Transcend MTE260S Gen5 2TB SSD Review – All Gen 5 SSDs Are Not Built Alike

Sitting here doing some testing and this years highest pile of SSDs seem to belong to SMI, all containing the SMI SM2508 Gen5 8-channel SSD controller that has taken the industry by storm.  The newest sample is rather interesting and there aren’t any reviews for it just yet. It is the Transcend MTE260S Gen5 2TB SSD and don’t ask what that name signifies as it is yet another mystery.  It just… appeared on my doorstep.

The MTE260S is a PCIe 5.0 (Gen5) four-channel (X4) M.2 SSD of the 2280 (22mm wide x 80mm long) form factor and it operates in accordance with the latest NVMe 2.0 specs/standard. It will be available in 1, 2 and 4TB capacities and listed specifications are 14GB/s read and 11GB/s write for the 2TB capacity, the read performance which drops slightly to 9.8GB/s for the 1TB capacity.  IOPS are listed as high as 1400K but we can state right off they are more like 2000K.  A 4TB version is scheduled for release in Q4 2025 and its performance specifications will be 14GB/s read and 12.5GB/s write.

Ther Transcend MTE260S has gold branding set onto a thick ‘graphene’ branding sticker that also serves as a heatsink. It will come with a 5-year limited warranty and endurance speaks to 1500 TBW (terabytes written) for the 2TB version, and 750 TBW for the 1TB.

The MTE260s contains the Silicon Motion SM2508 8-channel Gen5 SSD  controller, as well as a package of DRAM cache and two Micron 3D TLC NAND flash memory chips that are Transended branded.

Rather unusual is the fact that Transcend elected to go with a two-sided SSD rather than follow the norm with recent releases of manufacturing a single-sided SSD.  We think this choice follows that theory that older NAND is more value oriented as  single-sided SSDs with a single NAND chip seems to be the norm these days.

This SSD is expected to be released in September with a MSRP of $129 for the 1TB and $209 for the 2TB version. Check Amazon for S260S availability and pricing.

TRANSCEND SSD SCOPE

Transcend also has their SSD Scope software which is a free download here.  There are a number of utilities on it to include View Drive Information, View S.M.A.R.T. Status, Diagnostic Scan, Secure Erase, Firmware Update, TRIM Enable, Health Indicator and System Clone.

Let’s check out some performance benchmarks…