The HP EX920 M.2 SSD Review: Finding the Mainstream Sweet Spot

Conclusion

The HP EX920 is not exactly priced like a top of the line SSD, even though it is currently the top model under the HP brand. It has consistently been selling for lower prices than the flagships from more established SSD brands like Samsung and Western Digital.

When it comes to performance, the HP EX920 is also not quite at the top, but it's close enough. On a few tests, the EX920 manages to set new performance records, but on some of our most challenging tests it falls behind the competition and comes close to dropping into the low-end NVMe segment, which is mostly occupied by drives with smaller & cheaper controllers. But even when the EX920 doesn't exactly shine, it stays well ahead of SATA drives, and the overall performance picture makes it clear that the EX920 deserves to be classified as a high-end NVMe SSD. The EX920's weaknesses are relative; it's never truly slow.

The power consumption of the HP EX920 is fairly high on almost every test. This is often justified by correspondingly high performance, but the EX920 usually ends up being a bit less efficient under load than the top competitors. Samsung's 970 EVO draws at least as much power as the EX920, but almost always offers at least a bit more performance. But right now, the drive to beat for efficiency is the WD Black, which is on average a bit faster than the HP EX920 but draws substantially less power than any other high-end NVMe SSD, usually putting even last year's Toshiba XG5 to shame.

However the HP EX920 does have one significant advantage in power consumption: it is one of the few NVMe SSDs that reaches extremely low idle power levels on our testbed. Far too many NVMe SSDs have power management bugs or compatibility limitations that keep their idle power far above advertised levels when measured on our desktop testbed. I'm sure that most of these drives can hit their rated single-digit mW ratings in the lab with a carefully configured notebook test system, but the HP EX920 drops down to a 9mW idle with no trouble at all. The Silicon Motion SM2262 controller used in the HP EX920 and the Intel 760p is the only NVMe SSD controller we've encountered that entirely follows through on its promises of low idle power. For many use cases, the excellent and reliable idle power savings will more than make up for any deficiencies in load power consumption.

Overall this review is our second look at the Silicon Motion SM2262 controller, after the Intel 760p that features unspecified Intel-specific customizations to both the firmware and the controller hardware itself. The HP EX920 puts HP's logo on the controller instead of the Silicon Motion logo, but I suspect that the drive is functionally identical to Silicon Motion's reference design – HP hasn't even removed the activity LED that ends up covered by the EX920's sticker.

The EX920 makes it abundantly clear that Silicon Motion has recovered from the shortcomings of their first NVMe controller that was so disappointing in drives like the Intel 600p. In a way, Silicon Motion has recaptured the same status they held several years ago, before NVMe and when mainstream SATA SSDs still used MLC NAND. At that time, Silicon Motion's SM2246EN controller allowed drives like the Crucial BX100 to offer performance that was pretty close to the top SSDs, but with substantially lower price tags. There was almost no reason to consider the top SATA SSDs when the mid-range was so good, and the same may now be true for the NVMe SSD market.

The 1TB HP EX920 that we tested is the capacity with the best pricing. Samsung and Western Digital have their high-end 1TB NVMe SSDs around $400, but the HP EX920 is under $300, putting it close to low-end NVMe SSDs based on the Phison E8 controller. ADATA's similar SM2262 drive, the XPG SX8200, is currently much cheaper at sub-TB capacities, and while the Intel 760p has much higher prices across the capacity range.

With no pressure from Phison-based drives until E12 products start shipping, that leaves the rest of the high-end NVMe market to the Western Digital WD Black and Samsung 970 EVO. They are both competitively priced against the HP EX920 in the 256GB capacity class, but the larger models are selling for premium prices. It is very easy to recommend the 1TB HP EX920 instead of a slightly faster but much more expensive M.2 NVMe SSD. (Ultra-high end drives like the Samsung 970 PRO and Intel Optane SSDs are for consumers who don't look at price tags.) For smaller capacities, the ADATA SX8200 is probably a solid choice for high performance, while the MyDigitalSSD SBX offers many NVMe benefits at mainstream SATA prices.