Final Thoughts
MSI is really targeting the PlayStation 5 crowd with this drive, hence the “Play” in the product name, but this is just a great drive whether you are using on PC or PlayStation 5. In our testing it performed very close to its advertised speeds of 7000 MB/s read and 6800 MB/s write. For example in CrystalDiskMark we saw read and write speeds of 6950.66 MB/s and 6911.97 MB/s respectively. These speeds make it one of the fastest drives we’ve ever tested and it definitely keeps up with some of the latest Gen4 drives we’ve reviewed lately.
Since PlayStation 5 requires compatible M.2 drives to come with a heatsink MSI has added a nice one to the Spatium M480 Play. It comes pre-installed on the drive, which is a plus, especially for PlayStation 5 users. Unfortunately we do not have a PlayStation 5 on hand to show you how easy installation is or the drives PlayStation 5 performance, but MSI has an easy to follow video.
This heatsink is one of the best looking ones I’ve seen come on an M.2 drive and it definitely keeps the drive nice and cool. We did not run into any thermal throttling issues when testing the drive.
Right now you can pick up the 2TB version of this drive at our favorite online retailer for $330, which obviously puts a premium on the drive, but I do think it is warranted given is performance and excellent heatsink. If you are on PC or PlayStation 5 you are going to be very happy with this drive. Overall ThinkComputers gives the MSI Spatium M480 Play Gen4 NVMe Solid State Drive a 10 out of 10 score and our Recommended Award!
Pros:
– Excellent performance
– One of the best looking M.2 heatsinks we’ve seen in a while
– Does not thermally throttle
– Compatible with PlayStation 5
– Available up to 4TB
– 5 year warranty
Cons:
– None that I found
