Inland Performance is a mid-range PCIe 4.0 SSD suitable for PlayStation 5 (PS5) or PC, combining affordability with excellent warranty. Available with or without heatsinks of various capacities up to 2TB, the Phison E16 SSD controller combined with TLC flash guarantees performance and longevity with a minimal cost approach. However, this drive faces fierce competition from established drives with similar hardware and improved designs based on new controllers and flash, as seen on the HP FX900.
Inland is Micro Center’s in-house SSD brand, and in reality nothing is unique compared to other SSD manufacturers. The company has licensed the controller and outsources production using the bill of materials. Usually, a Chinese company handles the entire flash binning and drive assembly. This can result in some variation in NAND flash or DRAM over the life of the product, but it is an effective way to reduce costs. Inland then focuses on branding and marketing. In effect, this is general purpose storage that makes Micro Center conveniently available at a reasonable cost.
This production method actually fits into a drive like Performance (not to be confused with Performance Plus). If you want to drop the drive on your PS5, or if you want to add high speed storage to your PC without a premium, this is not a bad option. You probably don’t need frills, and being able to pick it up at the store can save you a trip or some waiting. Inland also offers a strong warranty with similar means for exchange, so purchases and returns have similar conveniences. However, there are many competitors in this area. Is this drive fast enough to stay attractive?
specification
| product | 512GB | 1TB | 2TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price in $ (naked / HS) | $ 69.99 | 99.99 / 104.99 | 179.99 / 199.99 |
| Capacity (user / raw) | 500GB / 512GB | 1000GB / 1024GB | 2000GB / 2048GB |
| Form factor | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
| Interface / Protocol | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4 |
| controller | Phison PS5016-E16 | Phison PS5016-E16 | Phison PS5016-E16 |
| DRAM | DDR4 | DDR4 | DDR4 |
| memory | Kioxia 96L (BiCS4) TLC | Kioxia 96L (BiCS4) TLC | Kioxia 96L (BiCS4) TLC |
| Sequential read | 4,500 MBps | 5,000 MBps | 5,000 MBps |
| Sequential writing | 2,200 MBps | 4,300 MBps | 4,300 MBps |
| Random read | Not applicable | 600K | 600K |
| Random write | Not applicable | 500K | 500K |
| safety | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Durability (TBW) | 850 TB | 1,700 TBW | 3,500 TBW |
| part number | 953919 | 300749 | 329458 |
| guarantee | 6 years | 6 years | 6 years |
Inland Performance has three capacities from 512GB to 2TB, the former can only be used with heatsinks. Drives are available with and without heatsinks on 1TB and 2TB models, but availability and price may vary. Specifically, it seems more reliable to get 1TB and 2TB heatsink SKUs on Amazon. Micro Centers are usually cheaper, and variants with heatsinks are generally more expensive.
There is nothing unexpected in the performance numbers. Performance can reach up to 5 / 4.3GBps sequential read / write throughput and 600K / 500K random read / write IOPS. Suitable for PS5 use and offers higher peak throughput than PCIe 3.0 drive.
The warranty is very good, the TBW (terabytes) durability rating is insanely high, and it comes with a 6-year warranty. High durability is guaranteed for writing and is not uncommon in drives based on the Phison E16 SSD controller. This can be much higher than any user needs. Even more useful is the warranty period, which is one year longer than the usual five years. In fact, this looks great, as many budget drives opt for a three-year warranty.
look carefully
The front of the drive has a simple label with basic information. When removed, you will see the controller, DRAM package, and two NAND packages. This is a 2TB SSD with a layout of 2 packages on each side, so there are 2 more NAND packages on the back. You can also see additional DRAM packages.
The Phison E16 is the first PCIe 4.0 consumer SSD controller on the market, and AMD now supports the deployment of the X570 platform for PCIe 4.0. This was a bit of a temporary solution that leveraged the elements of the Phison E12 controller in combination with the more powerful PCIe 4.0 physical interface. However, it shows that it has legs, is PS5 compliant, and is responding to a corresponding price drop that is sufficient to maintain relevance.
However, we are facing competition for new technologies and flashes, such as the InnoGrit IG5220 on the HP FX900. Future competitors include SMI’s SM2269XT found in the ADATA Legend 850, and Phison’s own E21T. In addition, WD has its own competitive and unique controller for the WDSN770. In particular, all of these controllers are used for DRAMless SSDs, which makes sense if you’re not pushing up the edge of the x4 PCIe 4.0 interface.
The DRAM is labeled H5AN8G8NCJR, or SK hynix C-die DDR4. “8G8” indicates an 8-bit configuration of 8Gb of memory, or 1GB of DRAM per module, for a total of 2GB of drives. This is more than enough, but a good amount to see.
The flash package is a 96-layer BiCS4Kioxia TLC die labeled TABHG65AWV. Each of these dies tends to be 512Gb or 64GB, so each of the four packages contains eight dies, for a total of 32. Such packages are often known as 8-die packages, or 8DP, or octadecimal die packages listed as ODPs. There is a limit to the number of dies that can be stacked in a package due to the need to maintain signal integrity as well as height requirements. Adhesion of offset dies can also be difficult. In any case, the E16 can manage 32 dies without any problems.
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