSD 2x (2 loops) with 128KB sequential write data, seamlessly transition to the next step (sequential testing skips step 3)
3. Precondition SSD by filling the drive twice with 4K or 8K random writes
4. Run test-specific workload with a 30-second ramp up for 5 minutes at each measured Queue Depth, and record average result

Benchmarks - Sequential

128K Sequential Write/Read

29

We precondition the drive with 100 percent sequential 128K writes at QD256 using 1-thread for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify that steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after 1-drive fill. Average steady-state 128K sequential write performance at QD256 is approximately 8,700 MB/s.

29

29

Phison specs its Pascari X200P 7.68TB SSDs as capable of delivering up to 8,700 MB/s 128K sequential write throughput, which is exactly what we are seeing. Of note is the exceptional QD1 performance here, which is among the best we've ever seen.

29

29

Here, the drive is factory spec'd for up to 14,800 MB/s 128K sequential read throughput. We are hitting up to 15,026 MB/s, so it is better than advertised and at a place where throughput matters most for read-intensive AI applications. Overall, this level of sequential read throughput is the highest we've ever encountered. Excellent.

Benchmarks - Random

4K Random Write/Read

29

We precondition the drive using 100 percent random 4K writes at QD256 for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify that steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after 1-drive fill. Average steady-state 4K random write performance at QD256 is approximately 430K IOPS.

29

29

Our 7.68TB model is rated at up to 390K 4K random write IOPS. We are getting up to 435K, so we are doing a bit better than advertised with our testing configuration.

29

29

Factory spec here is up to 3.200K IOPS. We are getting up to 3,235K with our configuration, so the factory spec seems to be spot on.

4K 7030

29

29

The performance curve here is impressive for a 1-DWPD SSD. Additionally, and worth noting at QD512 and above, our test subject is delivering more than any 1-DWPD TLC arrayed SSD we've encountered. 1,200K IOPS here is absolutely stunning.

4K 5050

29

29

As we add more programming into the mix, our test subject responds well for a 1-DWPD SSD, especially at a queue depth of 32.

8K Random Write/Read

29

We precondition the drive using 100 percent random 8K writes at QD256 for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify that steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after 1-drive fill. Average steady-state 8K random write performance at QD256 is approximately 230K IOPS.

29

29

We expect 8K random to track pretty much the same as 4K random here, just at a lower IOPS rate because it's moving twice the amount of data. Our test subject delivers better than half of what we saw at 4K. Excellent.

29

29

Nice performance curve here, especially at the top end, where we find our test subject cranking out the most IOPS we've encountered coming from any TLC arrayed SSD. Impressive.

8K 7030

29

29

8K 7030 is representative of a common database workload. We note especially strong performance at QD16-32, demonstrating the X200P to be an excellent choice for database applications.

8K 5050

29

29

Here we find our test subject delivering a superior performance curve at queue depths of up to 64. Impressive.

Final Thoughts

As our testing reveals, the Phison Pascari X200P 7.68 TB can deliver more than its rivals in scenarios that matter for read-intensive AI storage, compute, and other applications where sequential read and random mixed workloads are the order of the day. Especially compelling is its exceptional top-end 8K random read throughput, as well as its sequential read throughput and its 4K 7030 mixed workload performance at the top end, where it delivers more than any of its kind that we've ever encountered.

29

In our opinion, it's among the best of its kind currently in circulation. Editor's Choice.