TeamGroup T-Force CARDEA A440 Pro 2 TB Gen 4 M.2 SSD Review

TeamGroup is the creator of some of the most high-quality memory products for the PC industry. They have come a long way since their inception in 1997 and went on to become one of the fastest-growing product manufacturers and a leading brand around the globe.

Since the arrival of DDR4 memory in the mainstream market, TeamGroup started a separate line of DIMM kits under their new T-Force brand. The T-Force brand is the more enthusiast and gamer aimed memory series with a sheer focus on quality and performance.

The company later expanded the T-Force brand into their entire gaming portfolio which includes SSDs, gaming peripherals, and more.

T-FORCE is TEAM force. The red “T” on the logo of “TF” represents TEAMGROUP’s passion for the storage products. The black “F” represents TEAMGROUP’s over 18 years of promotion of storage products. The visual design of the perfect combination elegantly symbolizes a pair of flying wings. They represent that the high quality and extreme performance gaming products from TEAMGROUP are capable of allowing all gamers to break the speed limit and enjoy the ever-changing world of gaming.

Today, I will be testing the TeamGroup T-Force CARDEA A440 PRO 2 TB Gen 4 SSD which is priced at a very premium $359.99 US for the Graphene & $395.99 US for the Aluminum heat spreader variant. This is the flagship SSD from TeamGroup for 2021 and features some insanely high speeds so let’s get into the specifications of this little monster!

Teamgroup T-Force CARDEA A440 PRO 2 TB Gen 4 NVMe SSD

TeamGroup expands its T-Force CARDEA lineup with the A440 PRO, an upgraded variant of the A440 but with focus purely on high-end Gen4 performance.

The T-Force CARDEA PRO 2 TB SSD is based on the NVMe SSD form factor and features a total of eight Micron 176-layer 3D TLC NAND B47R chips which offer larger capacities, better performance, and slightly lower power input. The M390 SSDs are also based on the Gen 4 Phison PS5018-E18 controller. The SSD also comes with dual SK Hynix DDR4-2666 DRAM chips which offer 2 GB total capacity.

FEATURES

• PCIe Gen4x4 interface and complies with the NVMe 1.4 standard
• Sequential Read speeds up to 7400MB/s and Write speeds up to 7000MB/s
• Up to 1400 TBW (2 TB)
• 3,000,000 hours MTBF
• Built-in data security and error-correction capabilities
• 1TB to 4TB capacities in M.2 2280 form factor
• Suitable for both desktop and notebook
• 5-Year Limited Warranty

Furthermore, the 2 TB model is priced slightly above the premium offerings with a cost of $359.99 US which gets you really high-speeds out of the box. In terms of performance, TeamGroup T-Force CARDEA A440 PRO 2 TB has sequential read speeds of 7400 MB/s and write speeds of 7000 MB/s.

The Random read speed of the drive is up to 1000K IOPS and the write is 1000K IOPS too. The endurance of the lineup is rated at 1400 TBW or 3,000,000 hours which should last a good amount of time with these drives. You are also looking at a 5-year limited warranty through the entire lineup.

Teamgroup T-Force CARDEA A440 PRO 2 TB SSD Specifications:

Teamgroup T-Force CARDEA A440 PRO 2 TB Gen 4 NVMe SSD – Unboxing and Closer Look

The A440 PRO comes in a small package. The front of the package is very colorful with large pictures of the SSD featured on it. There are many logos on the front starting with the T-Force logo on the top left corner and followed by CARDEA logos on the top right corners. Some of the most prominent features include the Graphene pad and NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 support.

The back of the package lists down some specifications of the SSD and some performance figures which we will get to in a bit.

The package includes three items, one is the warranty booklet, the graphene pad, and the other is the drive itself. There’s also a T-Force case sticker inside the package which is a nice addition.

Out of the package, both drives come in the standard M.2 2280 form factor with the A440 PRO having a black-colored PCB.

The front of the drives includes a specifications sticker and you can place the graphene pads on the exposed side of the PCB. The heatsink installation is pretty simple and requires you to slot the SSD into the bottom support which sets in place quite nicely.

The CARDEA A440 holds eight Micron 176-layer 3D TLC NAND B47R chips which offer larger capacities, better performance, and slightly lower power input. The M390 SSDs are also based on the Gen 4 Phison PS5018-E18 controller. The SSD also comes with dual SK Hynix DDR4-2666 DRAM chips which offer 2 GB total capacity.

Test Setup

Our test platform for this review consisted of an Intel Core i9-12900K processor which ran at stock clocks on the Z690 AORUS Master motherboard. The platform was coupled with 32 GB of DDR5 memory from G.Skill (Trident Z5/ 16 GB x 2) and the ASUS ROG Thor 1200W PSU. For graphics, I used the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X. This rounds up as a high-end platform for tests with modern-day SSDs.

Wccftech SSD Test Setup:

Teamgroup T-Force CARDEA A440 PRO 2 TB Gen 4 NVMe SSD Performance Benchmarks

First up, we have the official performance stats for these drives as listed by their manufacturers. You can compare these stats with the rest of the drives I tested in the following chart:

AS SSD Benchmark

AS SSD Benchmark download is a Windows 10 utility software program that tests the performance of solid-state drives. With its help, you can find out the speed of all installed SSDs and take care of any issues that the tests may reveal. The free app performs three separate tests to provide you with conclusive evidence on your driver’s general behavior while it copies, reads, and writes data. The app determines the access time of an SSD, along with its speed and performance capabilities

ATTO 3.05 Disk Benchmark

As the industry’s leading provider of high-performance storage & network connectivity products, ATTO has created a widely-accepted Disk Benchmark freeware software to help measure storage system performance. As one of the top tools utilized in the industry, Disk Benchmark identifies performance in hard drives, solid-state drives, RAID arrays as well as the host connection to attached storage. Top drive manufacturers, like Hitachi, build and test every drive using the ATTO Disk Benchmark.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturer’s RAID controllers, storage controllers, host bus adapters (HBAs), hard drives, and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.

Crystal Disk Mark 7.0.0 x64

CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software.It measure sequential reads/writes speed,measure random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed,select test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill),

File Transfer Speeds (100 GB File Size)

To test the maximum average transfer speeds of the drives, I used a 100 GB file to test the limits.

PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark

The PCMark 10 Storage benchmark is designed to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 10 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices.

Conclusion – Premium Performance For A Premium Price

TeamGroup has been adding more performance to its A440 lineup starting with the original A440 which rocked a Gen 4 design with 7000/5000 (Read/Write) speeds. Now the PRO variant further extends the performance with up to 7400/7000 (Read/Write) speeds, putting it above the 980 PRO specturm. There’s also the A440 PRO Special edition designed for consoles which we will have a review on shortly.

Starting with the performance, the 2 TB drive costs $30 US more than the Samsung 980 Pro but is slightly cheaper than MSI’s Spatium M480. Do note that the heatsink version of each drive costs an extra but our variant features a Graphene pad which should be enough for cooling. As for overall performance, the A440 PRO outperforms the other flagship drives from MSI and Spatium while it also leaves the previous A440 in the dust. It offers excellent transfer rates and both synthetic/non-synthetic performance is simply outclass and the random 4K IOPS numbers are spectacular when compared to the other drives in our test suite.

Also looking at the temperatures above, you can see that the SSD performs within normal operating temps of under 70C. It does get slightly warm under intense stress tests such as benchmarks but nominal use temperatures average at around 60-63C. The Z690 AORUS Master motherboard we tested it on comes with a huge M.2 heatsink solution and that lowered the temperatures by a huge margin but the same results can also be expected on the other drives.

While the T-Force CARDEA A440 PRO is definitely not cheap, it is not meant to be since it aims for the performance segment and you will be paying more $ to get that speed advantage. The other SSDs competing with it are also priced in the $350 US category but if you are looking for one really speedy M.2 Gen 4 drive then the A440 PRO won’t disappoint. If speeds aren’t your thing, then you can go the cheaper route with several Gen 3 options that T-Force has to offer.

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