Lexar ARES PRO 2TB SSD, M.2 2280 PCIe Gen5 NVMe

The ARES PRO is Lexar’s PCIe 5.0 flagship: sequential reads to 14,000MB/s and writes to 10,000MB/s, with random performance around 2,000K read and 1,400K write IOPS, driven by a Maxio MAP1806 controller over TLC NAND. Like most current Gen5 drives it is a DRAM-less design relying on Host Memory Buffer. Endurance on the 2TB capacity is 1500TBW under a five-year warranty. The drive is a standard single-sided M.2 2280 with no heatsink fitted, which means it needs the motherboard’s own M.2 cooler — at Gen5 speeds that is not optional — but also means it fits a PlayStation 5 expansion bay once a suitable heatsink is added.

Covered by a 2-year warranty under EU consumer law.