The best M.2 SSDs of 2024: Expert tested and reviewed

One of the biggest killers of storage drives is heat. The faster the drive, the more waste heat it generates. And the CS3150 is a fast drive. Clocking sequential read and write speeds of 11,500 and 8,500 MB/s, respectively.

To keep the temperatures at a manageable level, the CS3150 not only features a massive heatsink, but also dual cooling fans.

Review: PNY CS3150

I stress-tested the drive using CrystalDiskMark and monitored the temperatures using CrystalDiskInfo, and — despite my relentless thrashing of the CS3150 — I could not get the temperatures to exceed the 70°C/158°F maximum operating temperatures. 

Note that the fans do require a free set of 4-pin fan header pins on the motherboard.

This drive is quite new so there aren’t many reviews for it yet, but those I’ve seen suggest this drive lives up to expectations.

PNY CS3150 features: Interface: PCIe Gen5x4 | Sequential read speeds: Up to 11,500 MB/s | Sequential write speeds: Up to 8,500 MB/s