SK Hynix

SK Hynix Gold S31

SATA 2.5" · SATA 6 Gbps · SK Hynix Quartz

SATA 2.5" 2020 5-year warranty 250 GB – 2 TB
SK Hynix SK Hynix Gold S31
Specs & Capacities

Specifications

General specifications
InterfaceSATA 6 Gbps
ControllerSK Hynix Quartz
NAND TypeSK Hynix 96-layer 3D TLC
DRAM CacheYes
Warranty5 years
250 GB specifications
Seq Read560 MB/s
Seq Write510 MB/s
Endurance72 TBW
Editor Notes

Overview

The SK Hynix Gold S31, released in 2020, is a SATA 2.5" SSD using SK Hynix's in-house Quartz controller and 96-layer 3D TLC NAND as well as a DRAM cache. As with the PCIe Gold P31, SK Hynix designs and manufactures both the controller and NAND.

Sequential performance is rated at 560/525 MB/s at 500GB and above, in line with other high-end SATA SSDs. Endurance ratings are also competitive: the 500GB model is rated at 360 TBW, higher than most competitors at that capacity. The same 5-year warranty covers all capacities.

External Reviews

Reviews

  • “Given similar pricing, I'd opt for the Gold S31 over the vast majority of the 2.5-inch SATA SSDs on the market.”

    PC World

  • “SK Hynix hit a homerun with the Gold S31, so while the company is late to enter the retail consumer SSD market in the USA, it apparently spent its time tweaking and tuning its new design to perform alongside the best.”

    Tom's Hardware

  • “The SK Hynix Gold S31 SSDs are capable mainstream SATA drives. They are consistently a bit slower than most of the recent competition in this market segment, but the differences are seldom big enough to matter (and performance sensitive users should be shopping for NVMe drives instead). On the bright side, the Gold S31 tends to have significantly better than average power efficiency. The use of LPDDR3 DRAM instead of DDR3L or DDR4 seems to be a factor.”

    AnandTech