Even though the world has now been introduced to NVMe SSDs, many people still use old laptops. Not only that, there are still many desktop PCs that provide SATA 6 Gbps ports and are rarely used. Especially on laptops, small capacity usually doesn’t really matter, but 2.5″ hard disk performance usually makes blood pressure increase. The solution can be to use a SATA SSD like Team T-Force Vulcan Z.
The Team T-Force Vulcan Z SSD comes to the Hybrid testing table with a capacity of 512 GB. Getting this one device is like getting answers to questions submitted by colleagues. This is of course related to improving Windows loading performance from their old laptops that are still in use. With a considerable difference in performance, of course this will be a solution to the problem of loading by the hard disk.
The team promises performance that can reach 2x that of a 2.5-inch hard disk. At this 512 GB capacity, Team promises 520 MB/s read and 470 MB/s write performance. Even though it’s not the fastest, this performance is more than enough to work with a laptop. In fact, this performance has been able to run games without having to wait long for loading .
SSD Team T-Force Vulcan Z with code T253TZ512G0C101 has the following specifications
| Specification | Team T-Force Vulcan Z |
| Capacity | 512 GB |
| Interface | SATA 6Gbps |
| Controller | Silicon Motion SM2259 XT |
| NAND memory type | Hynix 128-Layer 3D TLC |
| DRAM Cache | There isn’t any |
| Endurance | 400 TBW |
| Dimensions | 100 x 69.9 x 7.0 mm |
| Weight | 45 grams |
For information, the Team provides a 3-year warranty for this SSD. This guarantee will of course be truncated by 400 TB of Terabytes Written , depending on which comes first. Even so, usually for daily use both will be missed.
Design
Because it is intended for entry-level gaming , this SSD has a different design from those on the market. At the top there is a logo and writing from the T-Force brand made by Teamgroup. At the bottom you will see a sticker with a code and a bar code to find out the serial number.
This SSD has dimensions of 100 x 69.9 x 7.0 mm, which means it will fit on some thin laptops that still use SATA. For those who use a 2.5-inch hard disk on their laptop, maybe replacing it with this SSD will slightly reduce its weight because it is only 45 grams. The interface used is of course SATA 6 Gbps which is currently still widely available on desktop PC motherboards .
This SSD uses a controller from Silicon Motion with SM2259 XT. The letter XT indicates that this controller does not support DRAM cache , but does support SLC cache . The NAND chip itself uses Hynix 128-Layer 3D TLC.
Testing
Those of you who change storage on a laptop from a hard disk to an SSD will certainly feel an increase in responsiveness. This is of course because SATA SSDs have 2-3 times the performance when compared to 2.5 inch hard disks . The team itself promises performance of up to 540 MB/s for read and 470 MB/s for writing on the 512 GB version.
In this test, I will use two benchmark software , namely Crystal Disk Mark and ATTO. I use two versions of Crystal Disk Mark myself, namely versions 6 and 8, because both have different calculations. Here are the results
The claims made by the Team on this one SSD are true. The results were almost in accordance with my test. The highest speeds I got for reading were 532 MB/s and 491 MB/s for writing. Results like this, of course, will make laptops and desktops that still use SATA faster and more responsive.
This will certainly be felt when booting the Windows operating system. For playing games , of course there will be an increase in loading which is very pronounced. For image and video editing , the performance will be even more pronounced.
Verdict
In 2023, the use of NVMe SSDs is common. However, there are no less old laptops that still use SATA. To improve performance, one thing that must be improved is the performance to read system data by changing to an SSD. An example is the Team T-Force Vulcan Z SATA SSD.
The performance of this SSD is in accordance with the claims of the manufacturer. This performance will definitely increase system performance on an old laptop or desktop. With a thickness of 7 mm, it can also be installed on a thin laptop that supports SATA. Its resistance to impact will also make it have a longer durability.
Team T-Force Vulcan Z 512 GB SATA SSD sells for USD $34, a price that is quite affordable. This SSD also offers more or less the same TBW as its competitors. But it’s a shame, the warranty for this device is only 3 years, while its competitors can reach 5 years.
Sparks
- Pretty good performance compared to HDD
- Still using TLC instead of QLC
- The price is quite affordable
- It is suitable to replace a system HDD
- TBW is quite high, namely 400 TB
- Has SLC cache
Slacks
- The warranty is only 3 years while competitors reach 5 years
- No information software , only SMART.
