SK Hynix Gold S31, a fantastic internal SSD

SATA SSDs are a quick and dependable solution to expand your storage capacity while potentially improving speed. Usually, we recommend one of the top drives, such as the Crucial MX500, Samsung 860 EVO, or WD Blue 3D, but we have a newcomer to add to our list: the SK Hynix Gold S31, which has features and performance that rival even Samsung’s 860 EVO.

The Gold S31, SK Hynix’s latest Superior series SATA 6Gbps SSD, aims to establish itself against the most popular SATA SSDs. Is the Gold S31 up to the challenge? It’s possible, based on the specifications and support.

Performance of SK Hynix Gold S31

Although performance is limited compared to NVMe competitors as a SATA 6Gbps SSD, the drive should still saturate the SATA bus with up to 560/525 MBps sequential throughput. It can also handle 95,000/87,000 random read/write IOPS.

Features

• Anti-Vibration shock mount
• Tap-to-Mute sensor with LED indicator
• Four selectable polar patterns
• Mount adapter included
• Convenient gain control adjustment
• Internal pop filter
• Built-in headphone jack
• Multi-device and chat program compatibility

Controllers

Like Samsung, SK Hynix designed and manufactured the SSD around its SSD controller and NAND from the ground up. Both the Crucial MX500 and the WD Blue 3D, on the other hand, use a third-party SSD controller. 

Design 

SK Hynix does not currently have an SSD Toolbox, but it does have a free cloning/data movement application available for download. The 2.5″ 7mm form factor is adhered to by the SK Hynix Gold S31, and the metal casing is relatively sturdy compared to some SSDs that come in plastic enclosures. Two packages with a controller and a DRAM chip are all housed on the PCB, which is only a quarter of the size of the enclosure.

Pros and cons 

Pro

• Competitive performance
• Competitive pricing
• Cloning software included
• Five-year warranty

Cons

• Small write cache capacity
• 1TB maximum capacity

Conclusion 

The SK Hynix Gold S31 is a fantastic SATA SSD alternative. With performance numbers of up to 560MBps, it competes with the best while remaining reasonably priced. The drive is powered by SK Hynix’s proprietary Quartz SATA controller. It’s a fourth-generation design with FTL table mapping using its LPDDR3 DRAM cache. It connects to SK Hynix’s 72-Layer 3D TLC flash, its fourth iteration.