Team Group T-Force A440 LITE 2 TB Gen4 NVMe SSD Review – Heatsink-Less With Same High-End Speeds

While PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs are setting new storage performance benchmarks, the real-life and application benefits of getting those drives are still not worth the price you are paying for them. It's still very much an early adopter product for now and while we appreciate the speed-up, we would love to see the performance transition from synthetic benchmarks to actual use cases.

And you know what's still considered quite fast without breaking your wallet? The current-gen PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs. Gen 4 SSDs are now available at very affordable prices while offering great performance. TeamGroup is the creator of some of the most high-quality memory products for the PC industry & today, we will be testing their latest T-Force A440 LITE PCIe Gen4 SSD which uses the Phison E27T controller, switching to higher performance in a DRAM-less package.

T-Force A440 LITE 2 TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD

The T-Force A440 LITE is part of the "A440" series family which has been going on for a long time. We have previously tested the A440 and A440 PRO and now it's time to test the LITE variant. The T-Force A440 LITE SSDs are based on the NVMe SSD form factor and feature TLC-based 3D NAND flash (162-layer), offering capacities ranging from 512 GB and up to 2 TB, better performance, and slightly lower power input.

The SSDs are based on the Phison "PS5027-E27-61" controller, adopt a TSMC 12nm process and support capacities of up to 8 TB. It's a DRAM-Less design with full support for HBM & SLC caching. The controller is rated at a peak sequential read of up to 7400 MB/s and peak sequential write of up to 6700 MB/s.

In terms of performance, the T-Force A440 LITE 2 TB SSD has sequential read speeds of up to 7400 MB/s and write speeds of 6400 MB/s. The drive is based on a 168-layer TCL NAND from Kioxia and has an endurance of 1200 (TBW) backed by a 5-year warranty.

T-Force A440 LITE 2 TB PCIe Gen4 SSD  – Unboxing and Closer Look

The T-Force A440 LITE 2 TB SSD comes in a standard package. The package is colored black and red plus it features a picture of the SSD itself. The front only lists the 2 TB capacity.

The back of the package lists some specifications of the SSD and some performance figures which we will get to in a bit.

The T-Force A440 LITE SSD package includes a warranty booklet and that's about it. The SSD container includes the storage drive and the Graphene heatsink.

The front of the SSD has the standard sticker. This is the standard NVMe 1.4 standard & measures 22 x 80 x 3.7mm (LxWxH).

There are two NAND Flash chips on the front along with the Phison E27T Gen4 controller situated on the front. These are Kioxia "T2BIGA5A1V" dies with a 2400 MT/s speed.

Since this is a low-power device, the temperature doesn't get too high so the Graphene heatpad should be good enough for the job. It's also a single-sided module so you don't have to worry about heat on the other side.

Without the heatsink, the SSD weighs just 7 grams plus a few more grams with the Graphene heat pad applied.

Test Setup

Our test platform for this review consisted of an Intel Core i9-13900K processor which ran at stock clocks on the MSI Z790 ACE motherboard. The platform was coupled with 32 GB of DDR5 memory from G.Skill (Trident Z5/ 16 GB x 2) and the MSI MEG Ai1300P PSU. For graphics, I used the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X. This rounds up as a high-end platform for tests with modern-day SSDs.

Wccftech SSD Test Setup For Gen5:

Processor	Intel Core i9-13900K
Motherboard:	MSI MEG Z790 ACE
Power Supply:	MSI MEG Ai1300P (1300W)
Solid State Drive:	KLEVV Genuine G560 2 TB Gen5 ADATA Legend 970 Pro 2 TB Gen5 MSI Spatium M580 Frozr 4 TB Gen 5 PNY XLR8 CS3150 2 TB Gen 5 MSI Spatium M570 Pro 2 TB Gen 5 Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z540 2 TB Gen 5 Inland TD510 2 TB Gen 5 Crucial T700 Gen 5 2 TB AORUS Gen 5 10000 2 TB
Memory:	G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5-7400 (2 x 16 GB)
Case:	Cooler Master C700M
Video Cards:	MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X
Cooling Solutions:	MSI MEG S360 AIO Liquid Cooler
OS:	Windows 11 64-bit (24H2)

T-Force A440 LITE 2 TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Performance Benchmarks

First up, we have the official performance stats for these drives as listed by their manufacturers. You can compare these stats with the rest of the drives I tested in the following chart:

AS SSD Benchmark

AS SSD Benchmark download is a Windows 10 utility software program that tests the performance of solid-state drives. With its help, you can find out the speed of all installed SSDs and take care of any issues that the tests may reveal. The free app performs three separate tests to provide you with conclusive evidence of your driver's general behavior while it copies, reads, and writes data.  The app determines the access time of an SSD, along with its speed and performance capabilities

ATTO 3.05 Disk Benchmark

As the industry’s leading provider of high-performance storage & network connectivity products, ATTO has created a widely-accepted Disk Benchmark freeware software to help measure storage system performance. As one of the top tools utilized in the industry, Disk Benchmark identifies performance in hard drives, solid-state drives, RAID arrays as well as the host connection to attached storage. Top drive manufacturers, like Hitachi, build and test every drive using the ATTO Disk Benchmark.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturer's RAID controllers, storage controllers, host bus adapters (HBAs), hard drives, and SSD drives, and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.

Crystal Disk Mark 7.0.0 x64

CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software. It measures sequential reads/writes speed, random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed, selects test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill),

File Transfer Speeds (100 GB File Size)

To test the maximum average transfer speeds of the drives, I used a 100 GB file to test the limits.

PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark

The PCMark 10 Storage benchmark is designed to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 10 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices.

Forspoken DirectStorage Benchmark

Conclusion - DRAM-Less Design For Better Value

T-Force A440 SSDs have been out for a while and the company is now rolling out the latest "LITE" variants which adopt the Phison E27T controller and feature a DRAM-Less design. On paper, the SSDs offer very similar speeds as the PRO variants with 7400 MB/s Read & 6400 MB/s Write speeds which make them high-end designs. In certain DRAM-heavy instances, the SSD does incur a penalty but in most average usecases, you are getting a great experience.

In terms of pricing, the T-Force A440 LITE can be found for as low as $124.99 US which is about the same price range as similar-spec'd models which come with added heatpads. The Graphene heat-pad does slash the temperatures down a bit and is a nice addition. The pricing puts it in a crowded place and there's also TeamGroup's MP44Q which is priced at $110 US which is fantastic. For users looking for slightly better speeds and Gen4 capabilities, the A440 LITE is a nice addition to T-Force's A440 family and we look forward to seeing more price adjustments that will further add to its value.

Get the Teamgroup T-Force A440 LITE 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD from Newegg for $124.99 US (9/15/24)