The Teamgroup T-Force A440 Lite promises decent performance at an attractive price. But does it deliver on that promise? This review dives into its features, performance benchmarks, and overall value to help you decide if it’s the right SSD for your needs.
Teamgroup’s A440 Lite performs well in synthetic benchmarks, but doesn’t quite justify the price premium over its G50 counterpart.
Features and Specifications
The T-Force A440 Lite is a standard M.2 2280 NVMe SSD that utilizes the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface. It’s built with 162-layer TLC NAND and a Phison PS5027-E27 controller. Crucially, it’s a DRAM-less design, relying on Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology, meaning it leverages system RAM for caching. While modern HMB implementations excel in sequential read/write speeds, they sometimes lag in random operations compared to DRAM-equipped SSDs. Teamgroup backs the A440 Lite with a 5-year warranty, limited by a 600 TBW (Terabytes Written) endurance rating per 1TB of capacity.
The A440 Lite sports a stylish graphene heat spreader.
Pricing and Availability
The 1TB A440 Lite retails for $70, while the 2TB version costs $130. This positions it slightly above the more affordable T-Force G50 in terms of price. While a 512GB model was listed, it wasn’t available at the time of this review.
Performance Analysis
The A440 Lite’s performance, while acceptable, doesn’t quite live up to expectations. In our tests, it placed 14th out of 21 HMB/TLC SSDs we’ve evaluated. It’s important to remember that even budget NVMe SSDs are incredibly fast by traditional storage standards. We’re essentially comparing high-performance options, looking for nuances in speed.
CrystalDiskMark 8 results show the A440 Lite outperforming the T-Force G50, but trailing behind competitors like the Kingston NV3 and WD Blue SN5000.
In CrystalDiskMark 8, the A440 Lite showcased improved sequential read/write speeds compared to the G50, but it fell short of other budget contenders. It did, however, excel in single-queue tests, which are relevant for typical Windows usage.
Single-queue performance demonstrates the A440 Lite’s strength in everyday tasks.
While handling our 48GB transfer test reasonably well, the A440 Lite lagged behind competitors. More concerning was its performance during the 450GB sustained write test, where it was notably slower than the cheaper G50, raising questions about its value proposition.
48GB transfer test results show the A440 Lite falling slightly behind the competition.
The 450GB sustained write test reveals a weakness of the A440 Lite, where it’s outpaced by the more affordable G50.
Final Verdict
The Teamgroup T-Force A440 Lite offers decent performance for everyday tasks, but its overall performance is unremarkable. Unless it’s significantly discounted, other budget SSDs, including Teamgroup’s own G50, offer better value and performance.
Testing Methodology
Our SSD tests are conducted on a system running Windows 11 (64-bit) on an X790 motherboard with an Intel i5-12400 CPU and 64GB of Kingston Fury DDR5-4800 RAM. We use integrated Intel graphics, and the system has both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 4 ports. For the 48GB transfer test, we utilize an ImDisk RAM disk. The 450GB file transfer test is performed from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB SSD. All tests are run on freshly formatted and TRIM’d drives. Performance can vary based on capacity and other factors, including drive fullness and component variations.
