I bought a 4TB Gen4 Fanxiang S770 NVMe SSD with TLC NAND and onboard DRAM through AliExpress. The listed price was around £220, but a 35% cashback offer should bring the effective cost down to about £143 once it is paid out. That seems exceptionally cheap, especially compared with current SSD prices. Does anyone have experience with the S770 specifically, or with Fanxiang drives in general? I'm mainly interested in real-world performance, reliability over time, and whether the brand's reputation is deserved compared with more established Japanese, Korean, or Western manufacturers.
3 Answers
Be careful if you bought it from the Fanxiang global store, because VAT may still be collected separately. The final price might not be quite as low as the cashback-adjusted amount.
Fanxiang drives seem to have pretty mixed long-term feedback, with some reports getting worse as the drive ages. It could still be worthwhile at that price, but I’d only use it for data that is backed up somewhere else. Make sure you have a plan for replacing it if its health starts dropping.
The S770’s hardware is considered fairly high-end, but its IG5236 controller reportedly does not manage heat particularly well. Definitely install it under a proper heatsink and avoid running it bare, especially during sustained writes.
I’ve heard the VAT situation is inconsistent, so I’m prepared for it. Even if I’m charged, it should only add roughly £45.