Team Group had a phenomenal showing at Computex 2019. From fast DDR4 memory sticks to RGB-infused internal SSDs and external drives, the brand is going all out for memory products this year. In this review, we will be taking a look at a minimalist and budget-friendly SSD from their catalogue, the Team Group GX1 240GB SSD.
Team Group GX1 240GB
| Capacity | 120GB, 240GB, 480GB, 960GB |
| Interface | SATA III |
| Form Factor | 2.5-inch |
| Dimensions | 100 x 69.9 x 7mm |
| Maximum Read Speeds | Up to 530MBps |
| Maximum Write Speeds | Up to 480MBps |
| Operating Temperature | 0°C – 70°C |
| MTBF | 1,000,000 hours |
| Warranty | 3-year limited warranty |
Unboxing
The Team Group GX1 240GB is clearly aimed towards the budget-conscious crowd based on the packaging. Aside from the SSD, the plastic packaging doesn’t hide any other extras. It would have been nice to see a 9mm caddy to allow the SSD to be properly mounted on older laptops.
Up close with the Team Group GX1 240GB SSD
While an SSD’s design is usually an afterthought for most people, the Team Group GX1 240GB has a rather tasteful design language. Instead of having RGB or eye-catching colors, the SSD is only a slab of black plastic.
Some would probably say that the drive is a bit boring to look at but in our opinion, its dark monolithic design can fit in most builds. This is especially apparent when your case have 2.5-inch mounts that show off drives.
The Team Group GX1 has a plain 2.5-inch form factor. It’s only around 7mm thick, which should fit most devices. Those who have 9mm 2.5-inch drive mounts, however, will find that drive has a bit of slack since it does not come with a 9mm converter.
Since it’s an SSD with no moving parts, placing double-sided tape on the mount and sticking the drive onto the 9mm mount should pose no problems.
The Team Group GX1 comes in several capacities: 120GBH, 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB. As with most SSDs, more flash chips on the SSD will garner faster read and write speeds. As the title of this review suggests, our unit came with 240GB of capacity.
- 120GB – 500MB/s Sequential Read / 320MB/s Sequential Write
- 240GB – 500MB/s Sequential Read / 400MB/s Sequential Write
- 480GB – 530MB/s Sequential Read / 430MB/s Sequential Write
- 960GB – 530MB/s Sequential Read / 480MB/s Sequential Write
The provided maximum read and write limits for the Team Group GX1 are within the theoretical limitations of the SATA III bus. These are fast compared to traditional spinning drives but are no match to SSDs or NVMe drives using the PCIe bus.
Performance and Benchmarks
The drive will need a bit of taking care of before being used. If you’re installing a new OS, the drive should be automatically recognized by the OS installer. If you’re adding the new drive to an existing system, then a quick format is required before usage.
We plugged the drive to one of the SATA III ports on our trusty test system. Our current setup is consisting of the following components:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X 4.1GHz
- RAM: G-Skill 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 (F4-3200C16D-16GTZB)
- Motherboard: ASUS Prime B350 Plus (BIOS 3806)
- PSU: EVGA 650 GQ Gold 650W
- Storage: Intel SSD 760p 512GB
- OS: Windows 10 Build 1903
Before testing, we formatted the drive to NTFS native to the Windows 10 platform. We’ve also filled the drive to 50% to reflect a real-world performance you would expect from using a drive.
CrystalDiskMark 6.0.1
“CrystalDiskMark is designed to quickly test the performance of your hard drives. Currently, the program allows to measure sequential and random read/write speeds.”
AS SSD 2.06694
“AS SSD tests sequential or random read/write performance without using the cache. The software read/writes 1 Gbyte file as well as randomly chosen 4K blocks. Additionally, it performs the tests using 1 or 64 threads and it determines the SSD’s access time.”
ATTO Disk Benchmark
“The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host bus adapters (HBAs), hard drives, and SSD drives.”
Today’s drives are now reaching the limit of the SATA III bus. Based on our benchmarks, the Team Group GX1 240GB is able to keep up with more capacious SSDs. Though some of the 4KiB workloads is a bit too much for the drive, it was still able keep up with some of the sequential read and write speeds found on the other drives.
Conclusion
Though its performance is a bit expected from a 2.5-inch SATA III SSD, the Team Group GX1 240GB does lack some extras that would make it a complete package. The drive would have been more attractive to consumers if it had a 9mm converter or a software package.
Priced at USD 35.99 or around PhP 2,000 in the Philippines, however, its lack of extras can be forgiven due to its low price. It is just as fast as some of the SSDs in the market while also offering a 3-year limited warranty.
Based on the numbers it pumped out and it’s wallet-friendly position in the market make it an attractive deal to the budget-conscious crowd. This is why we are giving the SSD our 100% Satisfying Internal Drive Award. If you’re looking for a fast and cheap upgrade from your traditional hard drive, then the Team Group GX1 240GB is worth a look.
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