Klevv CRAS C925 2TB SSD Review - The Value Leader

TweakTown's Rating: 91%

The Bottom Line

It's currently the best overall value proposition going.

Pros

• Price
• High endurance
• Throughput

Cons

• Average performance

Should you buy it?

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Introduction & Drive Details

Klevv is a brand that's well known for its memory products based on its parent company SK hynix' industry-leading DRAM chips. Less well known, at least in the Americas, are Klevv's lineup of solid-state storage devices, including portables, SATA, and PCIe Gen3-Gen5 SSDs. You can think of the Klevv brand as a retail wing of SK hynix in a somewhat similar fashion as Crucial is to Micron.

Naturally as a retail wing of SK hynix, Klevv has a substantial advantage over much of its competition through having fab-level access to some of the world's best DRAM and NAND. With its insider access to SK hynix NAND, Klevv can offer to its retail consumers solid-state storage products that offer a nearly unmatched price-to-performance ratio.

The Klevv CRAS C925 2TB SSD we have on the bench today is a single-sided DRAMless model powered by the renowned Maxiotech MAP1602 4-channel controller. This super-efficient Chinese-made controller powers many of our current favorite DRAMless value SSDs. Klevv is pairing the vaunted MAP1602 controller with SK hynix 238-Layer 3D TLC flash rebranded as Essencore.

For us it's the first time we've encountered this new generation of SK hynix flash and we are especially curious to see how well it plays with the prolific MAP1602 controller. We've already seen that Micron B58R, when paired with the MAP1602 controller, has a performance disadvantage compared with YMTC flash, even though B58R is overall the better product. Apparently, the MAP1602 controller isn't as optimized for 232-layer Micron flash as it is for 232-layer YMTC.

Now, let's get into this review so we can show you firsthand what Klevv's CRAS C925 2TB SSD can do for you by the numbers.

Drive Details

At $108 for 2TB of premium TLC flash, we see the 2TB CRAS C925 as the current value leader on the market today. Outstanding.

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When you buy a Klevv SSD, you get the value-added bonus of free Acronis True Image software, making system migration over to your new Klevv SSD simple and free. Click HERE to download it.

The CRAS C925 2TB is a single-sided masterpiece of engineering. The drive can be had at three capacity points - 500GB, 1TB and 2TB. The drive comes bare, but has an included optional aluminum heatsink that can be installed by the consumer if desired. Additionally, and well worth taking note of, is the C925's endurance rating, because it's double that of what we typically see across the industry. Impressive.

Jon's Test System Specifications

Intel Test System

AMD Test System

Because we at TweakTown like to be first at everything whenever we can, we will present our storage performance results for the test subject on both Intel Core Ultra 200 Series and 9000 Series AMD platforms going forward for the foreseeable future. Because Intel still delivers the best real-world storage performance, our running chart will continue to be Intel-based until AMD can deliver better real-world storage performance than its rival.

Please note that we have completely retested all the 50 SSDs that comprise our comparison products using our new Intel Ultra Core 9 285K test platform. Results going forward cannot be compared with our previous 14th Gen Intel results or previous AMD results, as we've updated there as well. We believe it is important to keep our platforms current in terms of the latest hardware and operating system versions. We have also updated our OS to Windows 11 Pro 24H2. Overall, the pecking order has remained the same just at roughly 5% lower real-world performance than before.

Best Deals: Klevv CRAS C925 1TB SSD

	Today	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$65.99 USD	$65.99 USD	-	Buy
	-	$209.92 CAD	-	Buy
	$65.99 USD	$65.99 USD	-	Buy
	$65.99 USD	$65.99 USD	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 1/11/2025 at 5:16 am CST - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission from any sales.

Sony PlayStation 5 - M.2 Storage Expansion

PS5 Read Performance

With Sony's wildly popular PlayStation 5 console now enabled for M.2 NVMe SSDs to be used as fast storage expansion, we are including results for PS5-compatible SSDs we test as a part of our reviews going forward.

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For SSDs that don't have an adequately sized PS5 compatible heatsink or other SSDs where the heatsink provided doesn't fit right and can be removed, we both use and recommend Sabrent's unparalleled PS5 heatsink available HERE.

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We only chart SSDs that can deliver a minimum of 5,500 MB/s read, which is Sony's original recommendation.

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Although not advertised for PS5 storage expansion, the Klevv CRAS C925 2TB can be an excellent choice for this role. Not only does it deliver more than enough read throughput to serve competently, but its power efficiency and thermal characteristics bode well for this implementation.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Max IOPS, ATTO

CrystalDiskMark

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We employ CDM as our standard measurement for both sequential throughput and Q1T1 random read. In terms of sequential throughput, we find our test subject capable of meeting quoted up-to-factory sequential throughput specifications.

Max IOPS

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The CRAS C925 2TB is factory spec'd for up to 700k random read IOPS and up to 1000k random write IOPS. We are getting 323k better on random reads and 50k better on random writes. Impressive.

ATTO

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ATTO gives us a clear picture of what transfer sizes a particular SSD favors in terms of QD4 sequential throughput. We chart 128K transfers. At a queue depth of four, Klevv CRAS C925 2TB favors sequential transfers of 512KB or larger when serving data to the host (reading) and 64KB or larger when programming (writing) data.

Real-World Testing: Transfers, 3DMark SSD Gaming Test, PCM10 Storage

Transfer Rates

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Our 100GB data transfer test is not your ordinary 100GB of data, ours is a crushing mix composed of more than 62K files. Write performance random or sequential, is an infrequent operation and such, we do not consider it to be an important performance metric in the consumer space. An example being how many times is a game installed vs. how many times it's played. Among the better results for a MAP1602 controlled SSD.

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Unlike programming (writing) data, serving data to the host (reading) is typically an important performance metric as it relates to the consumer space. Here we find our test subject again in the mix with most of its MAP1602 controlled competition.

3DMark SSD Gaming Test

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. We consider it superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs on the actual game itself. This test is the same as running the actual game, just without the inconsistencies inherent to application testing. In short, we believe that this is the world's best way to test an SSDs gaming prowess and accurately compare it against competing SSDs. The 3DMark SSD Gaming Test measures and scores the following:

• 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.

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Gaming is a performance metric that matters to most DIY consumers, especially for the enthusiast crowd that TweakTown caters to. Now we've reached the point where results start to matter as they are a direct reflection of user experience.

Here is where we begin to see that the MAP1602 controller may not be as optimized for hynix flash as it is for YMTC flash. As a point of comparison, the MAP1602-controlled, YMTC arrayed VP4300 Lite is roughly 5% more performant here than our test subject.

PCM10 Storage Tests

PCMark 10 Storage Test is the most advanced and most accurate real-world consumer storage test ever made. There are four different tests you can choose from; we run two of them. The Full System Drive Benchmark and the Quick System Drive Benchmark. The Full System Drive Benchmark writes 204 GB of data over the duration of the test. These tests directly correlate with mainstream user experience.

PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark

This test writes 204GB of data and covers a broad range of common consumer tasks, including booting Windows 10, file transfers, Adobe and Office applications, and startup times for games such as Battlefield V, COD Black Ops 4, and Overwatch. Unlike synthetic numbers, this is comprehensive real-world data, which is why we use it to rank SSDs in terms of user experience.

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Although this is a respectable score for what it is, the C925 2TB falls 10% behind the YMTC arrayed VP4300 Lite when subjected to moderate/heavy consumer workload simulations.

PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark

The Quick System Drive Benchmark writes 23 GB of data over the duration of the test.

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Of all the benchmarks we run, it can be argued that this one offers the best reflection of a typical consumer use case scenario. This time our C925 2TB is running even with drives like the MAP1602 controlled GM7 and 8% behind the VP4300 Lite.

Final Thoughts

So, it looks like the MAP1602 controller is not as optimized for hynix flash as it is for YMTC flash. This is pretty much as expected. The question then becomes is the performance the 2TB CRAS C925 offers good enough for the mainstream DIY segment? Absolutely, it is. For some perspective, the CRAS C925 2TB offers substantially better performance than Samsung's 980 Pro and most Phison E18-controlled offerings, doing so with superior energy efficiency.

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We rank SSDs in terms of overall user experience (performance where it matters most) as expressed by PCMark 10 storage and 3DMark gaming storage tests. Currently, we consider a user experience score of 15K or more to verify an SSD as a TweakTown Elite performer.

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Even though it's not the kind of drive that delivers head-turning performance, the Klevv CRAS C925 2TB is highly desirable for another, and arguably more important reason. Value. The value proposition offered by this double-the-normal endurance SSD is as good as it gets on its own, but when we add into the mix a free copy of Acronis True Image, it's glorious. We are of the opinion that the Klevv CRAS C925 2TB presents what is currently the best overall value in storage today, earning it our coveted Best Value Award.