Netac NV7000-q M.2 PCIe SSD Review

Introduction

The Netac NV7000-t surprised us with its excellent performance but Netac may have felt that the budget market could use a similar offering but something that may stretch that to peculiar territories. Meet the Netac NV7000-q, a Maxiotech-powered SSD with QLC NAND but is only limited to a 1TB SKU at the time of publishing. All these already make for a seriously confusing hodge podge of niche usage and big what-ifs but ultimately, this drive could be a win if it finds the right niche.

Let’s take a look at how the NV7000-q performs in this review, read on!

Features & Specification

• Access to the system in seconds
• Compact size for high-density storage
• Built with 3D NAND Flash
• With an aluminum heat sink
• Low power consumption
• Intelligent thermal conditioning

Official product page

Closer Look – Netac NV7000-q

Netac packages the NV7000-Q in a signature style. Its easily distinguishable but with multiple NV7000 models available, one has to take note of the model names in the front. In this case, the NV7000-Q model name.  Nothing really much in terms of packaging. Inside we get the SSD, some mounting screws and a documentation sheet.

The Netac NV7000-Q comes in a standard M.2-2280 length PCB package with a heatspreader preinstalled. As the NV7000-Q only comes in a 1TB capacity option as of this writing, the backside of the PCB has a sticker label with no component. The heatspreader side has a  couple of components though.

With a Gen4 speed rating of 7100MB/s read and 6200MB/s write, this is a fast read drive, easily a top recommendation for boot drives that won’t much action on applications like a laptop that works with most cloud-based applications. Its certainly not competing to be the best but it certainly has a very value proposition.

The NV7000-Q uses the same Maxiotech MAP1602 controller like the NV7000-t but swaps the NAND for QLC flash. This decision is quite curious as Netac chooses to only have a 1TB capacity option for the NV7000-q while most other drives using QLC opts to offer larger capacities.

With consumers becoming more aware of part revisions and how they can affect performance down the line, we include the key components in our SSD reviews. Below are the components used by Netac NV7000-q SSD sample as pictured:

• Controller: Maxio Technology MAP1602A
• Flash: YMTC 232-layer 3D QLC
• DRAM: N/A

Performance Testing – Netac NV7000-q

Test Setup

Processor: Intel Core i9-14900K
Motherboard: ROG Maximus Z790 HERO
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5-6400 32GB (2×16)
Storage: Kingston FURY Renegade SSD (OS), tested drive as listed
PSU: FSP Hydro GT Pro 1000W
Cooling: NZXT Kraken X72 RGB
Monitor: ROG PG27U
VGA: ASUS GTX 1050 Ti Phoenix

Our sample for this test is the NETAC NV7000-q 1TB capacity version

Linear Performance Testing

SSD performance rating especially on write usually only achieved in optimal sitautions particularly sequential transfers. In this we use a script to write 1GB data files to fill-up the drive or until we hit the saturation point where the drive doesn’t delivery its rated performance.

Curiously, I’d have expected the write speed to be on the higher side but I’ve run this test multiple times to confirm and results are all over the place so I’m rethinking how this is done. Still, the result does echo the tests we did with the NV7000-t but with the NV7000-q dipping to lower speeds after 270GB~ish of data written.

Crystal DiskMark

CrystalDIskMark has been the most actively updated disk benchmark amongst all the ones we use and is effectively the most reliable. Unfortunately, version to version results are not comparable which limits the ability to extrapolate comparative data. Still its a reliable and direct benchmark. Like the previous, it allows control over test data pattern, the test data size, amount of passes and individual benchmark control.

PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark

PCMark 10 introduces a set of four storage benchmarks that use relevant real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to fully test the performance of the latest modern drives.

3DMark Storage Benchmark

The 3DMark Storage Benchmark uses traces recorded from popular games and gaming-related activities to measure real-world gaming performance, such as:

• Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Overwatch® from launch to the main menu.
• Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
• Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
• Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.
• Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.

Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark

Final Fantasy XIV has a standalone benchmark application for PC, with the mid-2024 update to the game being the Drawntrail expansion which means that we’re restarting from scratch in our testing archive for this benchmark which delivers some very nice graphical updates. A long-standing feature of the Final Fantasy XIV standalone benchmark is the loading data is captures which is a summary of all the load times between scenes in the benchmark. We take the aggregate loading times of these scenes for the total score.

Playstation 5 Testing

The Sony Playstation 5 supports storage expansion thru M.2 devices and many SSD makers are advertising their drives as supporting the Playstation 5. That said, we’ve included PS5 bandwidth testing in our reviews. We use the Playstation 5’s internal read speed test for the primary initialization. Due to how Sony designed this benchmark, our testing averages at least 5 reads with the drive formatted after a rest period for best thermal results.

Conclusion

The Netac NV7000-q is an easy SSD to recommend if you’re planning to use your system for a fixed configuration for a while. An example of this for gamers is if you play a PlayStation 5 game only when a big release is out, chances are you won’t be playing anything else. Biggest example? You only play COD on PC or PS5. If that’s the only action your system is ever going to see, the Netac NV7000-Q is a great option for fast read performance but would also be fast enough to install updates.

But if value is a consideration, there are many others out there that can do the same job particularly older SSDs if we’re talking specifically about games. For me, the most immediate use would really this drive make the most of its peculiar offer are laptops. You install the OS, boot it up, do some work, play some games. Rinse and repeat. But the value here is on the responsiveness that a 7000MB/s read speed would give when going from sleep mode etc.

Other than that, there’s really not a lot I can say about the NV7000-q. I won’t recommend it as a scratch drive or editing burner drive as larger ProRes would easily put the faux cache into low speed state. A 2TB option would’ve really made it a great pick-up for gamers on lifer games like Valorant, DOTA2, Apex Legends, or Factorio so these system can also see some AAA games occassionaly especially during sales.

Outside of those use cases its also a nice NUC or mini-PC provided it fits but a $70 pick-up might not be the most immediate concern for some. Which brings us to the last consideration? Is it worth it? Well, we’re not sure, we really can’t find published pricing for the Netac NV7000-q so going off similarly specced SSD, we’re only guesstimating the 60-70$ offer.

With that said, once availability ramps up, if you can see it around the price mentioned above, its definitely a solid option if you can fathom how it works.

The Netac NV7000-q is available now and comes with a 5-year manufacturer’s warranty.